Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie has warned against the “alarming” threats to freedom of expression worldwide, including in India, as he receives the Freedom to Publish honour at the British Book Awards, familiar as the Nibbies, in London.
In a video memo from New York on Monday night, the 75-year-old Mumbai-born author, who has resided under the shape
of a fatwa, since The Satanic Verses was issued in the 1980s, said it was essential to continue to fight for the liability to express and to publish.
“There are parts of the world where suppression has been prevalent for a long-time, fully a lot of the world – Russia, China, and in some ways India. But in the countries of the West, until now, there was a fair measure of privilege in publishing,” he said.
“Now I am sitting here in the US; I have to look at the remarkable charge on libraries and books for babies in schools, the charge on the idea of libraries themselves. It’s quite alarming, and we must be tough of it and fight against it very hard,” he attaches.
Fair an eye patch on his right eye, which was hurt in the life-threatening knife attack, the British American novelist also called on architects who “bowdlerise” classic works of authors like Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming to resist that coercion and permit books “to come to us from their time and be of their time”, because anyone who disagrees with that sentiment can choose not to read those books.
Salman Rushdie Warns of Threats to Freedom of Expression, Including in India
“The idea that James Bond could be made politically correct is almost comical,” said Rushdie of Fleming’s most famous creation.
“Don’t try and remake yesterday’s work in the light of today’s attitudes,” he said, adding that he was projecting to receive the Freedom to Publish award on behalf of everyone fighting to defend freedom of utter. It is barely the second time the Freedom to Publish Give has been consulting since it was first instituted last year.
“Freedom to publish is respecting the right to read, write, speak and hear complete interference, and the dire result so often now threatened by those who would restrict, censor and circumscribe. More than most, Rushdie has lived his resistance and resume to pay a huge price for it,” said Philip Jones, chair of the British Book Awards judges and copyholder of the UK magazine The Bookseller.
The award was introduced at the giving ceremony in London by British-Bangladeshi author of ‘Brick Lane’ Monica Ali, who described Rushdie as a “tireless champion of artistic and journalistic freedom” in the 34 years since the fatwa was supplied against him by Iran’s leadership calling on Muslims to assassinate the author for a reportedly “blasphemous” novel.
“Last year’s strive on the life of Salman Rushdie was a plan to silence one of the main voices of our times. His survival is an accolade for his courage and resolution,” noted Index on Censorship, an organisation related to the British Book Awards and campaigning for freedom of expression.
Salman Rushdie made a rare public speech in which he warned of ongoing bombard against freedom of expression in the West, nine months after being hurt by an assailant onstage.
Salman Rushdie Stresses the Need to Address Threats Worldwide, Including India
The Indian-born British-American novelist commented in a video address at the British Book Awards, where he was respected with the Freedom to Publish Prize.
The Give is given to writers, publishers or booksellers who stand exceptionally for freedom of expression “despite the ongoing threats they face”.
His alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, has beg not guilty to charges of strike and attempted murder.
In his speech on Monday, 15 May, Rushdie warned that freedom of expression is under its most severe threat in his lifetime.
“We live in a nanosecond, I think, at which freedom of utter, freedom to publish has not in my life been under such threat in the state of the West,” he said.
“Now I sit here in the US; I have to look at the unprecedented attack on libraries and books for school children. The charge on the idea of libraries themselves. It is alarming, and we must be aware of it and fight as opposed to it very hard.”
Rushdie also criticised publishers who change decades-old books for modern sensibilities, such as large-scale cuts and rewrites to the works of children’s author Roald Dahl and James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
