Author Rushdie, in Bid to End ‘Rift,’ Visits India

On his first visit to India in 12 years, author Salman Rushdie said he hoped to begin a new relationship with his native country, where his book “Satanic Verses” was banned after protests by Muslims across the world.

“This long rift between India and myself is now completely over. I hope we can just turn the page and begin a new page,” Rushdie said.

Rushdie went into hiding in Europe after the book prompted Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue an edict that in effect condemned Rushdie to death for blasphemy.

Bodyguards surrounded Rushdie, and photographers mobbed him, as he walked into a New Delhi hotel where the Commonwealth Writers Prize for writers from the United Kingdom and its former colonies was announced.

Rushdie did not win.

“Disgrace,” by J.M. Coetzee of South Africa, was named best book, while Canadian Jeffrey Moore’s “Prisoner in a Red Rose Chain” won best first book.

Muslim groups staged small demonstrations in the Indian capital to protest the government’s decision to grant Rushdie a visa.

Rushdie said he would like the ban on “Satanic Verses” lifted, but he had not sought to meet any government official.

“My message to Indian Muslims is that I’ve never been their enemy, and if they read my book, they would see that,” Rushdie said.