Bureaucratic mishap brings happy ending to ban on controversial Salman Rushdie book in India

It could have been a principled fight for freedom of expression in India, but in the endit was a bureaucratic blunder that forced a high court in New Delhi to overturn a 36-year-old ban on the import of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

It happened simply because nobody could find the original customs order.

Even its name is as bureaucratic and mundane as it gets: India's customs notification No. 405/12/88-CUS-III.

But the impact of the order, issued by India's Ministry of Finance, was sweeping, halting all imports of the book and starting a chain reaction.

India, where Rushdie was born, was the first country to ban the book, just nine days after its publication in September 1988. Then in February 1989, theSupreme Leader of Iran at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,issued a religious edict called a fatwa that forced the author to go into hiding.

The magical realism novel, inspired by the life of the Prophet Muhammad, was deemed blasphemous by Islamic leaders, and sparked protests and book burnings.

Rushdie, now 77, gradually came out of hiding and resumed normal life, but the author was the victim of an assassination attempt at a speaking event in New York in 2022, whenhe was stabbed multiple times and left blind in one eye.

'Why should I be denied access to this book?'

The man who brought the court challenge to India's book ban, Sandipan Khan, is fittingly nonchalant about his victoryand almost at pains to explain why he filed the lawsuit in the first place.

"You may blame it on my conscience, you may blame it on my emotions at that particular moment," Khan, 50, told CBC News in an interview from Kolkata.

Or, he said, it was simple curiosity.

WATCH | Salman Rushdie on a brutal knife attack and freedom of expression:

Salman Rushdie brings a book to a knife fight

7 months ago

Duration 33:59

In August 2022, author Salman Rushdie was brutally stabbed during a speaking appearance, and though he survived, he lost one eye and the use of one hand but mind, humour and irreverence were maintained. In an extended interview, CBCs Nahlah Ayed spoke to Rushdie about the attack, using words as a weapon and freedom of expression.

"It is also my fundamental right," said Khan, who described himself as an avid reader. "Why should I be denied access to this book?"

The judges hearing the case at the Delhi High Court wrote in the Nov. 5 ruling that since nobody could produce the original order for them to examine, "we have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists, and therefore, we cannot examine the validity thereof."

It's not exactly a win for freedom of expression, Khan's lawyer said.

"The court has gone ahead and given its ruling on a technicality," Uddyam Mukherjee said. "We can't really put it as a win or a loss."

Mukherjee said he would have liked to see the court get into the question of whether the customs order was constitutionally valid, but in the absence of the ruling setting a precedent, he said he'llsettle for possible ripple effects.

"Maybe in the future, these kinds of notifications will be passed more carefully. Maybe," he said in an interview.

Book not easy to find in stores

Rushdie has not commented on the court ruling, but his publishing house, Penguin Random House India, issued a statement to The Associated Press calling the decision a "significant new development" and saying it was "thinking through next steps."

Several bookstores in Mumbai said The Satanic Verses wasn't yet available and that they had received no interest so far from people wanting to buy the book.

When the customs order was first issued, Rushdie wrote in an open letter to then-Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi that the move was "profoundly disturbing," adding that he resented his "book being used as a political football."

Rushdie also noted the peculiar manner the Indian government used to ban the book.

"Many people around the world will find it strange that it is the Finance Ministry that gets to decide what Indian readers may or may not read," he said.

The author went on to point out that the ministry specified that the ban "did not detract from the literary and artistic merit of Rushdie's work," to which he added sardonically: "Thanks for the good review."

As for Khan, he can't yet review the book since he hasn't read it.

He emailed Rushdie's publishing house to ask when the novel will be available for purchase in India but had yet to receive a response.

Before the ruling was issued, Khan refrained from downloading the book online, as that would have technically violated the ban, but now that the matter is decided, he has a copy.

He hasn't yet gotten past the first few pages. Too busy, he said.