In 1988 India became the first country in the world to ban The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. At that time even Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini had not issued his fatwa against Rushdie. India banned the book’s import into the country, a move widely seen as a ploy by the then government to hold on to the Muslim vote.
Last month the Delhi High Court ruled that the ban is no longer be valid because the government cannot find the original custom notification anymore.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata.
In a Rushdie-esque twist one can imagine the Satanic Verses ban lost somewhere in the overflowing Warehouse of Bans while government officials scurry around desperately looking for it.
It seems like a scene out of a Rushdie novel.
In the old days people wanting to read the “forbidden” book had two options. A friend from abroad could get a copy. Or try to find it at one of the roadside bookstalls selling both legit as well as pirated copies of well-known books often alongside grainy Xeroxes of magazines like Penthouse and Hustler.
Ajay Singh has been selling books on Park Street in Kolkata for almost 40 years. The titles are lined up neatly on the sidewalk - self-help books, mythological titles, popular histories and evergreen favourites like Harry Potter. He pulls out a couple of shrink-wrapped Rushdie titles - Knife and Victory City. But there’s no Satanic Verses.
“I don’t remember anyone ever asking for it” he says. “But if they lift the ban and print it, I am sure it will come here.”
AJAY1: Tulley paaben, chapai hobe, paaben
At the venerable Oxford Bookstore nearby, over 100 years old, store manager Abhijit Hela is less sanguine. It’s long process from court decision to a publishing house publishing the book and distributors carrying it he says and he’s not sure publishers are willing to take the risk.
HELA1
In Rushdie’s case only the import of the book was banned, not the book itself. But his publisher chose not to print the book in India. The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression. The First Amendment to the Indian Constitution is different says Salil Tripathi, author of Offence: The Hindu Case and board member of International PEN.
ST1: Unlike the American one This one actually imposes restrictions on media
It allows the government to curb free expression in the interest of public order and decency. The government insists this is necessary in a country as diverse as India.
ST2: So those in power and those in authority have always wanted to restrict things that might offend other people. It started out with religion and with caste, then with neighborly relations, then with law and order and harmony.
Taking offense has been weaponized instead
ST3: Right to being offended, this taking precedent over all of the rights.
Though Satanic Verses was not the first book to be banned by the government, it became so infamous it triggered a Big Ban Theory of everything. Political parties found bans an effective tool to mobilize their base in culture wars says writer Ruchir Joshi.
RJ1: that is something Used as an instrument for furthering agenda of capturing political power. And keeping political power in a certain mode of hysteria and pumping people up in a very Goebbelisan way.
Under British rule, books that had too much sex or felt politically incendiary were banned.
Independent India added other sacred cows to the list - books on the Hindu epic Ramayana, political Islam, the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the China-India war and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Salman Rushdie has become the face of banned books, but those who write in regional languages, not English, and live outside the metro cities like Delhi or Mumbai are far more vulnerable says Ruchir Joshi.
RJ2: Poorer you are, further away you are from central star of English, in a vernacular language further u are form south delhi or south calcutta or south Bombay or big metro in the south, the more vulnerable you are
This latest court decision will make no difference to their plight.
Rushdie fans are happy but whether publishers jump at the opportunity is another matter.. For those who wanted to punish Rushdie, ban or no ban, the book remains a flashpoint.
Anyway import bans are moot in this era of downloads but the book has been such a red flag publishers might be happy to let sleeping Rushdies lie. Anyway Ajay Singh shows me the book that really sell like hotcakes these days - Diary of a CEO” 33 Laws of Business and Life,, Ikigai “ the Japanese Secret to a long and Happy Life
AJAY2:
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW