In 2011, a trial was commenced to ban the Russian edition of the book Bhagavad Gita As It Is (1968), a translation and commentary of the Hindu holy text Bhagavad Gita, on charges that the commentaries fomented religious extremism. It contains a translation and commentary by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement.
The trial was initiated in June 2011 in Tomsk, Russia, based on an assessment of the book by scholars of Tomsk State University, which concluded that Prabhupada's commentaries incite religious, social, and racial intolerance. The trial caused controversy, which was reported in the Indian, Russian, and international media, as well as on social networks. The Indian government harshly criticized the proposed ban as "patently absurd" undertaking of "ignorant and misdirected or motivated individuals". The overwhelmingly wide negative response to the trial forced Russian officials to offer apologies to India, promising the necessary remedial measures to prevent the ban. The trial also sparked public protests and legal actions in India against the proposed ban and drew harsh criticism of the intellectual community in Russia, leading Russian scholars publicly denounced the perpetuation of the trial. The scholars appealed to President Dmitry Medvedev and Premier Vladimir Putin for intervention and warned them of the trial's negative consequences for India-Russia relations and for Russia's international reputation.
In December 2011, the judge dismissed the court case, a decision praised by the communities both in India and Russia. On 26 January 2012, the Tomsk prosecutor's office filed an appeal against the judge's ruling, but on 21 March 2012, the appeal court dismissed it, upholding the lower court's verdict. On 29 May 2012 Tomsk region prosecutor's office decided not to challenge the appeal court's verdict.
The book
Bhagavad Gita As It Is is a Russian version of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's translation and commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, a revered scripture for nearly one billion Hindus. The book, a central scripture for Hare Krishna followers, was first published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust in 1968 and has been translated into 80 languages, with over 100 million copies distributed globally till date. According to scholars, the book has never been accused of fomenting extremism before. According to ISKCON, in 2004 and 2005 Moscow state prosecutors found no extremism in the previous edition Bhagavad Gita As It Is, which had only slight stylistic differences from the one on trial.
Bhagavad Gita As It Is was presented to a number of world leaders, including the British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said that he "keeps a copy of the book in his office." Indian Ambassador to Russia Ajay Malhotra said that Prabhupada's translation of the Gita "is one of the best that you can find, because he gives you the words, the meanings and the options to understand it as it was written". In November 2011, President of India Pratibha Patil in a message to ISKCON Russia for its 40th anniversary commended the organization for "an important role in popularising the noble and eternal message of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and promoting spiritual harmony in many foreign lands".
The Bhagavad Gita As It Is trial follows prohibition of a number of publications by groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Scientology.
Court case The court case was filed in June 2011 by the public prosecutor of Tomsk Victor Fyodotov. The prosecutor based his plea on an expert analysis of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is commissioned by the FSB. Its authors, three professors of Tomsk State University, Sergei Avanesov, Valery Svistunov, and Valery Naumov, concluded that Bhaktivedanta Swami's commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita contain "signs of fomenting religious hatred, denigration of human dignity on grounds of gender, race, nationality, language, origins, and religious conviction", claim exclusiveness of the Krishna religion, use derogatory terms against those who were not devotees of Krishna, and foster "social discord", "gender, race, nationality, and language" discrimination. In addition to this, it was alleged to contain "calls to hostile, violent actions against a number of social and religious groups".
The prosecutor thus charged the book as being in violation of the Federal law № 114-ФЗ ("On countering extremist activities") and petitioned the court to include Bhagavad Gita As It Is in the Federal List of Extremist Materials, which would ban its printing, possession, and distribution. The Federal List contains over 1,000 works, Hitler's Mein Kampf among them,* considered as fomenting ethnic, social, and religious hatred.Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian state has had problems with populist right wing movements, often organised on nationalist bases. As part of an attempt to reduce this, a Federal List of Extremist Materials is maintained. Texts such as Hitler's Mein Kampf have been added to the list, due to their use by right wing movements. ()
First, second, and third hearings (August 2011)
In the first, second, and third court hearings held on 12, 18, and 29–30 August 2011 respectively, Federal Judge Galina Butenko dismissed the assessment as inadequate and subjective after the prosecutor's experts said that their opinion in the assessment should be taken as private rather than official. According to Avanesov, the 2010 expert analysis was personally requested by Federal Security officer Dmitry Velikotsky. They also stated that the Bhagavad Gita As It Is did not contain any extremist statements. Two experts invited by the court, N. V. Serebrennikov (Tomsk) and N. N. Karpitsky (Tomsk), also rejected the written expert opinion, maintaining, that while Prabhupada's commentaries used abusive words for those who are not Krishna's devotees, the use of these words did not attempt to create a racial or religious divide, to which the Judge recalled that similarly emotionally charged statements are found in the Bible, like: "Don't throw pearls before swine". The court noted that, despite some claims of exclusiveness in Prabhupada's commentaries, such statements are characteristic of most religious texts and therefore posed no evidence to support the accusations made against the book.
The judge consequently postponed the next hearing until December 2011, as the prosecution requested a new assessment of the book by a panel of three professors of Kemerovo State University, including linguist Michael Osadchy, psychologist Sergei Dranishnikov, and religious studies expert Alexei Gorbatov. They were divided on the issue: two found signs of extremism in the text and one did not. Following a plea by ISKCON advocate Mikhail Fralov to seek a statement of the Russian Human Rights Committee on the Bhagavad Gita As It Is and on the right of religious minorities, the Judge agreed to hear their opinion and postponed the final verdict until 28 December 2011.
Fourth hearing and judgement (December 2011)
On 28 December 2011, Federal Judge Galina Butenko rejected the prosecutor's plea for a ban of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. The court's resolution stated that the main criterion for classifying any text as an extremist one is the presence of calls for extremist actions and justifications for such actions, and that the propaganda of exclusiveness found in the book and criticism of political, ideological, and religious convictions is not sufficient grounds for classifying it as such.
The decision received wide coverage by the international media.*
Appeal (March 2012) On 26 January 2012, the Tomsk prosecutor's office appealed the court's refusal to declare the Russian Bhagavad Gita As It Is an extremist text in a superior court, insisting that the book should be banned, and asking for more time.
The prosecutors insisted that the Russian translation of the book be banned as "extremist literature." The appeal quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich questioning the translated version, the authenticity of its linguistics as they relate to Hindu scripture, and "semantic distortions."
The prosecutor general for Tomsk Vasily Voikin said, "When we have to deal with such materials, we are just bound to proceed with them. The law opposes extremism. When scholars say the text is of an extremist character, we just have to respond". The appeal was scheduled for hearing by the Tomsk regional court on 6 March 2012 but was later rescheduled for 20 March.
On 16 February 2012, explaining the rationale behind the appeal, first deputy prosecutor general of Russia Alexander Buksman said in an interview during his visit to Tomsk that the public misunderstood the initial plea of prosecutor's office to have the Bhagavad Gita As It Is declared an extremist text. He stated that the prosecutor’s office sought a ban of the Russian version of the book’s commentaries rather than on the Hindu text itself, adding, "it’s important to discern gems from the chatter in this very case; the society’s perception of this issue is that prosecutors are standing against the concepts of this religion [Hinduism]. However, the problem is that the Russian translation has paragraphs that could be seen as promoting extremism; prosecutors started the case for that reason." Deputy prosecutor general of Russian in Siberia region Ivan Semchishyn confirmed, "That is why the prosecutor now has to stand up for his position in the appellate court".
On 21 February 2012, at a press conference at the Interfax office in Tomsk, anti-cult activist Alexander Dvorkin stated that the "manifesto book of the Krishna Consciousness Society, Bhagavad Gita As It Is, is not immediately related to the original, being a free and not quite skilled translation."
In response to the appeal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), along with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), stated that they would fight "internationally" against any threats to ban the Bhagavad Gita in Russia.
Dismissal of appeal (March 2012) Representative of the prosecution said that the district court incorrectly interpreted the definition of "extremism" when it claimed that it is necessary for it to contain calls to extremist activity which must be expressed in any kind of actions, pointing out that the law prohibits all propaganda that incites any kind of hatred.
On 21 March 2012, the appeal court upheld the decision of the lower court, rejecting the prosecutor's petition. On 29 May 2012, Tomsk regional prosecutor Vasily Voykin said that the prosecutor's office will no further appeal the court's refusal to declare Bhagavad Gita As It Is extremist.
Reaction to the trial
In India
Media Since 17 December 2011, when Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) issued a report by a staff writer Nallan Chakravarthi Bipindra (NC Bipindra) from Moscow about the proposed Bhagavad Gita ban in Russia, the event became breaking news in the Indian printed and electronic media, with over 600 publications, including editorials, in all major newspapers and TV news channels as of 27 December 2011.
Parliament