Salman Rushdie’s 1988 novel The Satanic Verses – which led to a fatwa threatening his life, forcing him into hiding for a decade – has finally returned to bookshops in India, the land of his birth. The novel, inspired by the life of the prophet Muhammad, became the focus of a fierce worldwide debate over freedom of speech when Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, placed a bounty on Rushdie’s head due to its supposed blasphemy. The book was banned in India by Rajiv Gandhi’s government in 1988 after riots erupted over its contents. Two years ago, many years after Iran
