Jaipur, January 23: ON a day when the notables of the Jaipur Literature Festival steered clear of the name that has been lingering like a persistent fog, Chetan Bhagat refused to toe the party line.“ Let us not make heroes out of people who have been banned,” said the best- selling author whose books are said to have sold over six million copies. “ They have been banned for hurting people. They have been banned for hurting Muslims. They shouldn’t be banned but they are not heroes,” he added.
Bhagat did not name Rushdie, in deference to the diktat issued by the festival organisers on Friday night after the brouhaha over certain authors reading out passages from The Satanic Verses , but he left no one in doubt about whom he was hitting out at.
Then he made an incendiary statement that didn’t surprisingly get tweeted the way his attack on Rushdie was. “ You can say Muslims are backward, aggressive, that’s fine,” Bhagat said at his standingroom- only session titled ‘ In Search of a Story’. “ But they are right to get upset when their gods are attacked. I wouldn’t like it if my gods are attacked.” Bhagat’s sentiments were echoed by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Chauhan, who said, “ I am in favour of freedom of speech, but I can’t bloody someone’s nose. Can I?” The writer’s grandstanding, however, did get some delegates worked up in Jaipur.
His classification of what was “ fine” to call Muslims was far more directly offensive than anything contained in The Satanic Verses, up- and- coming author Chandrahas Choudhury said. To reduce the book to an attack on the “ gods” of Muslims, he said, showed Bhagat had clearly not read The Satanic Verses.
Choudhury drew comparisons between Bhagat’s “ superficial” reasonableness and the nature of his body of work — “ deficient not just in terms of style, but also in its thought, in its grasp of what is going on in the world.” Well- known Malayalam poet and former secretary of the Sahitya Akademi K. Satchidanandan also didn’t spare Bhagat.
“ It is a statist stand to say that authors of banned books shouldn’t be taken seriously,” he said. “ We should question and debate the efficacy of bans, and find out why the book was banned in the first place. Authors have the right to question the mechanisms of the state or the rigidities of tradition.” Exiled Iranian writer and journalist Kamin Mohammadi was as forthcoming. “ Whether it’s about banning books or the burqa, it’s two sides of the same coin,” said the author who now lives in the UK. “ There’s an inherent cruelty in banning that must be addressed.” Pakistani author Mohammad Hanif used the opportunity to question the credentials of the Indian State. “ I find it quite bizarre,” he said in a hard- hitting comment.
“ This is the world’s biggest democracy, the most multi- cultural society you can have, yet Rushdie has not been able to come. I think it’s the State’s primary role to provide security to its citizens and visitors, and to me it seems it has failed in its most basic duty.” It was a controversy that the organisers would have loved not to happen.
Author and festival organiser William Dalrymple sent out a mass email on Friday night in which he wrote, “ You should know that unfortunately The Satanic Verses is still a banned book in India, and if you read from it you make yourself liable to arrest and imprisonment, and put the festival in danger of immediate closure — and hand us all, authors and festival, bound and gagged into the hands of any individuals or groups who wish to prosecute us. We are holding strong here, and are going to continue to fight for free speech and expression and the right to dissent, but we have to do so within the laws and constitution of this country.” The email followed a hasty behind- the- scene meeting that Dalrymple summoned following the rumour of a police crackdown on the festival following readings from The Satanic Verses by Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar in one session, followed by a similar action by Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi in another.
Thayil emerged from this conversation, which went late into the evening, looking harried and worried, but said, “ I wouldn’t want my actions to disrupt the gargantuan effort that has gone into organising this essential festival.” Even Rusdhie, at the distant eye of the storm, seemed puzzled at the progression of events. In a tweet, he asked, “@ amitavakumar says organisers asked him not to continue reading from The Satanic Verses. Willie, Sanjoy: Why did this happen?” It’s a question many delegates were asking even as Rushdie continued to dominate the offstage chatter in Jaipur and exercise the minds of the Twitterati across the world.
barking dogs
barking dogs never bites Rushdie is one of them .
this dog gone mad kick him out of our streets .
Chetan Bhagat has no spine
Dude, do you even know what you are talking about ? Muslims get offended at the drop of a hat. They are so frigging ignorant of all the sketches of Prophet Mo drawn by their own folks in days gone by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depictions_of_Muhammad
and yet hold out death threats to any one who depicts him (which I think is a fundamental right of any human being to express...including pictorial depictions).
The other day, when Obama was visiting India, a grand bunch of these dimwits wanted to protest in Mumbai streets because they felt Obama was insulting muslims by having a dog named Khan. Silly fellows do not even know that Khan is NOT an Islamic name, but borrowed into Islam from perhaps Mongols.
Where do these jokers stop ? Nowhere !! They accuse Hindus of drinking cow piss without realizing that their own Nabi suggested camel piss drinking for medicinal purposes.
I can never understand if Islam is the lamest religion that's ever been or if Muslims are the lamest lot who converted a reasonably OK religion into being the lamest grand dad of the lot.
These morons are offended because the natives of this land have their million ways of worship and are happy singing vande mataram. These ultra violent retards are offended because this country is not yet fully Islamic.
Idiot CHetan Bhagat....remember one thing : Respect is given to those who understand the significance and show you respect in return. It is not given to those who are repeatedly behaving like beasts against mother land, native culture and natives. Stop dropping your pants on Rushdie incident and stand up like a man with a spinal cord intact.
What the F*** is wrong in Satanic verses ? He's born a Muslim and commented on Islam. If SV were to be written by a person from some other religion, some of this nonsense can be understood. But a Muslim pissing on Islam is his way of paying back to Nabi the most beloved.
There are many who piss on Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and all that crap. Are there any fatwas out there for their death ? NO !!!
These buggers insult Hinduism in HINDUSTAN and threaten non-muslims if they even criticize Islam/ Nabi in non-islamic lands. Where's the fairness ? where's the civility ?
All religions coming out of Middle east have been the bane of humanity. Islam more so than any thing else.
These jokers never respect other religions and thus deserve not to be respected at all.
These jokers even write to Indian Govt to scale down ties with Israel because their Muzzie brothers are getting jacked up in palestine. And these fcukers refuse to consider non-muslim Indians as their brothers (what of Kashmiri pandits you rascals?). They should have been mercilessly shipped to Pukistan and B'desh at the time of partition. Here's Muslim leaders farting against Israeli ties: http://www.milligazette.com/news/3108-indian-muslim-leaders-urge-india-t...
son of america speaks
and once again illegal son of obama speaks the venom against islam.....these people are suffering from islamophobia and i never read that muhammed(peace b up on him) had said to drink the urine of camel..plase son of obama provide me the reference........n wat bout gujrat and wat bout afghanistan and iraq and wat abour world wars these all wars wer fought by your fathers and i dnt know how many fathers u have...just stop speaking against islam and muslims and tell your fathers to vacate our muslim lands...
jawadahmed.net@gmail.com
Who r u buddy y ru hiding ur identity are u scare of something go and see what that idiot has written in the book. You know once a british writer wrote some thing bad in his book against Elizebeth so the govt of UK has taken strict punishment against that guy. This Idito Rushdie in that book also wrote bad against her they(british govt) have not taken any action bcoz he also wrote against islam and so they(british govt) accepted insult of their queen. See dear no way but ISLAM, i'm inviting you towards oneness of GOD and MOHAMMAD(PBUH) is his prophet. Go see other religious book all prophecies about MOHAMMAD, Kalkiavtaar antim Rishi who they are pointing to its MOHAMMAD for details visit "http://irf.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=145&Itemid=128"
We Must not Stop here
1) We need to continue to demand “Ban Rushdie for Life.”
2) Organize an event as one of the brothers suggest on life of Prophet (PBUH) and invite all those who were invited for this above event. Therefore they learn Islam and last prophet of God from true believers.
3) Clear the air in the country on Islam, I say this because the newer generation of non-believers in India is lacking proper knowledge on Islam and this could have serious impact in future.
We must continue to go after those who are manipulating the system of democracy to take cheap shots at religion and trying a paint a wrong picture of Muslims and punish them and those who are showing soft corner for ”Rushdie the Shaitan.”
bahut camments likh reein
bahuut camments .. likh reein .. yeh kya tau bhi hai ki muslim world mey din key 24 hours mey 23 hours 59 minuts 59 seconds ..bass yeh ladai jhagda ... we will rule the world..we are the best ... yehi rehta kya??
Shaitan Rushdie
Shaitan Rushdie deserve to die for what he wrote for, same time i want to ask a question, why M F HUSSAIN SAHAB not allowed to enter India by Hindu group just because he copy painting of Hindu godess, which he saw in theater in india itself, he didnt made his own. The other side again Hindu group supporting Shaitan Rushdie to enter in India. Let them think about it for a second what they r doing........
Righly said (1400 Yrs Ago)
May my soul, my life my parents whom i love more than my life! remain ransom to my beloved prophet (PBUH)!
who rightly said, of all the signs of "DoomsDay" disappearence of knowledge and widespread of ignorance AND the leader of a nation will be the most foolish among them AND nudity/nakedness will be at its peak AND.....
These so-called semi-literates, who are full-ignorant are not only defaming the noble science of literature but also spitting their ugly venom in uneven minds of today's "already confused" intelletuals to further destabilize the human-society! BUT whom to complain! as the leaders are most foolish!
May Allah (SWT) guide.... AMEEN
check it
" To reduce the book to an attack on the “ gods” of Muslims, he said, showed Bhagat had clearly not read The Satanic Verses."
The above statement specifies "gods" of muslims. But in reality there in only one god "Allah" and not gods. Siasat please check the content and then publish as it may lead to fitna.
Thanks................
Salman Rushdie
I for one believe, his book "Satanic Verses" got unduly publicised by the Muslims more than the author or the book could do it for itself. Had the Muslim world just ignored it would have ended up as another trivial and a mediocre book from an always semi boozed writer. We have to take a leaf from the Christian community like how they tackles such issues. The best example is "Jesus Christ the Superstar". This play in the Eighties was in the eye of a big religous storm, because it had depicted Isa Alie Salaam in every evil form one can imagine. The play went on to be a major hit in the west until it ran out of favour with the audience. So is the famous Jewish author Harrold Robbins using the word "F--- Jesus Christ more than 20 tims in his hit novel Carpet Baggers. The derogatory sentences and his verbal diarhoe went unnoticed because no one from the christians or from the Papal pulpit cried for his blood.
In Rushdi's case we harmed ourselves more than we collectively harmed him. It would have been prudent if we silently bumped him off with a hole in his head the Jewish Way.
SUMMARY:-
Muslims and Hindus are an emotional lot. They make their feelings palpable and their thoughts visible.
Christians play cool and dont react for they know that any emotional issue dies of its own and they believe in pragmatism.
Jews. They dont make their emotions or feelings visible, in cases as Rushdi's, they would have just kept quite and put a hole in his head without the world even knowing what hit him
Salman Rushdie
Hi Saleem,
I fully agree with you. We have given unnecessary attention to Rushdie and his crap literature. There were many books written against our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) since time immemorial and can be found in many libraries in the West, but that does not change our Prophet's (PBUH) image and love in our hearts.
It would have been better for Deobond to have organised a series of lectures on our Prophet's (PBUH) life and his message to the people by inviting Islamic scholars from around the world.
Alas we are emotional and don't think in a cool way.
If we had good writers at the festival those chindi chor writers: Amitava Kumar, Ruchir Joshi, Thyali, Kunzru etc wouldn't have dared to read the crap in support of Rushdie. Where are Muhammad Iqbals, Syed Ameer Alis of this generation?
Alas we are going backward in every aspect of life.
You are referring the
You are referring the authoer Harrold Robbin and how come you come to know his remarks if went unnoticed.
Our reaction is meaningful but our concern do not have weight because we are not united.
It is not the question about
It is not the question about unity. If Deoband or any other seminary or a Leader calls for a Dharna against Rushdie there will be scores of Muslims on the street and ready to die. It is the question of Quality. We don't have good writers (even if there are, no writer is interested to reply in their own language to those chindi chor writers) to reply to Rushdie, to Amitava Kumar, to Kunzru to all those pseudo-intellects at the festival. On the other day on Times Now TV against Arnab Goswami Mr Asaduddin Owaisi saved the day for us, otherwise those extreme liberals would have a field day against our so called Muslim intellects/leaders.
So my friend it is time to get serious and educate ourselves and our brothers and sisters. By educating ourselves we can control our emotions and reply in a forceful and dignified way.
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