Jaipur —
It was a sad weekend here for freedom of speech, as the Rushdie controversy took one strange turn after another. Having read from the banned The Satanic Verses on Friday night, in protest of Rushdie’s absence at the festival, writers Hari Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Ruchir Joshi and Jeet Thayil were advised by lawyers to leave Jaipur or risk arrest by Rajasthan authorities.
By Saturday evening Kunzru was in Bangkok with his fiancée, the novelist Katie Kitamura, who had also been scheduled to speak at the festival. She said in an email that ‘the situation developed incredibly fast, and we were obliged to leave the country almost immediately’. Kunzru later clarified on Twitter that he had left India of his own volition. Kumar also tweeted that he had ‘left the building’.
Yesterday, Kunzru posted an article on his website explaining his actions and intentions. He said that free speech is ‘under attack’ in India, citing recent moves to pre-screen internet content and ‘knee-jerk bans’ of other books. Kunzru also maintained that while he and Kumar knew it would be considered provocative to quote from The Satanic Verses, neither believed it was strictly illegal to do so. He said they ‘had no interest in causing gratuitous offense’.
The authors’ departures had palpably affected the mood at Diggi Palace by Sunday afternoon, when a number of weary visiting writers joked darkly about the previous days’ events. Journalist Samanth Subramanian introduced a panel on ‘Journalism as Literature’ by saying, ‘Welcome to what feels like day ten of the Jaipur Literature Festival, but is in fact day three.’ Novelist Advaita Kala commented that Rushdie was headlining the festival despite being absent.
The organizers were forced to distance themselves officially from Friday’s drama, which had some questioning whether they stood by the principles of democracy, dialogue and debate on which their world-renowned event is founded.
In an interview, William Dalrymple defended their position: ‘We were faced with a situation of actually closing down. We had 60,000 people, 300 authors we had invited… I want to fight to protect it. I do not want to allow the enemies of free speech to close this festival. That would be their victory.’
But it seems there are more twisted forces at work even than the gagging of free speech in the world’s largest democracy. Yesterday, the Maharashtra(Mumbai) General of Police P.K. Subramaniam denied that his force had provided information to Rajasthan authorities about a potential threat to Rushdie’s life, and central intelligence sources in New Delhi said that no danger to the author had been reported at all.
Headlines ran that Rajasthan police had invented the intelligence reports, which named three assassins, in a successful attempt to keep Rushdie away from the Jaipur literary festival. He later tweeted, ‘I’ve investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry.’
Kunzru explained that the ‘manufactured controversy’ surrounding Rushdie’s visit to India was ‘not unconnected’ to the upcoming state elections in Uttar Pradesh, where Muslims make up the largest religious minority: ‘The manipulation of religious sentiment for political ends has a long history in India, and this was merely a particularly cynical example of a traditional election-time activity.’
In a new twist, Rushdie is expected to address the festival by video-link tomorrow.
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