"A government spokesman, stressing the ban was 'not intended to cast any aspersion on the literary merit of the book,' said the step had been taken from the limited point of view of avoiding trouble and communal tension... "
"... Most of the critics of the novel make no bones about the fact that they have not read the book, but only its reviews - largely favourable ones from a literary viewpoint. They also have focused their attention on comments by the noted author, historian, and columnist Khush want Singh who... had vetted the book and deemed that it contained 'several derogatory references to the Prophet and the Koran and portrayed Muhammad as a small time impostor....'"
Source: Jagdish Bhatia, "India Bans a Novel of the Sacred and Profane", Far Eastern Economic Review, Oct. 27, 1988, Pg. 50-51