Satanic verses controversy

“Damn you, India ...

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To hell with you, I escaped your clutches long ago, you won’t get your hooks into me again, you cannot drag me back.”

Saladin Chamcha, Page 35

Early in the novel, Saladin Chamcha makes this vehement proclamation as he prepares to return home to London from his acting stint in Bombay.

However, much of The Satanic Verses is devoted to exploring how a person can never truly 'escape the clutches' of his native culture, try as he might. It is also worth noting Rushdie's use of personification here.

To Saladin, India is not just a frustrating place, but is in fact a malevolent presence that tries to harm him. A person's history and culture is in fact an active presence towards defining him. Finally, Saladin's references to hell and damnation foreshadow his transformation into a devil later in the story.

“It isn’t easy to be a brilliant, successful woman in a city where the gods are female but the females are merely goods.”

Narrator, Page 120