Bangladesh author-in-exile Taslima Nasreen returns to Kolkata after 19 years

Leading the welcome party was BJP MLA Sourav Sikdar. “Her arrival is a perfect example of ‘bhoy out, bharosa in (fear out, confidence in)’,” said the legislator from Dum Dum North. “Kolkata is her favourite city and she has time  and again said this. She could only come because of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. Had she not been given that security and assurance, she wouldn’t have come. Wherever she wants to go as per law and whatever she wants to eat, she can. I would like her to enjoy her stay, eat phuchka, and speak her mind. Kolkata is waiting to hear her tomorrow.”

The event at the Rabindra Sadan cultural centre on Saturday will be Nasrin’s first public appearance in Kolkata in 19 years.

On November 21, 2007, tensions over the second volume of her autobiography, Dwikhondito (Split: A Life), spilled onto the streets as demonstrations organised by the All India Minority Forum led to road blockades and incidents of arson in parts of Kolkata. To bring the situation under control, the Left Front government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya called in the Army to help restore order. Facing political pressure and worried about the situation spiralling out of control if Nasrin remained in the city, the government pressured her to leave the city. She lived in New Delhi for a few months after that before leaving the country and moving to the US for a few years.

Nasrin’s writings have faced opposition from conservative groups since she published her best-known novel Lajja (Shame) in 1993. The book was about the persecution of a fictitious Hindu family in Bangladesh in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid’s demolition. She left Bangladesh the following year following death threats and protests and lived across Europe, including Germany, and North America.

During this period, Sweden granted her citizenship. She subsequently found refuge in Kolkata, the city culturally closest to her home. In 1998, Nasrin published Meyebela (My Bengali Girlhood), the first volume of her autobiography. Dwikhondito was the second part of the autobiography and ran into legal challenges and opposition from conservatives. In 2004, she moved to Kolkata after receiving a temporary residence permit.

The Rabindra Sadan event — where Nasrin’s poems will be read and may see the author discuss the circumstances under which she left Kolkata and her years away from the city — is being organised by NGOs Secular Mission, Paschimbonger Jonno (For West Bengal), and Human Rights Beyond Frontiers. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay are expected to attend the event.

“We will not bow down before fundamentalists. We expect her to come here more and stay. The courage Suvendu Adhikari has shown by inviting her, no other person could have done that,” Santanu Singha, a committee member of Human Rights Beyond Frontiers, told The Indian Express.

As per her tentative schedule, Nasrin will meet the press on August 3 and leave the following day.