Rushdie no-show and the borders of our shrunken minds

The power of suggestion works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. If you ask me not to think of pink elephants, about the first thing that pops up in my head is an imagery of pink elephants (which even the camouflage artists of the Election Commission cannot cover up).

The mullah-maulvi brigade that got into a fit of manufactured apoplexy over writer Salman Rushdie’s planned participation to the Jaipur Literary Festival has managed to create an atmosphere of intimidation severe enough for Rushdie not to attend the festival. After security agencies informed Rushdie that a criminal gang was out to get him, the writer reluctantly opted out of the festival - even though the threat itself may have been of doubtful provenance.

Yet, although Rushdie wasn’t corporally present in Jaipur yesterday, in every other way, his was the ethereal spirit that hovered over the festival like an uncompromising conscience.

Writers Hari Kunzru , Amitava Kumar and Ruchir Joshi made bold to read out passages from The Satanic Verses, which is banned in India, as an expression of solidarity with Rushdie and as a form of protest against the intimidation of writers by “bigots”, “shoe-throwers” and “assassins”.

Theirs was no act of literary grandstanding; nor was this about the stolen thrill of savouring the forbidden fruit. With their symbolic protests, they were making a forceful and thoughtful stand on the shameful curtailing of writers’ freedoms, and the state’s failure to protect free speech.

Yet, their exertions only ended up embarrassing the hosts of the literary festival, whose organisers were evidently threatened with closure of the event for being in violation of the law.

In a press release issued yesterday, the festival organisers sounded defensive in the extreme and sought valiantly to distance themselves from the writers who ‘went rogue’.

Their press release noted that “certain delegates (had) acted in a manner during their sessions today which were without the prior knowledge or consent of the organizers. Any views expressed or actions taken by these delegates are in no manner endorsed by the Jaipur Literature Festival. Any comments made by the delegates reflect their personal, individual views and are not endorsed by the Festival or attributable to its organizers or anyone acting on their behalf. The Festival organizers are fully committed to ensuring compliance of all prevailing laws and will continue to offer their fullest cooperation to prevent any legal violation of any kind. Any action by any delegate or anyone else involved with the Festival that in any manner falls foul of the law will not be tolerated and all necessary, consequential action will be taken.”

From various accounts, it appears that the festival organisers will henceforth secure a prior written undertaking from the writers and panellists who appear at the festival stating that they would abide by the law and not fuel controversies.

While one empathises with the festival organisers’ predicament in ensuring the festival’s commercial and literary success free of controversies or run-ins with the law, all this is disquieting at several levels. For one, no law was broken yesterday with the reading of proscribed literature, as the Kafila blog points out , so the defensiveness was needless.

And the erection of fenceposts in the minds of free-spirited writers is bound to have a ‘chilling effect’ on future deliberations. It could even subtly influence the choice of writers who will be invited to future festivals – to avoid any controversies and edginess that might inflame any of a 1,000 constituencies who are just waiting to be inflamed.

Now that a precedent has been set (with the atmosphere of intimidation, and dubious claims to assassination threats, thereby forcing a writer to withdraw), the template for silencing writers has been perfected.

The failure to stand up to criminal intimidation of writers and artists, now and in the past, marks, as we’d noted here , the slimy cowardice of the soft state. Yesterday, we ceded some more terrain to the bigots and the intimidators. Where once we dreamt of “minds without fear”, we are today shrinking even further within the fenceposts of our shrivelling, easily intimidated minds.

Watch video: No Rushdie at JLF: Authors blame politics