The Modern Novel

Biography

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay in 1947. His father was a wealthy Muslim businessman. The partition of India and Pakistan took place the year of his birth but the family, which was very relaxed in its religious views, remained in Bombay. When he was thirteen he was sent to Rugby School in England for his education. He was not happy there, both because of racism and because he was not athletic. After Rugby he attended Cambridge University where he studied the history of Arabic and Islamic civilisation. Meanwhile his family had finally moved to Pakistan, living in Karachi, and Rushdie went there after graduation from Cambridge. However Government censorship persuaded him to return to England, in theory to take up a career in acting.

For the next ten years, he worked primarily in advertising, writing in his spare time. He also married his first wife. He tried his hand at various novels, before finally his first novel was published in 1975. It was not a success. His next novel – Midnight’s Children – was a big success and won the Booker Prize. This enabled him both to become a full-time writer and become a celebrity. He was continually on television, writing articles in the press and sought after for his views on topics such as India, immigration and other issues. He also became contentious, criticising the Thatcher government on many issues but also fighting, often publicly, with other pundits.

In 1988, he published The Satanic Verses, which soon became embroiled in controversy because of its portray of the Prophet Mohammed. It was soon banned in many Muslim countries and burned in many countries, including in Britain. The Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie. He went into hiding with his second wife, Marianne Wiggins. Wiggins soon left him and then divorced him. Rushdie tried to explain what he meant, to apologise and, finally, converted to Islam but the fatwa remained and, according to Iran sources, will remain in effect forever. Rushdie has appeared in public since then and continues to write, though his later works, while selling well, have not been as well received as his earlier works. He married the Indian actress, Padma Lakshmi but they are now divorced.

Other links

Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie (1947-)
Salman Rushdie (1947-)
Featured Author: Salman Rushdie
The shame of Salman Rushdie’s secular fatwa
Salman Rushdie blasts intelligent design

Rushdie and Islam
The Holy War Against Salman Rushdie Turns 10
The Price of Oil, The Price of Life (about the fatwa and the UK/Iran deal on it)
Satanic Verses is libel against Islam
Notes for Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses
Assassins of the Mind
The Ayatollah, the Novelist, and the West
Salman Rushdie Defense Pamphlet
Help Salman Rushdie!
Rushdie planning book about his time in hiding
Yes, This Is About Islam (article by Rushdie on 9/11)

Rushdie and India
Rushdie’s Un-Indian Music: The Ground Beneath Her Feet
India And Pakistan’s Deadly Code Of Dishonour (article by Rushdie)

Interviews
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Interview (with Terry Gilliam)
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Imaginative Maps