Return of the prodigious son
Here’s an abstract of a New Yorker piece Salman Rushdie penned in ‘00 about being persona non grata in India itself:
Before the Partition massacres of 1947, my parents left Delhi and moved south, correctly calculating that there would be less trouble in secular, cosmopolitan Bombay. As a result, I grew up in that tolerant, broadminded city whose particular quality–call it freedom–I’ve been trying to capture and celebrate ever since… In 1988, I was planning to buy myself a place in Bombay with the advance I’d received for my new novel. But that novel was The Satanic Verses, and after it was published the world changed for me…
Whenever I made inquiries about getting a visa (although I was born an Indian national, I now have a British passport), word invariably came back that I would not be granted one… India was the first country to ban The Satanic Verses; the book was proscribed without due process before it entered the country, by a weak Congress government led by Rajiv Gandhi, in a desperate, unsuccessful bid for Muslim votes…India was the first country to ban ‘The Satanic Verses’
The Delhi police are extremely nervous about my impending arrival. Can I please avoid being spotted on the plane? My bald head is very recognizable; will I please wear a hat? My eyes are also easily identified; will I please wear sunglasses? Oh, and my beard, too, is a real giveaway; will I wear a scarf around that? The temperature in India is close to a hundred degrees…
I was last in India in August, 1987, for the fortieth anniversary of Independence. I have never forgotten being at the Red Fort, in Old Delhi, and listening to Rajiv Gandhi delivering a stunningly tedious oration in broken schoolboy Hindi, while the audience simply and crushingly walked away… [Link]
He’s related to the naughty Zohra Sehgal (Saawariya):
… my two actress aunts, Uzra Butt and her sister Zohra Segal, are there, with my cousin Kiran Segal, Zohra’s daughter and one of the country’s foremost teachers of the Odissi school of Indian classical dancing. This is the zany wing of the family, sharp of tongue and mischievous of eye. “I haven’t seen you dance for years,” I say to Kiran….”Come back soon,” she says. “Then I’ll dance…” [Link]
India’s rush to ban The Satanic Verses, beating even Pakistan to the snip, was one of its most cowardly acts of censorship. This, too, against a writer who had penned one of the richest love letters to India and its birth, a work which later won the Booker of Bookers.
But the government of India was hardly alone in its cowardice. British Airways put Rushdie on their no-fly list:
… when a British citizen is denied the right to fly on the airline that carries his national flag, there are few protests… Rushdie is deemed to be… inconvenient to British Airways… So he has, metaphorically speaking, been bundled off their flights.
Surrender to real terrorist threat is bad enough. Treating a victim as the criminal is almost beyond belief. BA must now ban Turks for fear of Kurdish revenge; Israelis for fear of Hezbollah… and Sikhs and Irish everywhere. [Link]
It fell to modest bookstores to uphold the traditions of free thought and speech.
on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007, 9:18 pm in Literature, Salman Rushdie › 
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FYI - this essay also appeared in ‘Step across this line’.
Also FYI, after he was dinged, the first nation and elected official to receive Rushdie was Bob Rae, then premier of Ontario, Canada. I didnt have knowledge of this then, but have come to appreciate how big an act it was for him*, at a personal level to reach out to Rushdie. Rushdie himself acknowledged how important it was to him in restoring a sense of self, in a lecture at a local university.
*Rae drove the province into a hole but he had some fine points. :-)
Iam not surprised by the way Indian govt. reacted, since India is secular they are always trying ways not to offend minority. I think after that book Rushdie’s life changed. Iam surprised that despite all the hardships and threat to his life, Rushdie manages to write so well. I didnot read satanic verses. I dont know at that time how many indians read Rushdie. Last year one of the guys in publishing business told me that Rushdie’s novels sell well in India now and his book shalimar the crown was the number 1 best seller in India last year. But way back I dont think many people read Rushdie or knew much about him , probably thats why he was not treated right and also that time the threat to his life was so much that no airlines or country wanted to take a risk. I think last five years Rushdie had been to India many times and enjoys popularity there probably more because he is one the best selling south asian writers now. It took India a lot of time to recognize his talent I guess..
Now that padma is out of his life , I cannot wait to read his next novel..wonder what is inspiring him now a days and wonder what his next book will be about.. ground beneath his feet and shalimar the clown had a very sensitive portrayal of women and also showed a emotional maturity. I hope his next book is better..He deserves a nobel prize in literature but I doubt he will get one..with all the same politics everywhere sometimes even if u are talented it is hard to survive in todays world..there is no such a thing as complete free speech or thought..it comes with baggage too..
Prakruti: It is not secularism at fault, but vote bank politics India style. In a more perfect India, MF Hussain & Rushdie should be able to walk freely about. The US and Europe are secular as well and its politicians don’t ban artists for fear of offending religious sensibilities.
It is hard not to sympathize with Salman Rushdie’s political plight and governmental retributions for writing a fictional book. This a typical governmental tactic of distracting the populace from real issues such as poverty, crime, pollution, etc. and pretending it achieved something. Look at all the ridiculous re-naming ceremonies we have…
With that said, has anyone read Satanic Verses and thought it was well-written? It’s awful writing. Rushdie has a unique talent for writing pompous, florid, pretentious and over-the-top prose. He’s an awful writer, who makes my skin crawl after the first 100-pages. I would take Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, VS Naipaul, RK Naryan, etc. over anything by Mr. Rushdie. Jose Saramago or the inimitable Gabriel Garcia-Marquez are the true standard bearers of fantasy-fiction genre.
Plenty, including me. I found Marquez pulpy in comparison. I think this splits sharply between those who dig Hemingway-esque style and those who like (and can handle) baroque.
I am glad that Rushdie flourishes. The thought of him being murdered, as his Japanese translator was, is a terror on the soul. However, as a novelist he is dead, and he has been for a long time.
Point me to a finer Bombay novel than The Moor’s Last Sigh, and I’d be eternally grateful.
The Moors Last Sigh is as much about Goa and south India generally as it is about Bombay
Read Pankaj Mishra on The Ground Beneath Her Feet, James Woods on Fury, Siddhartha Deb on Shalimar the Clown. He died as a writer a while back.
I’ve done better — I’ve read all three, relished two, abandoned one of the critics’ novels (terrible), and agreed with Woods on Fury. Did you read ‘em, or are you tossing bomblets secondhand?
Rushdie’s feelings on this are apt, I remember the Rajiv Gandhi govt very quickly banning the Satanic Verses to squash any possibility of large scale violence in India. But, at the same time, the dates slip me, I remember the BJP govt receiving Rushdie with great fanfare to India, I think this was right before the elections which led to the ouster of BJP from the Central Govt. By the same token the present Congress Govt was also very quick to ban the Da Vinci Code, but off course it is okay with the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu to call Ram a Drunkard, and the Congress Govt nary did not bat an eyelid, the criticism was left to the media. Various attempts to bring the truth about the Gujarat Program has been blocked. There is absolutely no doubt all of this happens with the effort to garner the “muslim” “hindu” or “christian” vote bank. This along with the tenuous alliance politics has made literature, art, and poetry fodder for politicians to build their corrupt careers.
commenting on ‘With that said, has anyone read Satanic Verses and thought it was well-written? It’s awful writing. Rushdie has a unique talent for writing pompous, florid, pretentious and over-the-top prose. He’s an awful writer, who makes my skin crawl after the first 100-pages. I would take Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, VS Naipaul, RK Naryan, etc. over anything by Mr. Rushdie. Jose Saramago or the inimitable Gabriel Garcia-Marquez are the true standard bearers of fantasy-fiction genre”
here is my take on this paragraph…
Rushdie has a unique style of writing that none of the indian born or NRI writers like vikram seth, naipaul or RK narayan has. I read all of them and Iam a fan of seth, naipaul and narayan, but I have to admit Iam a big fan of Rushdie and I think Rushdie is more talented than all three of them.
vikram seth is great at writing poetry than prose , though his prose is also good but he is not a creative genius as Rushdie. His novels have few typical characters and his forte is the way he plays with words, specially golden gate was great. Rushdie’s characters on the other hand are very unique, very creative, offbeat, living in a different world be it the character in midnights children or moors last sigh or fury or veena in ground beneath the feet or characters in shalimar the clown..they are not typical normal characters..it is easy to write about normal everyday human beings than atypical offbeat characters and that is where Rushdies talent and uniqueness lies.
Iam a big big fan of Naipaul..Naipauls books are all autobiographical mostly atleast the big ones..his charcter willie like Naipaul himself lived in africa, england, india and everywhere and sometimes I feel willie is anti gandhi or a failed gandhi if gandhi took an alternate path than what he took. so again naipaul characters come more from his experience than imagination. But best thing about Naipaul is his brutal honesty in writing, characters emotional journeys and depth . Naipaul also wrote some non fiction books like India a wounded civilization, area of darkness which has again a unique way of looking at India..it would change the way u think about Gandhi etc.,
I love reading RKNarayan,..probably no indian author has understood india better than RKNarayan..his characters are real indian characters, funny, simple, making mistakes doing unique things..and RK Narayans simplistic way of telling a humorous story is just very unique.
And kiran Desais first book gauva..is written typical in RK Narayans style..reminded me of his novel guide..but she is a talented writer and I enjoyed her inheritance of loss..
I did not like Arundhati roys novel…she so far seems to be a one book wonder..but she is politically and socially active and I admire that about her.
But Rushdie is different from all these talented writers. He is more creative than all of them..his subject and characters are unique..In all the years of reading books I never read any writer like Rushdie.it is hard to create characters like the one in midnights children or ground beneath the feet who are offbeat and not normal at all. I liked even fury too, it is a middle aged divorced mans lonely life and agony which probably is autobiographical. Look at shalimar the clown, every character in that book is unique…he touches three to four countries in one novel and its problems..kashmir, holocaust germany,america..all his novels reference to politics, conditions at those times which is hard to write in a fiction..yes Rushdie is pompous and it is over the top prose..but that is what is so unique about Rushdie and no one can write it that way the way he does..that is why his books one booker of the bookers and he won so many awards and the entire literary world recognises his as a talented writer. Ofcourse they are people who hate him, but they are not looking at his literary talent but judging him by subjects he choose to write on which are also unique. And Rushdie is getting better with his writing and characters as he is growing old..