theatrekvm.blogg.se

But you would be surprised by the misinformation floating around on social media. Any fool with access to Wikipedia can check it out.

I shouldn’t really have to repeat all this.

But, no, the threat to his life did not come from India. So yes, Salman Rushdie is a writer of Indian origin with a deep affection for this country.

Even the man who stabbed Rushdie appears to be of Lebanese descent. But all of the attacks took place outside India and, as far as I know, were not linked to any Indian Muslim group. Many people associated with the book (translators etc.) were also attacked and some were killed. The fatwa came from Iran and the men who were dispatched to kill him also came from West Asia. And yet, so many people on social media, including those who should know better, seem to think that he was an Indian writer who was forced to flee because of threats in our country. So, to argue, as some do that he was hiding from Indian Muslim extremists or that his life was in danger because of threats that originated in India is nonsense. He remained undercover with protection from the British police for years.ĪLSO READ | The Taste With Vir: Did Nupur Sharma do anything wrong? What about free speech? That is when things got serious and the British government (he had lived in London for decades and had a British passport) asked him to go into hiding. He enjoyed a good fight and did not believe that his life was in danger.Īll that changed when Ayatollah Khomeini heard about The Satanic Verses and issued a fatwa offering a reward to anyone who killed Rushdie. But Rushdie intended to fight his critics. He, of course, disapproved of the ban and he wrote an angry letter to the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi about it. Speaking to him during that period, I had the sense that he was able to handle all that. Yes, India was the first country to ban the book and there were protests in both India and Pakistan. The first and most important thing to emphasise is that all of us don’t always realise that the threat to Rushdie’s life did not emanate from India as so many people on social media seem to believe. The Indian responses to the stabbing of Salman Rushdie have told me several things. The Taste with Vir: Why did the Indian government ban Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? (Reuters file) We don’t know the extent of his injuries - there are unconfirmed reports of damage to one eye and wounds in the liver - but so far at least, the prognosis is that Rushdie will survive the knife attack on him. It’s probably too early to be completely sure but as I write this, the good news is that Salman Rushdie is alive and is likely to remain so.