Oh for the love of god.
It has been over twenty years. Twenty. Years. People want to kill someone because he wrote some rubbish twenty years ago. Not that I'm calling The Satanic Verses rubbish. I haven't read the book. I tried, but I couldn't get past the second page. Only because I was in the middle of a dissertation and had other things that demanded urgent reading. And also because it was ... erm, slightly dull. Ish. It was a little disappointing, okay? I love Rushdie otherwise.
Anyhoo. We're not here to discuss my opinion. My opinion doesn't matter. And neither does anybody else's. Rushdie's opinion of Islam does not matter. People don't judge a certain religion based on what one person wrote once upon a time. Do you know when they do judge it? When half the world cries for the author's blood. And are you telling me that all these people who are ready to chop the infidel into pieces have actually read the book and are offended?
Please. The world doesn't have so many readers. And we're talking about a Booker nominee here.
But you know, I don't understand why I'm so surprised by the twenty years thing. We, as a nation, have never been able to let things go. We are stuck in history. Which is why Babri happened, and why we let 2000 year-old religions rule our politics today. It's why we still have a caste system, and why my mum would prefer me marrying a Mallu Christian even if I find that I get along better with a Bengali Hindu. No doubt, I'm mixing up things here. What I'm trying to say (badly) here, is that we should learn to let things go.
Also, somebody should honestly ask the Indian government to look up secularism in the dictionary.
Awesome piece of writing! And I totally agree with everything except that The Satanic Verses is dull. Ish. :P (Also, I'm so glad at least some of the people I love share my love for Rushdie. Most of them seem to despise him. :/)
ReplyDelete