• Salman Rushdie cancels appearance at Indian literary festival after death threats

     

    Manish Swarup / AP

    Indian Muslims shout slogans against writer Salman Rushdie after Friday prayers in Jaipur, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, on Jan. 20, 2012. Rushdie canceled plans to appear at an Indian literature festival Friday after protests from Muslim clerics and warnings that he could be targeted for assassination.

    The Associated Press reports from JAIPUR, India:

    Booker-Prize winning author Salman Rushdie canceled plans to appear at an Indian literature festival Friday after protests from Muslim clerics and warnings that he could be targeted for assassination.

    Rushdie's planned appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival had reawakened the long dormant controversy over his 1988 book "The Satanic Verses," which some Muslims consider blasphemous. He spent years in hiding after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged he be killed for writing the book, which also was banned in India. Continue reading.

    Rushdie, who had appeared at the festival in 2007 without incident, reacted on Twitter:

    Very sad not to be at jaipur. I was told bombay mafia don issued weapons to 2 hitmen to "eliminate" me. Will do video link instead. Damn.

    Novelist Hari Kunzru, who described Rushdie's absence as "a stain on India's international reputation", tweeted:

    About to defy bigots and shoe throwers, reading @SalmanRushdie Satanic Verses on stage with @amitavakumar at #jaipur#jlf 

    Prakash Singh / AFP - Getty Images

    A visitor reads while sitting on the lawn during the Jaipur Literature Festival on Jan. 20, 2012.

     

  • AFP - Getty Images

    The new Maharaja of Jaipur, 13 year old Kumar Padmanabh Singh, is blessed by priests at his coronation ceremony at the city palace in Jaipur, India on April 28.

    The Maharaja is dead. Long live the Maharaja!

    According to AFP, Padmanabh Singh's grandfather, polo-playing Sawai Bhawani Singh, was hailed as "the last Maharaja of Jaipur" when he died two weeks ago because he had come to the throne shortly before all royal privileges were swiped out. Like all Indian royal titles, the Maharaja of Jaipur is no longer legally recognised after independence from Britain in 1947 and government reforms in the 1970s.

    Read more about the death of the last Maharaja and his 13 year old successor.