There are around 30 books written by Salman Rushdie, including fiction, non-fiction and children’s books.
Rajiv Gandhi had banned the importation of Salman Rushdie’s controversial book ‘The Satanic Verses’ in 1988. A petition was filed against this in the High Court. Today, the court stopped hearing the motion.
The court said the police officers had not submitted any notice regarding the ban. It can be concluded that the prohibition order does not exist. The bench comprising Justice Rekha Palli and Justice Saurabh Banerjee had given this decision on November 5.
Find out how this case came to court. In 2019, a person named Sandipan Khan had filed a petition regarding the import of the book. Sandipan said he had ordered the book “The Satanic Verses,” but due to the notification issued by the customs department 36 years ago, the book could not be imported. However, the notification was not available on any official website and documents related to it were not available with any official concerned.
Why is the book “The Satanic Verses” controversial? The meaning of the novel “The Satanic Verses” in Hindi is “Satanic Verses”. People of the Muslim faith had raised objections to the very title of this book. Rushdie wrote a fictional story in this book. The story is: two film actors travel from Mumbai to London by plane. One of them is global cinema superstar Jibril and the other is “voice-over artist” Saladin.
Halfway there, the plane is hijacked by a Sikh terrorist. After that, the plane flies over the Atlantic Ocean, when the terrorists begin to argue with the passengers. An angry terrorist detonates a bomb inside the plane.
In this incident, Jibril and Saladin are saved by falling into the sea. After this, their lives change. Then one day, stories related to the life of the founder of a particular religion come to Jibril’s dream, who is heading towards madness. He then thought of establishing the history of this religion in a new way. Additionally, Rushdie wrote the stories of his story’s characters, Jibril and Saladin, in such a way that they were considered blasphemous.
Book ban and fatwa to kill
This image dates from the time when protests began in many countries around the world as soon as the novel “Satanic Verses” hit the market. (Photo provided by: The British Library)
India was the first country to ban this novel. At that time, the country was under the government of Rajiv Gandhi. After that, Pakistan and many other Islamic countries banned it. In February 1989, Muslims organized a large demonstration against Rushdie in Mumbai. 12 people were killed and more than 40 injured during police shooting at this demonstration.
Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, issued a death edict against him in 1989. On August 3, 1989, an attempt was made to kill Salman Rushdie by detonating RDX in a central London hotel, but he narrowly escaped the attack. Later, the Islamic Mujahideen took responsibility for this incident. A person posing as a human bomb carried out this explosion inside the hotel.
After that, Salman Rushdie lived his life in secret and under police protection. The Iranian government publicly stated ten years later, in 1998, that it no longer supported Salman’s death. However, the fatwa remained in force.
In 2006, the head of the Hezbollah organization declared that millions of Muslims were ready to take revenge for the blasphemy committed by Salman Rushdie. agency sued Wikipedia in July 2024. …