After agreeing to come and open the festival with a session on the first day, January 20, postponing his contribution to the last day of the festival on January 24, and finally pulling out completely, exiled author Salman Rushdie will not be seen in Jaipur after all.
Statement by Salman Rushdie Regarding His Jaipur Participation
In a statement by Salman Rushdie, released by the Jaipur Literature Festival organizers late on Friday, January 20 (and made available to this author via email), Rushdie cites security concerns as his main reason for not attending. Following intelligence from local authorities, he shared the concrete threat in his statement: “I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to ‘eliminate’ me.”
Though having “some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence”, Rushdie decided to abstain from coming to the popular festival. Not wanting to jeopardize anyone’s safety, he called attending despite this warning “irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience, and to my fellow writers”. Regardless of the authenticity of the threat, it is a scary thought that someone would want to “eliminate” an author just because of his or her writing.
The Satanic Verses Controversy Dates Back to the Eighties
Rushdie’s fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, stirred a major controversy that culminated in Iran's religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini hanging a death sentence over Rushdie’s head on February 14, 1989, for writing the book and allegedly “insulting” Islam with it. Not known for making empty threats - and sticking to it even after Rushdie issued an apology to “sincere followers of Islam” - Khomeini’s call for execution forced Rushdie to forego public appearances for quite some time.
Bodyguards and frequent moves followed for Rushdie over the next decade as more assassination plots against him came to light. Despite Khomeini’s death on June 3, 1989, the Iranian clergy held on to the belief that Rushdie had to be killed. The threat now even extended to those around Rushdie who worked on his book: Rushdie's Japanese translator was stabbed to death, the Italian translator seriously injured in a knife attack, his Norwegian publisher shot at and injured in 1993, and the Turkish translator was the target of an arson attack.
The Literary World Since The Satanic Verses
Since its first publication, The Satanic Verses has been moved from bookstore shelves and banned in various countries. Knowing about the dire consequences that the simple act of writing a book had for Salman Rushdie, few would dare write a novel like it today. And even if they did, finding a publisher for it would be more than difficult. The Satanic Verses controversy has certainly dealt a blow to free speech.
As organizations like Writers in Prison document year after year, the number of imprisoned or persecuted writers has increased steadily and, in many countries today, the simple act of writing is indeed a deadly task. While attendees of the Jaipur Literature Festival and Salman Rushdie’s fans worldwide take in this year’s sad turn of events, maybe Rushdie’s adversaries should remember that a book is still just a book. And as the author says: “It is very, very easy not to be offended by a book. You just have to shut it.”
Simone Preuss - Simone is a freelance writer, editor and translator who decided to go solo after a successful career in publishing. That was more than ...
