Book Review: ‘Lajja’, author Taslima Nasrin
Book Review ‘Lajja’, author Taslima Nasrin
About the Book
A savage indictment of religious extremism and man’s inhumanity to man, Lajja was banned in Bangladesh but became a bestseller in the rest of the world. This brand-new translation marks the twentieth anniversary of this controversial novel. The Dattas Sudhamoy and Kironmoyee and their children, Suronjon and Maya have lived in Bangladesh all their lives. Despite being members of a small Hindu community that is terrorized at every opportunity by Muslim fundamentalists, they refuse to leave their country, unlike most of their friends and relatives. Sudhamoy believes with a naive mix of optimism and idealism that his motherland will not let him down.
About the Author
Book Review
The idea of writing on the religious sentiments of two different and dominating religion of the world i.e. Hinduism and Islamic is in itself quite idiosyncratic and daring.
Taslima Nasrin in her book LAJJA brings out the voices of many on the overpowering issue of religious sentiments through the world of fictional genre. Lajja is a splendid tale of what follows when religious extremism holds ground. It was initially written in Bengali in the year 1993 and then got translated into the English language in the year 1997.
The narrative bluntly criticises religion ruling the government and the plight of the minority. The deadpan delivery of grave and heinous acts is so effective that it leaves a chill in your spine and makes your stomach turn.
LAJJA is one of the contemporary historical fiction that hails from the land of Bangladesh. However , everything that happens in the book is the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri masjid in India. The Indian dispute stretched a long way to Bangladesh resulting to riots ,massive fire breakouts and mass killing.
The storyline in LAJJA talks about a family where the protagonist being a true patriot and also an atheist who had once invested his youth for the Bangladesh independence is now been denied their survival in their own motherland . Despite of this cruel time that destiny through upon them the protagonist Sudhamoy is still hoping that his terror – stricken country will be secular and United one day .
Taslima Nasrin , a heroic female writer who didn’t bother about the controversy that would happen after writing on such a sensitive issue holds the matter in the gut, dissects it brutally, and is never afraid to call a spade a spade. Probably, that’s why her extreme criticism of the Bangladeshi government is brought out beautifully in the characters of Sudhamoy or Suranjan ,who believed that they were Bangladeshi and human before Hindus.
Nasrin through her writing never feared to speak about the truth and post genuine facts of the issue took up and that later led to the biggest controversy of that era resulting in banning of LAJJA in Bangladesh.
Book Review by Deboleena Bhattacharjee
Book Details
- Publisher : Penguin (22 September 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 328 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0143419218
- ISBN-13 : 978-0143419211
