# What was Salman Rushdie's family background?

*Rushdie's privileged family, a name taken from Ibn Rushd, and an English boarding school*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/3/
- Date: 2022-08-19 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Salman Rushdie & The Satanic Verses | Mufti Abu Layth (9:18–15:50)
- Status: latest answer on its topic; general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0pHQRNJjBY&t=558s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/

**Topics:** Current events commentary; The Indian subcontinent

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth describes Rushdie's privileged Muslim family in Bombay, a father who took the name Rushdie from Ibn Rushd, and an English boarding-school education shaped by admiration for the British ruling class.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says Rushdie was born into privilege: his father, Anis Ahmed, came from a wealthy Kashmiri Muslim family living in Bombay, studied law at Cambridge, was prosecuted for fraud in England, returned to India and became a successful businessman. He says the father adopted the name Rushdie out of admiration for Ibn Rushd, Averroes, the great Maliki of Muslim Spain, which is how Salman came by the name. Rushdie studied at a private English school in Bombay and then at Rugby, a boarding school in England; Mufti describes an inferiority complex towards the ruling British class among the Indian elite of the time, and recounts, from a later interview of Rushdie's, his mother's warning that the English did not wash after using the toilet and shared bath water, which he dismissed as envy until he found at boarding school that it was so. He contrasts this with the common Indian practice of washing with a lota among Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, says Rushdie went on to read history at Cambridge, and notes that he never got on with his father.

## Sources and names cited

- Salman Rushdie
- Anis Ahmed Rushdie
- Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

## Transcript (machine tier, 9:18–15:50)

[8:51] in bombay under the british raj so where he was born it was still under british rule and it was in the following months in august that year that india and pakistan were subsequently to receive independence but when he was born he it was still under the british raj and he's there's something important to learn about salman rushdie is he was born into privilege his family were quite privileged his father was not your common kind of person his father his name was anis ahmad

[9:31] was very privileged and came they were they came from money and status his father anis traveled to to the uk he studied law at cambridge he was a lawyer in that time of the british raj for the british empire later his his dad fell into some issues with um his dad fell into some um issues with the authorities over fraud and they prosecuted him and they he was kind of shamed and he left

[10:10] england and went back to india and from lawyer turned into a very successful businessman and they were already very connected i mean you're talking in the british raj time where people were highly um impoverished they he came from a family of wealth and he was a muslim and used kashmiri ethnically but living in in bombay now known as mumbai and salman his son his dad adopted the name this is interesting his dad adopted the name that wasn't his name rusty was in light of his admiration for

[10:49] ibn rust he was a fan of avarois of the great maliki legend from muslim spain this was his father so he adopts the name rusty his actual name was anis ahmad and so he adopts the name atleast ahmad rusty after ibn with the being for nisba and this is where salman rushdie is given the name now salman grows up very privileged he

[11:22] he goes to he studies in a private school english school in bombay he then travels as a young boy to england he comes to rugby uh worcestershire sorry workshop and he he studies at a boys boarding school he lives there he always had this thing you see now the whole family had this this from uh and many people had it this inferiority complex to the angres you know the the ruling white class um and they were very much a part of those

[11:58] upper class elite circles so salman rushdie always looked up to the kind of the the gora class and always wanted to be like them and he actually writes how he was very um it was to his stubborn dismay that he found some some things to be true about the gory that he never wanted to believe so he mentions that he was told and even his mother who was a teacher and obviously had married into that class as well but she wasn't as convinced of the of the gora

[12:38] elite kind of british raj thing as many of the of this society that upper society was so she had told him that you know these gory they're not actually so clean and uh and she had told him this that they don't even wash their behinds when they go to the toilet and she mentioned he mentions this himself by the way at a later stage in life um she mentioned to him and they don't they're so dirty this is what she had said kind of trying to put him off because he was so obsessed with the gori

[13:18] that she said you know they use each other's bath water and he mentions this in an interview much later in life and he says that i was like these people are just envious of the gorilla you know get out of here that's not true and he mentions that when he went when he came to the uk as a young boy and boarding school he came to learn that they only used tissue paper see because in india it's common this lotta to have a lotta and wash your behind and it's not just muslims like people in india do it muslims do it because the faith teaches

[13:58] us that we must wash after going to the toilet but in india even hindus will wash they take the lota and you know they go out to the fields even sikh everybody in india it's common so in india he didn't believe it because it was the common thing there for indians that everybody just used that it was in all toilets aluta was always there when he came to england and in rugby he was in a boarding school he realized that they only used toilet paper and then he realized that because in the boarding school they had to bathe that they bathed in each other's they shared the bath water so he in later years admits to

[14:37] this being quite a shock for him an unpleasant shock because of how he really holds even though he still doesn't he's he's kind of um half-heartedly admitting because of how much he held them in high esteem so uh so so they feel that these people they are the ultimate standard gori especially the british raj and the british rather so so he comes here he studies he goes to college here he then goes to cambridge

[15:15] and does his degree in history see what's interesting is salman khan khan salman he has a very difficult relationship with his father he never got on with his dad and this is important because i feel it shaped the dynamic for his life

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment T0pHQRNJjBY/s/3. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t0phqrnjjby/s/3/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.