For the first time in 36 years, Salman Rushdie’s contentious novel The Satanic Verses is on sale in India, the author’s birthplace. Bahrisons Booksellers in New Delhi announced the arrival of the book earlier this week, marking a significant cultural and legal moment.
The book’s return follows a recent Delhi High Court decision questioning the validity of the original government ban. While the novel remains prohibited for import, the court found no formal notification substantiating the ban, thereby empowering local publishers to release it. This nuanced legal development has perplexed Indian experts, who note the lack of precedent in similar cases.
The novel, which earned Rushdie a Booker Prize, faced bans and backlash upon its 1988 publication. Drawing inspiration from an episode in the life of Prophet Muhammad, the book incited global outrage, particularly among Islamic groups. India’s government quickly banned the novel, citing riots and protests, fueling a global debate over freedom of speech versus religious sensitivity.
The controversy intensified when Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie, forcing him into hiding for years. The backlash claimed lives, including the murder of the book’s Japanese translator and 37 fatalities in a Turkish arson attack. Rushdie himself survived a violent attack in 2022 during an event in New York, where he was stabbed and lost an eye. Reflecting on this ordeal, he released a memoir earlier this year, Knife: Meditations After An Attempted Murder.
News of The Satanic Verses being available in India has resonated strongly within the publishing community. Bahrisons Booksellers announced its arrival on social media, reporting brisk sales. “The Satanic Verses is in stock,” the bookshop posted, with a source telling The Guardian that the novel is “selling out.”
Manasi Subramaniam, Editor-in-Chief at Penguin Random House India, expressed her enthusiasm online, quoting a line from the book: “Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.” She added, “At long last. @SalmanRushdie’s The Satanic Verses is allowed to be sold in India after a 36-year ban.”
However, not everyone welcomed the development. Several Islamic groups in India have issued statements opposing the book’s release, reigniting debates over its contentious content and the balance between creative expression and cultural sensitivity.
Rushdie, who was born in India but has spent much of his life in the UK and now resides in New York, has yet to comment on the book’s reappearance in his native country.
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