The hype surrounding ‘The Satanic Verses’ will lead to ‘skyrocketing sales’ in India

New Delhi, Jan 1 (IANS) Soon after the ban on Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ was lifted after 36 years, the mercurial excitement of readers drove them to bookstores in select cities to fetch a physical copy of the controversial novel.

While the famous Bahrisons Booksellers is one of the few outlets selling Rushdie’s fourth novel in Delhi, apart from a few others in certain cities like Pune, select e-commerce platforms to offer purchase of this book.

BooksWagon.com was prompt to procure copies and put the book out for sale. Its founder Shubham Jain imported copies of this book from the UK and US, and to his pleasant surprise, there was “a positive response for the book”.

But the process of procuring the copies did not go without a few hiccups. Importing ‘The Satanic Verses’ was quite a task. “We had to go through customs clearance; in addition, we had to explain the need to import copies of the book,” said Jain.

Shortly after the ban was lifted, the demand for the book surged in India due to its availability now. Many literary enthusiasts, academics and readers curious about the book and its controversies are looking forward to owning a copy.

“There is a lot of hubbub and hype surrounding this book in India which will lead to skyrocketing sales, and then a stable number of people would be interested in buying the book which includes the loyal audience of the author and literary enthusiasts,” Jain told IANS.

He is positive that ‘The Satanic Verses’ would get encouraging responses from academic and intellectual circles.

Although the book might still face backlash due to the sensitive nature of its content, Jain feels that it could supersede its sales, or at least dampen it due to the Streisand effect – the attempts to censor it might increase its demand.

“Ultimately, the sale will also depend on how the public and media react to it, and how booksellers and retailers promote the book which could make the sales rise, fall, or reach stable figures,” said Jain.

As ‘The Satanic Verses’ make a return to bookstores in India after more than three decades following a Delhi court order, Islamic clerics continue to insist on its ban. It is argued that the government should have engaged in a dialogue with the concerned groups before making the book available.

‘The Satanic Verses’ was banned in 1988 in India under Rajiv Gandhi’s regime. The reason was its content was deemed blasphemous by Muslim organisations.

The ban had to be dropped after the Delhi High Court, in November, closed the proceedings challenging the government’s ban on the import and sale of this book. The reason for this was that the authorities failed to produce relevant notification. In the absence of pertinent documents, the court “presumed that it does not exist.”

Salman Rushdie is a celebrated Indian-born British and American novelist. His famous works include ‘Midnight’s Children’ (1981), ‘Shame’ (1983), ‘The Jaguar Smile’ (1987), ‘The Satanic Verses’ (1988), East, West (1994), ‘The Moor’s Last Sigh’ (1995), and ‘Fury’ (2001).

Rushdie is the recipient of several awards including the Booker Prize (for Midnight’s Children).

In 2022, Rushdie survived an assassination attempt after he was stabbed multiple times before a public lecture in New York. He has been threatened with death since 1989, a year after ‘The Satanic Verses’ was published.

(Kavya Dubey may be reached at kavya.d@ians.in)

–IANS

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