Salman Rushdie Falls Victim to Indian Intolerance: Pankaj Mishra

In 1984, criticizing George Orwell for having advocated political quietism to writers, Salman Rushdie asserted that “we are all irradiated by history, we are radioactive with history and politics.” He added: “Politics and literature… do mix, are inextricably mixed, and that… mixture has consequences.”

I was reminded of this unimpeachable truth last week, when the controversy over “The Satanic Verses” returned to the country of its origin. Back in 1988, the Indian government, responding to protests by a few self-appointed Muslim leaders, prohibited the importation of Rushdie’s novel, setting off a series of appalling events that culminated in the death sentence pronounced by Iran’s supreme leader against the British-Indian writer.