Everything about Salman Rushdie totally explained
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born
June 19,
1947) is an
Indian-
British novelist and essayist. He first achieved fame with his second novel,
Midnight's Children (1981), which won the
Booker Prize. Much of his early fiction is set at least partly on the
Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as
magical realism, while a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between
the Eastern and
Western world.
His fourth novel,
The Satanic Verses (1988), led to protests from
Muslims in several countries, some of which were
violent. Faced with death threats and a
fatwa (religious edict) issued by
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then
Supreme Leader of Iran, which called for him to be killed, he spent nearly a decade largely underground, appearing in public only sporadically. In June 2007, he was appointed a
Knight Bachelor for "services to literature", which "thrilled and humbled" him. In 2007, he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at
Emory University.
Personal life
The only son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a
Cambridge University-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Butt, a teacher, Rushdie was born in
Mumbai (then called
Bombay),
India. He was educated at
Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai,
Rugby School, and
King's College, Cambridge, where he read
history. He worked for two advertising agencies (
Ogilvy & Mather and Ayer Barker) before becoming a full-time writer.
Rushdie has been married four times. His first wife was Clarissa Luard, to whom he was married from 1976 to 1987 and with whom he's a son, Zafar. His second wife was the American novelist
Marianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and
divorced in 1993. His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West; they've a son, Milan. In 2004, he got married to the
Indian actress and
model Padma Lakshmi, the host of the American reality-television show
Top Chef and that marriage ended on
July 2,
2007 with Rushdie indicating that it was her desire to end the marriage.
In 1999, Rushdie had an operation to correct a
tendon condition that was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said.
Career
Major literary work
His first novel,
Grimus (1975), a part-
science fiction tale, was generally ignored by the public and literary critics. His next novel,
Midnight's Children (1981), however, catapulted him to literary fame. It also significantly shaped the course that
Indian writing in English would follow over the next decade. This work won the 1981
Booker Prize and, in 1993, was awarded the Booker of Bookers as the best novel to have received the prize during its first 25 years. It still receives accolades for being Rushdie's best, most flowing and inspiring work.
After the success of
Midnight's Children, about
the birth of the modern nation of India, Rushdie wrote
Shame (1983), in which he depicts the political turmoil in
Pakistan, basing his characters on
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.
Shame won
France's
Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book) and was a close runner-up for the Booker Prize. Both these works of
postcolonial literature are characterised by a style of
magic realism and the
immigrant outlook of which Rushdie is very conscious, as a member of the
Indian diaspora.
In his later works, Rushdie turned towards the Western world. In the 1980s, he visited
Nicaragua, the scene of
Sandinista political experiments, and this experience was the basis for his next book,
The Jaguar Smile (1987). In 1988, his most controversial work,
The Satanic Verses was published (see
section below). He followed this with
The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), exploring commercial and cultural links between India and the
Iberian peninsula.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) presents an
alternative history of modern
rock music. The
song of the same name by
U2 is a setting of lyrics in the book, hence Rushdie is credited as the lyricist.
Many of Rushdie's post-1989 works have been critically acclaimed and commercially successful. His 2005 novel
Shalimar the Clown received, in India, the prestigious Crossword Fiction Award, and was, in Britain, a finalist for the
Whitbread Book Awards. It was shortlisted for the 2007
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
In his 2002
nonfiction collection
Step Across This Line, he professes his admiration for the
Italian writer
Italo Calvino and the American writer
Thomas Pynchon, among others. His early influences included
James Joyce,
Günter Grass,
Jorge Luis Borges,
Mikhail Bulgakov, and
Lewis Carroll. Rushdie was also a personal friend of Angela Carter and praised her highly in the foreword for her collection "Burning your Boats."
Other activities
Rushdie has quietly mentored younger Indian (and ethnic-Indian) writers, influenced an entire generation of
Indo-Anglian writers, and is an influential writer in
postcolonial literature in general. He has received many plaudits for his writings, including the
European Union's
Aristeion Prize for Literature, the
Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and the Writer of the Year Award in
Germany. He is also a fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature and
Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. Rushdie was the President of
PEN American Center from 2004 to 2006.
He opposes the British government's introduction of the
Racial and Religious Hatred Act, something he writes about in his contribution to
Free Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays by several writers, published by
Penguin in
November 2005. Rushdie is a self-described
atheist, and a distinguished supporter of the
British Humanist Association.
In 2006, Rushdie joined the
Emory University faculty as Distinguished Writer in Residence for one month a year for the next five years. Though he enjoys writing, Salman Rushdie says that he'd have become an artist if his writing career hadn't been successful. Even from early childhood, he drew pictures and sculpted long before he took an interest in writing.
Rushdie also engages in more popular forms of public discourse. For example, he'd a
cameo appearance in the film
Bridget Jones's Diary based on the
book of the same name, which is itself full of literary in-jokes. On
May 12,
2006, Rushdie was a guest host on
The Charlie Rose Show, where he interviewed
Indo-Canadian filmmaker
Deepa Mehta, whose work has also faced violent protests, about her 2005 film,
Water. He also appears in the role of
Helen Hunt's
obstetrician-gynecologist in the film adaptation (Hunt's directorial debut) of
Elinor Lipman's novel
Then She Found Me.
The Satanic Verses, the fatwa and other critiques
The publication of
The Satanic Verses in
September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the
Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet
Muhammad. The title refers to a
Muslim tradition that's related in the book. According to it, Muhammad (
Mahound in the book) added verses (
sura) to the
Qur'an accepting three goddesses that used to be worshipped in
Mecca as divine beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying
the devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of the
Archangel Gibreel. The
book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities.
On
February 14,
1989, a
fatwa requiring Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the
spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "
blasphemous against Islam" (chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an
Imam in
exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety). A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for years afterward. On
March 7,
1989, the
United Kingdom and
Iran broke
diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.
The publication of the book and the
fatwa sparked violence around the world, with bookstores being
firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies in which copies of the book were
burned. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed. Many more people died in riots in
Third World countries.
On
September 24,
1998, as a precondition to the restoration of
diplomatic relations with Britain, the
Iranian government, then headed by
Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder
assassination operations on Rushdie."
Hardliners in Iran have, however, continued to reaffirm the
death sentence. In early 2005, Khomeini's
fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the
annual pilgrimage to
Mecca. Additionally, the
Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid. Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the
fatwa on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it Despite the threats on Rushdie, he's publicly said that his family has never been threatened and that his mother (who lived in
Pakistan during the later years of her life) even received outpourings of support.
The Archbishop of Canterbury's famous words
The
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Dr. Robert Runcie, said in the first official statement by the
Church of England "Only the utterly insensitive can fail to see that the publication of Salman Rushdie's book has deeply offended Muslims [sic] both here and throughout the world". He also went on to state, "I understand their feelings and I firmly believe that offence to religious beliefs of
Islam or any other faith is quite as wrong an offence as to the religious beliefs of
Christians."
The failed assassination attempt and Hezbollah's comments
James Phillips of the
Heritage Foundation testified before
Congress that a 1989 explosion in Britain was a
Hezbollah attempt to assassinate Rushdie which failed when a bomb exploded prematurely, killing a
terrorist in
London. There is a shrine in
Tehran's
Behesht-e Zahra cemetery for Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh that says he was "Martyred in London, August 3, 1989. The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie." Mazeh died priming a book bomb loaded with
RDX explosives that took out two floors of a hotel in
Paddington,
Central London. A previously unknown
Lebanese group, the Organisation of the Mujahidin of Islam, said he died preparing an attack "on the
apostate Rushdie". Mazeh's mother was invited to relocate to Iran, and the Islamic World Movement of Martyrs' Commemoration built his shrine in the cemetery that holds thousands of Iranian soldiers slain in the
Iran-Iraq War.
International Guerrillas
In 1990, a
Pakistani film was released in which Rushdie was depicted as plotting, soon after his publication of
The Satanic Verses, to cause the downfall of
Pakistan by opening a chain of casinos and discos in the country. The film was popular with Pakistani audiences, and it "presents Rushdie as a
Rambo-like figure pursued by four Pakistani
guerrillas". The
British Board of Film Classification refused to allow it a certificate, as "it was felt that the portrayal of Rushdie might qualify as criminal
libel, causing a breach of the peace as opposed to merely tarnishing his reputation." This move effectively banned the film in Britain outright. However, two months later, Rushdie himself wrote to the board, saying that while he thought the film "a distorted, incompetent piece of trash", he wouldn't sue if it was released. In response to his knighthood, many nations with Muslim majorities protested.
Parliamentarians of several of these countries condemned the action, and Iran and Pakistan called in their British envoys to protest formally. Mass demonstrations against Rushdie's knighthood took place in Pakistan and
Malaysia. Several called publicly for his death.
According to a
July 2007 report by the
BBC,
Al-Qaeda have also condemned the Rushdie honour. The Al-Qaeda deputy
Ayman al-Zawahiri is quoted as saying in an audio recording that Britain's award for Indian-born Rushdie was "an insult to Islam", and it was planning "a very precise response."
Religious and political beliefs
Rushdie was raised a Muslim but is considered an
apostate in Muslim countries, especially Pakistan. In 1990 he issued a statement in which he claimed he'd renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on Islam in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion across the world. Later he claimed that he pretended to “embrace Islam” in the hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him.
His books often focus on the role of religion in society and conflicts between faiths and between the religious and those of no faith.
Rushdie advocates the application of
higher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th century. Rushdie calls for a reform in Islam in a guest opinion piece printed in
The Washington Post and
The Times in mid-
August 2005. Excerpts from his speech:
1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to stop the
ethnic cleansing in
Kosovo, leading the
leftist Tariq Ali to label Rushdie and other "warrior writers" as "the belligerati'". He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the
Taliban in
Afghanistan which began in 2001, but was a vocal critic of the 2003
war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a moral imperative to free Iraq from
Saddam Hussein's
dictatorship, US
unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.
In the wake of the
'Danish Cartoons Affair' in
March 2006 - which many considered to be an echo of the death threats and fatwa which had followed the publication of Rushdie's Satanic Verses in 1989 - Rushdie signed the manifesto, a statement warning of the dangers of
religious extremism. The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning French weekly
Charlie Hebdo in March 2006.
In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by the
Leader of the House of Commons,
Jack Straw,
criticising the wearing of the niqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said, "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on [Straw's] side."
Rushdie continues to come under fire from much of the British academic establishment for his political views. Apparently unaware of Rushdie's stance on Iraq and his criticisms of the
Bush administration, the
Marxist critic
Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work, attacked him for his position on Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, saying he "cheered on
the Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan". Eagleton later apologized for his error.
Bibliography
Awards
Aristeion Prize (European Union)
Arts Council Writers' Award
Author of the Year (British Book Awards)
Author of the Year (Germany)
Booker of Bookers or the best novel among the Booker Prize winners for Fiction
Booker Prize for Fiction
English-Speaking Union Award
Hutch Crossword Fiction Prize (India)
India Abroad Lifetime Achievement Award (USA)
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Fiction)
Kurt Tucholsky Prize (Sweden)
Mantua Prize (Italy)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Honorary Professorship
Chapman University Honorary Doctorate - Doctor of Humane Letters
Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Cultural Humanism (Harvard University)
Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy)
Prix Colette (Switzerland)
Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger
State Prize for Literature (Austria)
Whitbread Novel Award (twice)
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Children's FictionFurther Information
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