It has been exactly 30 years since Salman Rushdie was threatened with execution by Iran's supreme leader. Brut India spoke to the author last year about autocrats, freedom of speech, and living in "dangerous times".
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CreativityTranscript
00:00I've never managed to write a novel which didn't have a central character that was Indian, you know
00:05I've never managed to write a novel which never refers to India
00:30I mean, I've no doubt that the the Satanic Verses sold more copies because it was banned
00:42It seems like everything gets banned in India
00:45So I think you can write about anything these days
00:48I've you know, I've got at least one book that's still banned in India
00:51And I wish I wish that it would stop being banned. So I don't need to write another one already got one
01:01I
01:02Never say never, you know, I mean at the moment I'm not thinking about it. No, but
01:10It's always rash to say you're never going to do something because then five years later you do it
01:19I've never been
01:22fond of the kind of Hindutva ideology and and I worry about
01:28About that being in control now because I think that's a recipe for social unrest
01:40I think certainly he's very powerful because you know, he had an enormous election victory and so he's able to rule
01:48without the support of other parties and so on, you know, and and
01:52It's been a long time in India since there was any any
01:57Individual who had that much freedom, you know to to run the country as he would like
02:02I mean, maybe Indira Gandhi was the last time
02:08The death of literature has been predicted repeatedly, you know, everything's supposed to kill books
02:14You know movies were supposed to kill books radio was supposed to kill books
02:18The Internet was supposed to kill books, but books obstinately survive and I think it's because
02:24People like them in a way. It seems like a lot of kind of old things are coming back, you know vinyl records
02:30Going to the movies instead of kind of Netflix and chill
02:35And and and reading real books
02:38There's a long history of right-wing governments
02:41Attacking the arts, you know, and I think there's a certain amount of that going on also in India
02:48I think it's just very important for for whether whatever art whether it's whether it's
02:54painting or film or
02:57Books, whatever, you know to continue to assert its independence from political control
03:02And I think it is a dangerous time, you know, and I think it's a dangerous time
03:05People in charge who are very either very unscrupulous very ruthless like like Putin or
03:13Kind of out of control overgrown babies like Trump
03:17and and
03:19That's these are bad combinations, you know
03:23And I worry I mean I that that
03:27That that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that
03:34That that
03:36So to speak the world that my generation is leaving behind for your generation
03:42You know is I don't think we did a great job
03:48In spite of everything that's happening
03:51That is bad or tragic or worrying, you know, there we there is also our better nature
03:58there is also we are also capable of
04:01You know love and caring and
04:04Beauty and so on and and it you know, maybe we should also accept that our better nature is capable of
04:12emerging coming to the fore