Why I read from The Satanic Verses: An author's explanation

Jaipur: Author Hari Kunzru has defended reading excerpts from Salman Rushdie's banned novel The Satanic Verses on stage during the Jaipur Literature Festival on Friday.

The author wrote in The Guardian that he read the passage without consulting the festival organisers and that "Our intention was not to offend anyone's religious sensibilities, but to give a voice to a writer who had been silenced by a death threat".

"Reading from another one of his books would have been meaningless. We wanted to demystify the book. It is, after all, just a book. Not a bomb. Not a knife or a gun. Just a book," he said.

"The Satanic Verses was the cause of the trouble, so The Satanic Verses it would have to be," he said.

Mr Kunzru, along with another author Amitava Kumar, had created ripples at the festival and beyond by reading out from the banned book as a mark of their protest against Mr Rushdie's forced withdrawal from the event.

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The incident came hours after the organisers read out a statement by Mr Rushdie saying that he was withdrawing from the event due to security concerns, not just his own but for others attending the event.

The act resulted in a police case against them and forced them to walk out from the festival abruptly.

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In a statement posted on his website, Kunzru even apologised if he had unintentionally hurt feelings or appeared to have caused disrespect to a religion.

"I would like to reiterate that in taking this action I believed (and continue to believe) that I was not breaking the law, and had no interest in causing gratuitous offense. I apologise unreservedly to anyone who feels I have disrespected his or her faith," he wrote.

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Kunzru and Kumar were obstructed during their session by festival producer Sanjoy K Roy who told them not to read from the book. Soon after Kunzru and Kumar, two other authors Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Mishra followed suit.

It is an offence in India to possess a copy of the Satanic Verses and it is not available at bookstores.

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Mr Kunzru left Jaipur early on Saturday morning, and left India the same day. Mr Roy clarified today that the authors were not asked to leave.

Mr Kunzru said that he believed that the furore around the visit of Mr Rushdie, who has often visited India without a fuss, was a "manufactured controversy" this time and was not unconnected with the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.

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He also said he was extremely angry over what had happened to Rushdie and felt it was important to show support for an author was has often misrepresented and caricatured by people who know little or nothing about his work.

He said that the incident brought the Jaipur Police Commissioner to question them briefly and in him getting a legal advice that he should leave India immediately, as otherwise he held the risk of being arrested.

The controversy over Mr Rushdie's scheduled appearance at the festival began when the Darul Uloom Deoband, an Islamic seminary in Uttar Pradesh, asked for the author's visa to be cancelled on the ground that The Satanic Verses was blasphemic.