Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses can now be imported into India because officials in the country were unable to find the customs notification that bans it, NBC News reports.
Rushdie’s 1988 novel was one of the most controversial books of the 20th century. Condemned by some Muslims as blasphemous, the novel made international news even before Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa that called for Rushdie, as well as his editors and publishers, to be killed. Rushdie was stabbed in 2022 before a lecture in New York state; his alleged attacker said in an interview that he thought Khomeini was “a great person.”
India banned imports of the novel months after its publication; the novel was also banned in countries including Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.
The Guardian reports that the case began when Sandipan Khan, an Indian man, tried to purchase the novel and learned it was prohibited from being imported. Khan looked on government websites for the customs notification that banned the import but couldn’t find it. He challenged the ban in court, where the Indian government admitted that they were also unable to find the notification.
A New Delhi court ruled that because the order could not be located, “We have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists.”
Uddyam Mukherjee, Khan’s lawyer, told the Associated Press that he was not sure what the ramifications of the court’s ruling would be.
“[W]hether this means it will be sold in bookstores—I don’t know, that depends on the publishers or sellers,” he said.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
