An Indian-born, British-American novelist, the very introduction to Salman Rushdie underlines the continents he has made a home in. He has published 21 works and is most (infamously) known for The Satanic Verses, written in 1988, that led to an uproar around the world for hurting religious sentiments. 

While Rushdie has upheld his right to ‘freedom of speech and imagination’, the publication of the book changed his life forever. In fact, he barely lived in the open for the next ten years, because of a fatwa calling for his death as well as assassination attempts and death threats. 

Living under threat of violence

In August 2022, Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times as he was about to give a public lecture in Chautauqua, New York, United States. He lost sight in one eye and sustained multiple injuries. 

Inspite of the near-constant persecution and the threat of violence over the past 3 decades, Rushdie refuses to be the victim. As he mentioned in an interview, he has not let the fatwa impact his writing career. He could have mellowed down his words, writing non-controversial stories, safe books but Salman Rushdie refused to take that path. 

Writing to make sense of what has happened

His determination to uphold his freedom to think, imagine, and speak is evident in the books he writes. His first book to be published after the 1988 fatwa was Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which has a 12-year-old boy struggling to restore the power of his father to spin stories. In a telling finale, the book sees the man getting back his gift of the gab.

After the recent attack on his person, Salman Rushdie has wielded his pen, again, to make sense of what happened to him and to counter the violence with art and words. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder will be available to read next year. Rushdie wants to tell his story and more than that, he wants to get back to what he loves the most.

Art counters violence

The publication of ‘Knife’ once again upheld the power of words, as did his last book ‘Victory City’, which was ready to be published just before he was stabbed in 2022. The protagonist proclaims at the end,

“Words are the only victors”

Art and words are a weapon to fight censorship and a clamping of freedom of speech. In the end, stories triumph or so it would happen in a world Rushdie wants.