I was in Britain in 1988 when the two ‘forbidden’ fruits were available for the taking: Satanic Verses and The Last Temptation of Christ. I could have taken both but took neither, knowing well that forbidden fruits taste sweeter because of the extra effervescence in the taste buds of the mind, besides the fizz in the mouth. I also knew that behind a forbidden fruit is always hidden the devil’s mischievous hand and a perennial conspiracy to subvert an Adam, if possible, with an Eve’s charmed temptations to bring about the inevitable downfall.
The ‘evil’ advances thus failed and since then I always thought I had done the right thing. I must thank my stars that good sense has been my faithful companion all along my life.
What is now not amusing at all, even after 25 years, is a covert attempt to hijack freedom. The Literary Festival at Jaipur would have been decently graceful and gracefully decent, and sublime in aesthetics and high taste, if only it had not been mercilessly hijacked by one man: Salman Rushdie, even in absentia. He was away but his types were there, inside and outside, to bring down the high spirits of the occasion and good intentioned people like William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhle.
As if that was not enough, ‘they’, as was obvious later, not fully satiated, had planned a secret sequel to the Jaipur Literary Festival in the garb of Conclave 2012.
Salman Rushdie arrived! Imran Khan did not! Rushdie unashamedly exploited the situation to the full. He took the ladder of lowliness to climb down well below even the nadir to indulge in mud slinging and spraying the muck. To the astonishment of people like me, the so-called august gathering of elite intellectuals — who I endearingly call ‘outellectuals’ — lapped up the muck with relishing applause. They call this ‘some’ celebration of the concept of freedom of speech! Poor Rushdie probably did not realise that he was resorting to some of the meanest levels of self-demeaning exercises. Knowing Khan was not there at the batting crease, he started hurling bouncers, one after the other. And he seemed to celebrate the feat with audacious giggles, as if of triumph. The gathering clapped! Rushdie mocked Khan’s looks. He recalled the London days, Khan’s playboy image, and his infamous epithet his critics coined for him.
I wondered in total bewilderment how the Conclave 2012 or India or the world in general benefited from such an event.
It is not in my grain to write in such terms, nonetheless I went to twitter and posted some ‘nasty’ tweets. Unashamedly, I called Rushdie ‘headless egghead’ and asked if he did not look like ‘a white Caliban’ and why in the name of freedom of expression of his parents, Anis and Nageen, of Kashmiri origin, he did not come to the Conclave ‘streaking’!
One of Rushdie’s countless ardent fans sent me a message. It was from a 49-year-old man, an immigrant in Europe and perhaps running all the time for cover to defend himself from al Qaida/Taliban threats. He was obviously very ‘hurt’ by the nastiness of my tweets. He must have ‘found’ me on facebook and decided to send me a one-to-one message. In the message he wrote, “Professor, don’t you look like a well-dressed Taliban!”I liked the Caliban/Taliban rhyme and messaged him so. I also wrote to him that I had always been an admirer of Rushdie’s prose and style. I also told him how much I liked Rushdie’s ‘Irresistibubble’, the Ogilvy Mather copywrite line for bubblegum advertisement that gave him the breakthrough in the world of literary writing a long time ago. I explained to him my stance against violence of any kind, including that of the Taliban or any such group. Understanding my position, he had the courtesy to apologise.
I wonder what good Rushdie’s 1988 book has done for humanity. It managed to spread hate-speak, hatred and violence. It has helped the Islamic world and the Christian world to polarise further.
In India, I remember, it was Khushwant Singh who recommended banning of the book twice. The publishers, after his first recommendation, sent him the book again for review. Singh did not budge and stuck to his original verdict. He said that in any household poisonous medicines were kept away from children’s reach.
I wonder if Salman Rushdie had written it without market assurance.Whither freedom of speech sans market dependence and outellectuals, India Inc?
I do not understand why we waste so much time, so much money and energy on the meanest of non-issues.
The writer is a retired professor of English and a freelance writer. He can be reached at [email protected] and his twitter handle is @khaliqurrahman