This is the book for which the Sanatan Sanstha filed a Rs 10-crore defamation suit – and lost

A court in Goa has dismissed a civil defamation suit, filed by Hindutva organisation Sanatan Sanstha, against publishing house Juggernaut Books and author Dhirendra K Jha for publishing and sale of the book Shadow Armies: Fringe Organizations and Foot Soldiers of Hindutva. The plea, moved in 2018, had sought Rs 10 crore as damages, but was rejected after proceedings on February 15.

Every morning over a hundred visitors stream in – mostly young men and women in the Sanstha’s saffron attire with a vermilion mark on their foreheads. Disciples of [Jayant Balaji] Athavale, they stay inside the ashram for the whole day with the permanent residents – who also number around a hundred – and go back to their accommodations outside the village late in the evening.

Across the road, opposite the mansion, a wide open field slopes down to a rivulet that forms the northern boundary of the village. Until recently, the land had yielded bountiful crops every agricultural season. But one day, early in the monsoon of 2008, a powerful stink arose as the logged water receded from the field.