Satanic Verses: Indian officials lose order to ban Salman Rushdie books

Raju Ramachandran, a senior lawyer, said he thought the proposal was “a little extreme.”

“All the high court is saying is that this particular petition became invalid because the notice could not be found,” he said. “This did not give the applicant the right to import the book.”

Senior lawyer Sanjay Hegde said the book could have been published in India if “someone was brave enough to print it” as only its import was banned, not its publication.

“But after all this fuss, no one wanted to print it in India.”

In 2012, the Rajasthan government sought arrest, external four Indian authors – Hari Kunzru, Ruchir Joshi, Amitava Kumar and Jeet Thayil – after they downloaded several passages from The Satanic Verses and read them at a literary festival in the city.

At that time, many lawyers were of the opinion that downloading a book whose import was prohibited could not be considered a crime. But online copies of the book are difficult to find in India.

Rushdie, 76, continues to face threats because of his outspoken views on Islam.

In 2022, he lost an eye and spent six weeks in hospital after being stabbed up to 10 times on stage at an event in New York state. The suspect, Hadi Matar, has been charged with attempted murder.

In his recent memoir, the writer criticized the reaction to his book, noting that “no duly authorized body (in India) reviewed the book and there was no semblance of a trial.”