India can't turn page on Rushdie
row By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - Over a quarter century after
his book The Satanic Verses was banned in
India, author Salman Rushdie is in the eye of a
political storm here again.
An array of
political parties and organizations are calling on
the government not to grant a visa for Rushdie,
who is due to participate in a literary festival
in Jaipur that begins later this week.
"The Indian government should cancel his
visa as Rushdie had annoyed the religious
sentiments of Muslims in the past," Darul Uloom
Deoband, vice chancellor Maulana Abul Qasim
Nomani, said last week. The Darul Uloom Deoband is
India's foremost Islamic seminary. It is based in
the northern Indian state of Uttar
Pradesh, where it has
some following among Muslims.
Nomani was
referring to the alleged blasphemous content of
The Satanic Verses, which caused anger and
outrage among Muslims worldwide, prompting Iran's
Supreme Leader, Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeini to
issue a fatwa (edict) against Rushdie in
February 1989. That fatwa forced the
British-based novelist into hiding.
Fearing Muslim protests, India was the
first country to ban the book, in February 1988,
even before it became controversial. It
Although the fatwa on Rushdie was
lifted in 1998 and the intensity of Muslim outrage
worldwide has subsided somewhat, any honoring of
the author kicks off a furor, as happened when he
was knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in
2007.
Rushdie, an Indian-born British
citizen, has made several private visits to India,
including one to Jaipur to attend the 2007
literary festival. None of these visits kicked up
protests in the country.
The topic that
Rushdie will speak at the upcoming Jaipur event is
"Inglish, Amlish, Hinglish: The chutnification of
English" - not a topic that would irk devout
Muslims.
So why the fuss now?
Rushdie's visit to India coincides with
elections to five state assemblies in the country,
most importantly in Uttar Pradesh. The largest
state in India, Uttar Pradesh is also politically
the most crucial.
The electoral battle in
Uttar Pradesh is a multi-cornered one and the
contest is close. Winning the Muslim vote is
crucial as Muslims account for roughly 18% of the
state's population. In around 70 assembly seats
Muslims constitute about 20% of the population and
in another 36 they are between 30% and 45% of the
population. Muslims will therefore determine the
outcome in roughly 130 of the 403 electoral
constituencies that are up for grabs in the state.
Several parties are therefore desperately
wooing the Muslims. The Muslim vote is expected to
be split this time between three parties - the
Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan
Samaj Party.
The raking up of the Rushdie
controversy must be seen in this context. Parties
are hoping to tap into Muslim anger by demanding
the author's visa be denied.
Several
parties including the Samajwadi Party and the
Congress' ally the Rashtriya Lok Dal have fallen
over each other to echo the Deoband seminary's
demand. Even the Hindu right wing Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) has hopped on to the anti-Rushdie
bandwagon. Its minority cell has demanded that
Rushdie be kept out of the country.
The
Darul Uloom Deoband is generally seen to be
politically aligned with the Congress. But its
call has put the party in a dilemma. Not
responding to "Muslim sentiment" could antagonize
the group, but bowing to the Deoband's demand
would leave it open to charges from other parties
like the BJP that it is appeasing Muslims. Since
Rushdie is an international figure, preventing him
from coming to a literary event would certainly
draw global flak.
The imam of Idgah in
Lucknow, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahli, is
among several clerics who have threatened the
Congress with consequences. "Muslims have a
genuine grudge against Rushdie and the Congress
should heed our demand. Else, it may pay a heavy
price in the coming assembly elections," he
warned.
There are organizations in other
parts of the country that are adding fuel to the
fire. The Mumbai-based Raza Academy, which has a
following among Sunni Muslims, has offered a
reward of 100,000 rupees (US$2,000) to anyone who
throws a slipper at Rushdie, and is offering
would-be assailants the promise of legal aid.
All eyes are on the Congress now. It heads
India's ruling coalition but has been out of power
in Uttar Pradesh for a long time and is desperate
to do well in the upcoming poll. The party's units
in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan (where Jaipur is
located) - it is in power in Rajasthan - are
demanding that Rushdie not be allowed into the
country.
Although the Congress claims to
be secular, since the 1970s it has repeatedly
acted in support of Muslim conservatism. It may be
recalled that the ban on The Satanic Verses
was imposed by a Congress government under prime
minister Rajiv Gandhi. It was the same government
that caved in to pressure from Muslim
conservatives to enact legislation overturning a
Supreme Court ruling that provided for maintenance
money for Muslim women.
Yet on the issue
of the Rushdie visit, the Congress is unlikely to
prevent him from entering the country. For one
thing, Rushdie does not need a visa.
The
Indian-born author holds a Person of Indian Origin
card which entitles him to visit this country
without a visa. He is not required to apply to any
authority of the government of India seeking
permission for his proposed visit to Jaipur.
"Those objecting to Rushdie's visit could take up
their complaints with the competent authority or
the courts," Federal Law Minister Salman Khursheed
said.
Moreover, the Congress party has
other tricks up its sleeve to woo the Muslim vote.
An influential section within the Uttar Pradesh
unit of the party is of the view that Muslim youth
in the state, whom the Congress is courting, are
not overly agitated over Rushdie. Their concerns
are more basic - jobs, education, etc. And the
party is seeking to draw them with promises on
those issues.
On the eve of the
announcement of election dates in the five states,
the federal government passed a 4.5 % sub-quota
for religious minorities within the 27% quota for
Other Backward Classes. At an election rally at
Farukhabad, Khursheed, who is also Minority
Affairs Minister and heads the Congress' election
manifesto committee in Uttar Pradesh, went
further, promising 9% of seats for minorities -
read Muslims - within the other backward classes
(OBC) quota if the Congress comes to power in
Uttar Pradesh.
Not to be outdone, the
Samajwadi Party has promised Muslims an 18% quota.
On the Rushdie issue, the Congress would
be relieved if the author himself elects to stay
away from India. Media reports suggest that the
organizers of the festival are under pressure to
persuade Rushdie not to come.
Meanwhile,
Muslim organizations are planning and preparing
for mass protests in Jaipur on January 20, the
first day of the literary festival.
Rushdie was to attend the festival's first
session that day, "Midnight's Child" (a reference
to his novel set at the dawn of independence).
That session has reportedly been shifted to
January 24.
Suspense over Rushdie's part
in the festival is mounting. While Rushdie's name
figures in the list of speakers on the festival
website, there is no mention of him in the daily
program schedules.
It is believed that his
participation will be "low-key". He is expected to
take part in the "Writers' Ball", an event that is
exclusive and restricted to writers. Ordinary fans
of Rushdie will not be able to meet or hear the
author, thanks to needless controversy created by
a handful of rabble-rousing organizations.
Sudha Ramachandran is an
independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore. She can be reached at
sudha98@hotmail.com
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