Midnight's Diaspora: Encounters with Salman Rushdie

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A distinguished collection of intellectuals, writers and public figures provide fresh insights into the complex political and cultural meanings of Salman Rushdie's writing"and the celebrated writer responds. Twenty years after Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against him, Salman Rushdie remains the world's most controversial and perhaps most famous living novelist. Far more than an acclaimed author, Rushdie is a global figure whose work is read and studied by a wide variety of constituencies"both for its extraordinary literary achievement and for the insights it affords into the most significant political debates of our time. This important collection of essays and interviews brings together a distinguished group of critics and commentators, including Rushdie himself, to explore the political and cultural contexts of Rushdie's novels" Pakistan, India, Mumbai, exile and the many milieux of Islam. While the two substantial interviews with Rushdie illuminate his thoughts on literary and political subjects that he has for the most part been reluctant to discuss in public, each of the essays offers a distinct and often highly original take on Rushdie and his work. This combination of fresh perspectives and historical and political context will appeal to a wide array of readers interested not only in Rushdie's own work but also in the many contentious political issues it raises. About The Author Ashok Mitra studied at the University of Dhaka and Banaras Hindu University, and has a doctorate from the Netherlands School of Economics. He taught at different times in a number of Indian universities as well as at both the Indian Statistical Institute and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He has been on the faculty of the Economic Development Institute, Washington, DC and professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. He has held a number of important official positions in India, including as chairman of the Agricultural Prices Commission and chief economic adviser to the Government of India. He was the first finance minister of the Left Front government in West Bengal and later, a member of the Rajya Sabha. Ashok Mitra has written extensively in both English and Bengali, and received the Sahitya Akademi award for his contributions to Bengali literature. His widely read column, ‘Calcutta Diary’, was carried in the Economic and Political Weekly for over a quarter of a century. Colin Fernandes was born on 18 December 1979 in Delhi, India. He studied English Literature at Delhi University and spent two years as a lonely debt collector in a call centre before moving into journalism. After one-year stints at India Today and The Hindustan Times Colin now works as features editor at Maxim India. In his free time he likes to sit and stare out of the window.