The Satanic Verses

In 2009, I got hold of a copy of the Satanic Verses while I was in Zurich. Actually a friend who was travelling from London asked me what should he bring for me, and I requested him to bring the Satanic Verses. For three months the book was just lying on my table. Occasionally some of my friends would borrow it but would return it within a couple of weeks. Most found the book very heavy. It so happened that I was travelling and did not have any other book to read so I took the Satanic Verses to read on the train journey.

Once I started reading I could not keep it down. I found the start very captivating. The story starts with two protagonists, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha,  both actors of Indian Muslim background, falling down  after the plane bomb blast. In a miraculous transformation one person transforms into  In a miraculous transformation, Farishta takes on the personality of the archangel Gibreel, and Chamcha that of a devil. And then the novel moves along with magical realism and dream vision narratives.

I  liked the Ayesha episode, where she leads villagers to Mecca, and the Mahound Satanic Verses episode. The novel is a tale of beautiful tale of alienation, isolation, brutality and identity, perhaps something that all immigrants experience. Overall, it is one of the best pieces of literature that I have read and I enjoyed the writing style of Mr. Rushdie. Perhaps the expectation and controversy added a bit of spice to the reading.

Well, the Mahound episode is what has made the book so controversial and has led to a ban in India and other places. Mr Rushdie has a fatwa against his name and the recent furore on his invitation to the Jaipur Literary festival is a preview of how he has been targeted. In a country where the constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and expression, it is really sad that the Rajasthan government had to make silly excuses to stop my Mr. Rushdie from coming. Instead of ensuring complete security and full protection for Mr. Rushdie, the government failed in its duty of protecting free speech and expression. No doubt that the book incites deep passion and has led to huge protests and riots in various parts of the world.

Even the Wikipedia mentions that although Mr. Rushdie has never been attacked but others associated with the book have been killed.  To quote from the Wikipedia

" Hitoshi Igarashi, its Japanese translator, was stabbed to death on 11 July 1991; Ettore Capriolo, the Italian translator, was seriously injured in a stabbing the same month; William Nygaard, the publisher in Norway, survived an attempted assassination in Oslo in October 1993, and Aziz Nesin, the Turkish translator, was the intended target in the events that led to the Sivas massacre on 2 July 1993 in Sivas, Turkey, which resulted in the deaths of 37 people. Individual purchasers of the book have not been harmed. The only nation with a predominantly Muslim population where the novel remains legal is Turkey. "

But all this is no excuse for the failure of Rajasthan government. It is really a shame for a country like India where the government stops someone from coming just because goons have been hired to kill someone. What a shame!! Should not the Rajasthan government resign as it has failed in protecting the constitution?


16/02/2012

Some of the lines have been modified from the original version of post after I came across this article.