The reappearance of Salman Rushdie’s novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ on the bookstores has triggered another controversy, again involving the Nehru-Gandhi family. The book was banned in 1988 by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi after an uproar, as some parts of it were considered blasphemous by Islamists.
The renewed sale of the book has upset certain Muslim organisations, which have appealed to the Central Government to reinstate the ban. Notably, the Delhi High Court recently lifted the 36-year-long ban.
A limited stock of The Satanic Verses has reportedly been available at Delhi’s Bahrisons Booksellers. When the Organiser team visited the bookstore and inquired about the sudden return of the book, an employee stated that there is no specific reason about the return of the book.
Interestingly, around 10-12 copies were sold within 2-3 minutes while the Organiser team was present at the store. The book had sparked global outrage when it was published in September 1988. Muslims worldwide were enraged by its content, and many labelled it “blasphemous.” Protests were held in various parts of the world, including India. In January 1989, Muslims in Bradford, UK, ritually burned a copy of the book, and newsagents like WHSmith stopped displaying it there.
In Mumbai, Rushdie’s hometown, 12 people were killed during intense rioting by Muslim groups. The British Embassy in Tehran was stoned, and a $3 million bounty was placed on Rushdie’s head. Under pressure from Islamic groups, the Rajiv Gandhi government issued a customs order banning the book’s import on October 5, 1988.
Interestingly, the left-wing ecosystem, which often champions freedom of speech, never questioned why this book was banned by Rajiv Gandhi. Their selective outrage and silence on issues involving a community and vote bank raise questions about their principles of free expression.
How the Ban Ended
In its order passed on November 5, 2024, a bench of Justices Rekha Palli and Saurabh Banerjee of the Delhi High Court ruled that the petition filed in 2019 was infructuous, and the petitioner was entitled to pursue legal actions concerning the book.
Petitioner Sandipan Khan had moved court, arguing that he was unable to import the book due to a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, banning its import under the Customs Act.
The bench observed: “What emerges is that none of the respondents could produce the said notification dated October 5, 1988, with which the petitioner is purportedly aggrieved. In fact, the purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy of the notification during the pendency of the writ petition since its filing way back in 2019.”
“In light of the aforesaid circumstances, we have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists, and therefore, we cannot examine its validity and dispose of the writ petition as infructuous,” it concluded, as quoted by The Times of India.
Some Muslim organisations have condemned the resumption of sales of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in India and have urged the Central Government to reinstate the ban on the controversial book. Maulana Kaab Rashidi, legal advisor for the Uttar Pradesh unit of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (AM), stated that religious sentiments cannot be hurt under the garb of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution.
Famous writer and historian Sita Ram Goel, in his renowned collection of articles Freedom of Expression, highlighted the double standards in India’s secular fabric, where Hindus are forced to practice Sarva-Dharma-Samabhava while other religious groups freely propagated their ideas.
This ideological imbalance resonates with the controversy surrounding The Satanic Verses, as the selective outrage over the book underscores how Islamic sentiments dominate public discourse, often silencing freedom of expression.
In an article titled ‘Islam Imposes an Emergency on India’, which was written for a periodical published from Washington by a group of Indian residents in the U.S.A. but was not sent because the periodical closed down, he observes how Islam has imposed an emergency on India. “Islam has imposed an Emergency on India, so that everyone has the perfect “liberty” to praise its Allah, its prophet, its scriptures, its history, and its heroes but gets into trouble if he so much as says that Islam should answer some questions,” he analysed.
Who is Salman Rushdie?
Born in Mumbai in 1947 to British-American Kashmiri Muslim parents, Salman Rushdie’s life has been marked by controversies, largely due to his political and religious beliefs. Rushdie has been married four times: to Clarissa Luard, American novelist Marianne Wiggins, Elizabeth West, and Indian-American actress Padma Lakshmi.
He was educated at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, and King’s College, Cambridge, from where he graduated with a BA in history. In August 2022, Rushdie lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand following an attack on stage at a literary event in western New York.
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