LAJJA – TASLIMA NASREEN
BY Harsimran Kaur ON July 15 , 2021 IN BOOK REVIEWS, LAJJA/TASLIMA NASREEN/FICTION
Rating: 3.5/5
The problem with communalism is that it does not let itself free of bigotries. It manifest in the most draconian form puritanically submerged in an overwhelming wave of prejudice and self-justification.
Who pays the price of all this??
Is it the forsaken minority community or the tormented less privileged class? I guess both!!
Lajja by Taslima Nasreen tells a tale briefing its readers of how minorities are subjected to backlash of communist propaganda. Bangladesh, an error in the making of Pakistan, alighted the torch of freedom on March 26, 1971. The vivisection was due to differences in culture and geography. Many Hindus rested to stay in Bangladesh because of affinity to their Motherland and a staunch belief that Muslims and Hindus will stay united forever.
However, the Duttas were wrong. The book brings forth the atrocities faced by the Hindu family in the hands of their Muslim brothers. Their indispensible trust of a safe haven in Bangladesh in crushed into smithereens, when the deplorable act of demolition of Babri Masjid in India foments an incendiary issue of communal violence. Sudhanmoy Dutta, the head of the family, is gripped with health issues and strives hard to make both ends meet. Kironmoyee, his wife, is subservient to her husband’s wishes and conscientiously takes care of him. Maya is a dutiful daughter but dreams of finding a safe refuge in a Muslim household to escape the tyranny being inflicted on Hindus. Suranjan has never been an idol son. His dereliction of duties towards his family and the habit of procrastinating makes him a deadpan for his parents.
The Dutta family tries to strengthen the loose beads of the feeble string when the Hindu community is isolated and deprived of its rights after the saboteurs Kar Sevaks desecrate the Babri Masjid. The Hindus are nailed down to a rotten insect whose existence is of no consequence. Their journey full of remorse, anguish and helplessness is vividly captured in the book.
TAKE AWAY
Lajja gives an insight of communal sclerosis. It talks about the capriciousness of the human mind to settle to their self-justifying exculpations. The book captures the minority distress and the unapologetic fundamental aberrations.
Thought provoking and absorbing…