(RNS) — In 2023, Rakesh Patel, an inmate at the Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello, Florida, filed several grievances with the state’s Department of Corrections. After 10 years of incarceration, Patel said he was suddenly denied a copy of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, the English translation and commentary on the central Sanskrit Hindu Scripture by the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Since April 2022, all copies of the text, considered one of the most prevalent editions of the Gita, have been banned from Florida prison systems. It’s among more than 20,000 books banned by the Department of Corrections’ Literature Review Committee, based in Tallahassee.
“I am being deprive[d] of practicing my religion,” Patel, 58, wrote in his complaints. “This Hindu holy book is no different from Muslims’ holy book of Koran written in Arabic with English translations and the Christian Bible written in Hebrew with English translations. This committee is making a very serious mistake by rejecting this book.”…