Salman Rushdie’s dad’s humiliation in London

Danish Khan in the Pune Mirror:

The eyes have the same intensity as his famously broody-eyed writer son but Salman Rushdie’s father Anis Ahmed Rushdie had an almost diametrically opposite reception in the United Kingdom from his illustrious son.

An investigation by this reporter reveals that unlike Sir Salman, knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2007, his father Anis Ahmed Rushdie was shamed and nearly prosecuted in the UK in 1935 after it was revealed that his birth record details had been fudged to allow him to appear for the elite Indian Civil Service.

Despite his protestations of innocence and cultural misunderstanding Rushdie senior was dismissed from the ICS on this ground.

After graduating from Cambridge University, like his son did later, Anis Rushdie appeared for the ICS in 1932 and cleared the exam. But following inexplicable reasons he was not selected in 1932. He reappeared the next year and was ranked 4th overall. His troubles began when he was sent to England on the customary two-year probation and the British began scrutinising his records.

More here.