Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2012
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Salman Rushdie pulls out of Indian literary festival amid assassination fears
Author Salman Rushdie has been forced out of the Jaipur Literary Festival, after receiving information suggesting hit-men had been ordered to assassinate him.
Muslim leaders had been calling for Indian-born Rushdie to be banned from the festival. Rushdie’s 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, which is inspired by the life of Muhammed, was perceived by Muslims to be blasphemous. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie, calling on all good Muslims to kill the author. The book was banned across the world, including in India, where it is still banned.
This morning Rushdie announced his withdrawal from the festival.
Salman issued the following statement:
“For the last several days I have made no public comment about my proposed trip to the Jaipur Literary Festival at the request of the local authorities in Rajasthan, hoping that they would put in place such precautions as might be necessary to allow me to come and address the Festival audience in circumstances that were comfortable and safe for all.
I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to “eliminate” me. While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the Festival in such circumstances; irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience, and to my fellow writers. I will therefore not travel to Jaipur as planned.”
Following the announcement, writer Salil Tripathi, who wrote about the controversy surrounding Rushdie’s visit earlier this week, suggested all writers at the festival should read from The Satanic Verses:
All writers in jaipur shd read 2-3 pages in public from satanic verses (500+pages). A gandhian way to fight the ban and state’s cowardice.
— Salil Tripathi (@saliltripathi) January 20, 2012
Author Hari Kunzru agreed, and planned, alongside academic Amitava Kumar, to do just that.
About to defy bigots and shoe throwers, reading @SalmanRushdie Satanic Verses on stage with @amitavakumar at #jaipur#jlf
— Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) January 20, 2012
Kumar tweeted:
Writers: assassins shouldn’t be allowed to stifle writers join us in reading from Satanic Verses. @harikunzru Jaipur Durbar Hall 5.15 PM
— Amitava Kumar (@amitavakumar) January 20, 2012
Organisers apparently ended the protest, warning those that individuals could face police action for reading a banned book.
Authors at #JLF who read @SalmanRushdie Satanic Verses + organizers now being investigated by police for reading fr a banned book
— Stephanie Nolen (@snolen) January 20, 2012
Nadine Gordimer at the Southbank Centre
Date: 14 March
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Tickets: £15, £12 – book here
In the first of a series of events between Index on Censorship and the Southbank Centre, South African novelist Nadine Gordimer will be speaking at the centre’s Literature and Spoken Word Festival on 14 March.
The 88-year-old writer, renowned for her activism, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. She published her first novel in 1953, and has since gone on to publish short stories, plays and criticism in over 40 books, including The Conservationist, which won the Booker Prize in 1974. Gordimer’s latest novel, published to coincide with the event, is No Time Like the Present.
The festival will run from January to March. Tickets can be booked online here.
Last chance to nominate: Freedom of Expression Awards 2012
NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED [25 JAN]
The Fight for Free Speech: forty years on – Michael Scammell and Pavel Litvinov at the LSE
Date: 1 March
Time: 7-8.30pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE
Acclaimed writer and founding editor of Index on Censorship Michael Scammell and former Russian dissident Pavel Litvinov discuss the nature of censorship and the future of freedom of speech. It was Pavel Litvinov’s courageous public appeal to the West for help, during a Soviet show trial in 1968, that inspired the creation of Index on Censorship magazine, a forum for banned writers, artists and intellectuals in the struggle against censorship. Forty years on, as Index on Censorship celebrates its anniversary, this will be a rare opportunity to hear an illuminating discussion from two leading voices in the history of free speech.
Michael Scammell is the author of The Indispensable Intellectual, the authorised biography of Arthur Koestler. Pavel Litvinov is a writer, physicist and human rights activist.
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India must choose to defend free speech
As religious leaders call to ban Salman Rushdie from the Jaipur festival in India, Salil Tripathi reports on the country’s “sepulchral silence”
** Update 20 January 2012 ** – Salman Rushdie tweeted this morning:
Very sad not to be at jaipur. I was told bombay mafia don issued weapons to 2 hitmen to “eliminate” me. Will do video link instead. Damn.
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) January 20, 2012
Read more here
Tags: Balbir Krishan,censorship,Deobandi,Islam,Jaipur Literary Festival,M F Husain,Salil Tripathi,Salman Rushdie,satanic verses,Tagoresa,Tasleema Nasreen
Egypt’s media revolution only just beginning
A year on from the uprising which ousted Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians are still waiting for media reforms. Shahira Amin reports
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