Tuesday, January 10 2006 17:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Maharashtra Government has banned the controversial book 'Epic of Shivaji' by US scholar James Laine for containing derogatory remarks about to the Maratha warrior King, official sources said.

The Government yesterday (Jan 9, 2006) issued a notification banning the book.

According to the sources, the ban on the book comes in the wake of representations received by the State Home Ministry from several quarters, including social groups, about 'offensive remarks on Shivaji'.

The reasons cited for banning the book include "possible threat to law and order situation and social stability," the sources said.

The book was published by Orient Longman, Delhi, in 2001.

Laine's earlier book, 'Shivaji - Hindu King in Islamic India' was banned in January 2004 after the State Government received objections to the derogatory references in that book about Shivaji Maharaj's parentage.

Activists of the Sambhaji Brigade had then ransacked the Pune-based Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, charging it with 'abetting Laine's distortion of history'.

Deputy Chief Minister, R R Patil had later announced that the State Government would seek extradition of the American author but there has been no progress on that front.