Haunting silence on Rushdie

Rajesh Ramachandran

The deafening silence over the near fatal attack on writer Salman Rushdie is, for want of a better expression, shocking. The terrifying hush symptomises many Indian maladies. For, it proves that the incessant noise emanating from ugly TV studios, lawless streets and motor-mouths, who call themselves spokespersons of all causes, is calibrated, sanctioned and even scripted. When the political class wants, the land of a million mutinies and argumentative Indians falls silent as if the conductor has stopped the orchestra. The crowd does not howl when the baton does not move.

This silence is a refusal to offer Indian Muslims a way out of the traps of vote-bank victimhood, denying them an opportunity to debate and discuss modernity.

Salman Rushdie is no doubt a great writer and a greater showman, who thrived in his ignorance of Indian literature, mocking it and degrading it vis-a-vis the colonial project. The least that we expect from a writer who does not know Tarasankar Bandopadhyay or OV Vijayan or UR Anantha Murthy is respectful restraint and not an ebullient exhibition of illiteracy. Of course, Rushdie never understood that there were at least a few Rushdies and then a few who were incomparably greater than Rushdie in every Indian language. In his edited volume of 50 years of Indian writing, Rushdie demonstrated his disdain for literature in Indian languages and his overestimation of writing in English — probably that was required to be feted by the British establishment.

His First World condescension towards Eastern culture, religions and customs, now, has unfortunately landed him in a hospital bed. Rushdie, in his splendid rootlessness, must have in the height of celebrityhood thought that he would get away with blasphemy in The Satanic Verses, just as his slander of Indira Gandhi was celebrated in Midnight’s Children. But to be hunted down like a quarry 34 years after the publication of a book only underscores the institutionalisation of hatred and the complete negation of the idea of freedom of expression. Whatever be the milieu or locale — New York or Nizamabad.

However, the response to the attack on Rushdie seems as if Indian politicians almost justify or condone the attacker; as if Rushdie deserved to be punished for blasphemy. In India, the ruling Right, the self-righteous Left and the influential Liberals have all abandoned Rushdie. The most surprising response is from the Sangh Parivar, which gained legitimacy by politicising the Rajiv Gandhi government’s ban on The Satanic Verses. It could prove the Congress’ hypocritical promotion of Muslim identity politics — what it termed minority appeasement — to the Indian middle classes by pointing out the ban on the book and the reversal of the Shah Bano verdict.

Thus, The Satanic Verses and Rushdie were at the centre of Parivar politics’ attempts to gain popular acceptance against Congress’ duplicity towards the issue of freedom of expression. But the Parivar has chosen to ignore him completely. Rushdie may have called Modi names, yet this was a great opportunity to tar Islam with the brush of intolerance and call out the Congress, the Left and others for Muslim appeasement. Instead, the Parivar has sidestepped the issue. Is the BJP government anxious about a backlash from West Asia? It seems so and if it is really so, it is a sign of rabble-rousers maturing into a conservative right-wing party mindful of domestic politics influencing relations with friendly foreign countries. The last thing India wanted was a communal orgy or name-calling and satanic sloganeering. So, the BJP’s lack of response is a welcome change to its polarising policies.

But the silence from the Congress and the Left is dangerous, for it only proves these parties’ doublespeak and an attempt to turn every public issue into an opportunity to seek and consolidate Muslim votes. If they cannot loudly condemn the attack and carry out public rallies in favour of freedom of expression, they may not be able to do it for any artist who may ‘offend’ Hindu sentiments. This is exactly what happened in the case of celebrity artist MF Husain. The lame excuse of Husain having only disrobed Hindu goddesses, whose nude sculptures are worshipped, did not wash because Husain had an option of exercising the freedom expressed by the Ottoman painters while depicting Islamic characters. The lofty ideal of freedom of expression has to be absolute and when it becomes relative to political or electoral considerations, it turns into a farce.

And the worst farce is getting enacted in Kerala, the only state where the self-righteous Left rules. The ruling party and the government had organised a huge women’s wall from one end of the state to another to break a religious practice followed by the believers, particularly women, of Kerala regarding the Sabarimala hill shrine. Women believers prayerfully shun this shrine during their years of fertility only to visit the temple with great zest after menopause — of course, illogical like all belief systems. But after a Supreme Court verdict allowing women into the shrine, the Kerala Government and the Left parties pushed atheistic women activists up the hill to prove a point, resulting in statewide protests, arrests and communal polarisation. From the Chief Minister down to the village party apparatchik, all were at the forefront to smash shibboleths in what was hailed as the new Kerala renaissance.

Unfortunately, Rushdie is not a fit renaissance candidate for the Marxists. Forget the Chief Minister, even pompous, party-patronised intellectuals have not deemed it fit to issue a statement to condemn the attack on Rushdie; and nary a word on blasphemy. This was the moment to discuss blasphemy, the right to offend, the limits of condescension and many philosophical issues about freedom of expression. But the fear of loss of Muslim votes seems to have overwhelmed the Left and Liberal politicians. In their shameful silence, they have stereotyped Indian Muslims and have condescendingly condemned them to be victims of their illiterate clergy. This silence is a refusal to offer the Indian Muslims a way out of the traps of vote-bank victimhood, denying them an opportunity to debate and discuss modernity.