Rushdie and Jaipur Literature Festival 2012

Amitava Kumar and Hari Kunzru reading out from 'Satanic Verses'

 

 

 

Photo Courtesy: India Today

There was a clear cut proof of the protest of the authors over Salman Rushdie issue. The controversial author of 'Satanic Verses', Rushdie had announced that he won't be attending the Festival. The literary community had already been expressing their anger over the protests against Rushdie. But two of the authors attending the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar, had their ingenuous way of protesting. They read out portions of 'Satanic Verses' in their session. Kunzru clearly declared in a tweet that he was doing this to defy bigots and the shoe-throwers. They also quoted Rushdie's tweet in which he had thanked the two authors for showing such a gesture. A while later two more authors joined the stream, namely, Jeet Thayil and Ruchir Joshi. So we can say that Rushdie is present even while being absent for this literary extravaganza!