Oxford University Press apologises to Shivaji Maharaj's descendant over unverified content in 2003 book

Pune, Jan 7 (PTI) Oxford University Press (OUP) India has issued an apology over certain "unverified statements" published in a 2003 book on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, more than 20 years after his 13th descendant, Udayanraje Bhosale, filed a complaint in a court in Maharashtra’s Satara district.

In a public notice published in an English newspaper on Tuesday, OUP India acknowledged that some statements appearing on pages 31, 33, 34, and 93 of the book Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India, written by American author James Laine, were unverified.

The publisher expressed regret over the publication of these statements and apologised to Bhosale and to the public at large “for any distress and anguish caused.” The public notice followed a written submission by OUP’s former Managing Director, Sayeed Manzar Khan, in the Kolhapur bench of the Bombay High Court, in which he expressed his willingness to apologise to Udayanraje Bhosale, the BJP MP from Satara, and to publish the apology in leading English and Marathi newspapers.

The book had triggered a major controversy in January 2004, when more than 150 activists from the Sambhaji Brigade ransacked the renowned Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune, alleging that the institute had assisted the author, who was accused of making objectionable remarks about Shivaji Maharaj in the book.

Objecting to the content, Udayanraje Bhosale filed a private complaint in 2005 in a Satara court against Khan, Dr Shrikant Bahulikar and Sucheta Paranjape, professors at Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, and V L Manjul, the librarian at BORI.

The court subsequently ordered the registration of a case under Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the now-repealed Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Khan and the others.

Khan and the co-accused later approached the Bombay High Court by filing a writ petition.

On December 17, 2025, Khan and others moved an application before the high court's Kolhapur bench, expressing their willingness to tender an apology in a public notice, Bhosale stated in a release. PTI SPK NP GK NSK