Organisers of the annual Jaipur literary festival have been bombarded with requests by conservative Muslim clerics to cancel appearances by supporters of Salman Rushdie at the upcoming Indian festival.
Last year, Rushdie himself was set to appear at the festival but had to cancel after several local Islamic groups protested. Instead, four authors took it upon themselves to read from Rushdie’s controversial 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which remains banned in India.