Author Arundhati Roy 'dismayed' at Penguin India's book recall

The Penguin publishing group in India has responded to international criticism of its decision to withdraw from sale a book about Hinduism by a prominent US scholar.

Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus: An Alternative History had been the subject of a legal challenge claiming the text was offensive to Hindus.

Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy told the BBC it was a worrying development.

''It marks a shift, a very dismaying shift in submitting to the growing atmosphere of intolerance,'' she said.