Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, a book whose 36-year-old import ban was recently lifted by the Delhi High Court, will be available from December 30 at Book World on Fergusson College Road, Pune.
“I have placed an order for it and the book will be available from December 30. These will be imported versions. We will have an initial stock of 10-12 books,” said Narendra Chandan, owner of Book World.
Kolkata-based Sandipan Khan had filed a petition in 2019 to quash the notification banning the import of books. After government officials failed to submit the notification to the court, the Delhi High Court last month ordered that “no such notification exists.”
In 1988, the Rajiv Gandhi government banned the import of controversial books following calls from Muslim clerics. After Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini ordered Muslims to kill him and his editors and publishers, Rushdie spent nearly 10 years in hiding in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times in the face by a knife-wielding man named Hadi Matar while on his way to lecture in the United States.
However, there are no immediate plans to stock it in other bookstores. Rohit Jerajani, the owner of Express Book Service in the camp, said that the shop does not stock the book as it is risky and does not want to get into political controversy. Vishal Pipraiya of Pagdandi Book Shop in Baner said that he has no reaction on this matter.
A senior employee of Crossword Pune told The Indian Express, “There is no India publisher for the book so far, so we have no information. We do not import books. We will have the book on our shelves only after the publisher from India comes.
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