In a surprising turn of events, Salman Rushdie’s incendiary 1988 novel The Satanic Verses has resurfaced in bookstores across India, ending a 36-year ban on the book in the author’s country of birth. The unexpected reappearance is not due to a change of heart or policy, but rather a bureaucratic technicality – the original government order banning the book’s import could not be located in India’s labyrinthine records system. With no official documentation of the ban, the Delhi High Court had no choice but to overturn it last month, stating “We have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists.”
A Resurgence Reigniting Old Debates
News of The Satanic Verses hitting Indian bookshelves again, now with a hefty 1,999 rupee price tag, has elicited strong and polarized reactions. Some celebrate it as a long-overdue triumph for free speech and artistic expression, while others condemn it as a fresh affront to their religious sensibilities. The novel’s turbulent history and the maelstrom of controversy, violence, and death threats against Rushdie that followed its original publication still reverberate today.
Muslim organizations are calling for the ban to be reinstated, arguing the book is blasphemous and a threat to social harmony in a nation where Muslims make up about 14% of the population. Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, the national president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, declared “No Muslim can tolerate seeing this hateful book on any bookstore shelf.” On the other hand, many intellectuals, free speech advocates, and curious readers view the book’s reemergence as a positive development and a chance to engage with a significant work of literature on its own terms.
Reliving a Literary & Cultural Flashpoint
For those too young to remember, The Satanic Verses became a global flashpoint upon its release in 1988. Rushdie’s irreverent and surreal reimagining of the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad outraged many Muslims worldwide who deemed it blasphemous. The most severe backlash came from Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, forcing the author into hiding under police protection for nearly a decade.
The fallout extended far beyond Rushdie as translators, publishers, and bookstores connected to the novel were targeted with violence and threats. Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator, was brutally stabbed to death, while Ettore Capriolo, the Italian translator, narrowly survived a similar attack. Violent protests erupted in several countries, including India, where Rajiv Gandhi’s government swiftly banned the book under pressure.
Scars That Refuse to Fade
Despite years passing and Iran officially backing away from the fatwa in 1998, the specter of violence continued to trail Rushdie. In a grim echo of the past, the author was brutally attacked last year at an event in New York. Hadi Matar, 24, has been charged with attempted murder and assault, and a federal indictment further accuses him of terrorism as well. Rushdie, now 76, lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand due to the attack but survived.
The fact that someone who wasn’t even born when The Satanic Verses was published attempted to carry out the fatwa over three decades later underscores the still-simmering tensions and unresolved traumas surrounding the book. Its reappearance in India now is both a reopening of old wounds for some and a long-awaited literary emancipation for others.
Curiosity & Commerce Amid Controversy
For many Indian readers, especially younger ones, The Satanic Verses‘ notoriety precedes its actual contents. “I’ve heard The Satanic Verses spoken about all my life. I wanted to read it out of curiosity,” said Dilip Sharma, a 22-year-old English major. “It feels unreal to see it in the bookstore because it’s like seeing the unicorn you’ve been hearing about all your life.”
That intrigue seems to be translating into brisk sales, despite the steep price by Indian standards. Bahrisons Booksellers in Delhi reported that sales “have been very good” and that they’re “selling out.” Manasi Subramaniam, editor-in-chief at Penguin Random House India, quoted Rushdie himself on social media to herald the book’s long-awaited availability: “Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.”
Old Book, New Chapters
India in 2024 is a vastly different cultural and political landscape from 1988 when The Satanic Verses was first banned. The country’s population is larger, younger, more connected, and in many ways, hungrier for the world. But it’s also one where religious fault lines have deepened and freedom of expression faces new challenges.
How India receives and reckons with The Satanic Verses this time can reveal much about how far it has evolved and where its red lines remain. Will the book be read, debated, and interpreted as a work of imagination as Rushdie has long maintained? Or will its presence alone be seen as an incendiary provocation by those who object to its very existence?
As copies fly off shelves, igniting fresh discussions and polemics along the way, one thing is certain: The Satanic Verses‘ complicated legacy in India has entered a provocative new chapter. How it unfolds can shape not only Rushdie’s fraught relationship with his native land but also broader global dialogues on artistic liberties, cultural sensitivities, and the unending negotiation of the sacred and the profane.
