India can now sell ‘Satanic Verses’ as it cannot find official import ban order
Even the customs department official who drafted the order in 1988 could not help in producing a copy of the ban order
08 November 2024 - 10:33
byShivam Patel
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New Delhi — India’s three-decade ban on importing author Salman Rushdie’s controversial “The Satanic Verses” book has effectively been lifted after a court said the government was unable to produce the original notification that imposed the ban.
The India-born British author’s novel was banned by India in 1988 after some Muslims viewed it as blasphemous. The Delhi High Court was hearing a 2019 case challenging the import ban of the book in India.
According to a November 5 court order, India’s government told the Delhi High Court that the import ban order “was untraceable and, therefore could not be produced”.
As a result, the court said it had “no other option except to presume that no such notification exists”.
“The ban has been lifted as of November 5 because there is no notification,” Uddyam Mukherjee, lawyer for petitioner Sandipan Khan, said.
India’s interior and finance ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Khan’s plea said he approached the court after being told at book stores that the novel could not be sold or imported in India and then when he searched, he could not find the official import ban order on the government websites.
Even in court the government has been unable to produce the order, he said.
“None of the respondents could produce the said notification ... in fact, the purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy,” the November 5 order noted, referring to the customs department official who drafted the order.
Rushdie’s fourth fictional novel ran into a global controversy shortly after its publication in September 1988, as some Muslims saw passages about the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.
It sparked violent demonstrations and book burnings across the Muslim world, including in India, which has the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
In 1989, Iran’s then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie, sending the Booker Prize-winning author into hiding for six years.
In August 2022, about 33 years after the fatwa, Rushdie was stabbed on stage during a lecture in New York, which left him blind in one eye and affected the use of one of his hands.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
India can now sell ‘Satanic Verses’ as it cannot find official import ban order
Even the customs department official who drafted the order in 1988 could not help in producing a copy of the ban order
New Delhi — India’s three-decade ban on importing author Salman Rushdie’s controversial “The Satanic Verses” book has effectively been lifted after a court said the government was unable to produce the original notification that imposed the ban.
The India-born British author’s novel was banned by India in 1988 after some Muslims viewed it as blasphemous. The Delhi High Court was hearing a 2019 case challenging the import ban of the book in India.
According to a November 5 court order, India’s government told the Delhi High Court that the import ban order “was untraceable and, therefore could not be produced”.
As a result, the court said it had “no other option except to presume that no such notification exists”.
“The ban has been lifted as of November 5 because there is no notification,” Uddyam Mukherjee, lawyer for petitioner Sandipan Khan, said.
India’s interior and finance ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Khan’s plea said he approached the court after being told at book stores that the novel could not be sold or imported in India and then when he searched, he could not find the official import ban order on the government websites.
Even in court the government has been unable to produce the order, he said.
“None of the respondents could produce the said notification ... in fact, the purported author of the said notification has also shown his helplessness in producing a copy,” the November 5 order noted, referring to the customs department official who drafted the order.
Rushdie’s fourth fictional novel ran into a global controversy shortly after its publication in September 1988, as some Muslims saw passages about the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.
It sparked violent demonstrations and book burnings across the Muslim world, including in India, which has the world’s third-largest Muslim population.
In 1989, Iran’s then supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie, sending the Booker Prize-winning author into hiding for six years.
In August 2022, about 33 years after the fatwa, Rushdie was stabbed on stage during a lecture in New York, which left him blind in one eye and affected the use of one of his hands.
Reuters
Salman Rushdie answers violence with art
Land for an eye and a hand: Iranian group lauds Salman Rushdie’s attacker
How culpable is the West in conflict with Islam?
Salman Rushdie lost sight in one eye after knife attack, says agent
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