When public intellectuals like Einstein or Rushdie speak or dare to speak truth to power, they are silenced.”įounder of Katha Kathan and veteran advertising professional, Jameel Gulrays reasons, “People who have witnessed horrendous events like wars and partitions are the ones who never want to witness a replay of such things and don’t want to suppress freedom, because they understand the cost of it. “Now there has been a steady retreat from the humanistic position. Secular manifestos ruled instead of religious doctrines and democracy was the human race’s anthem. In the 20th century, culture was a surrogate for religion and literature toppled holy books while music such as Beethoven and Bach would replace prayers. In response, Indian playwright/director and editor Ramu Ramanathan quotes Rushdie from his book Quichotte (2019), “This is the Age of Anything-Can-Happen.” Asked if the world has become less tolerant of nuance and disagreement, he laments how culture has ceased to operate as a critique in the 21st century and how traditional humanistic functions have become muted. So how are we to perceive this venomous act? The perpetrator is someone who isn’t even as old as the ‘offensive’ text. Thirty-four years since the book, Rushdie, now 75 years old, was stabbed viciously at a conference in New York.
The first attempt on the author’s life following the fatwa led to him spending a huge part of his life in hiding. After the book’s release, the wholesale outrage and accusations resulted in a fatwa, and relentless protests, attacks, and what we know as ‘cancel culture’ today.
Before the release of The Satanic Verses in 1988, the great wordsmith and raconteur Salman Rushdie had the world at his feet: the bestseller Midnight’s Children and a Booker Prize had brought him supreme fame.
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