India
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Taslima Nasreen returns to Kolkata after 19 years
The Hindu··1 Aug
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen returned to Kolkata on July 31 for the first time since November 2007, calling it an emotional homecoming to a city she still considers her own. She is scheduled to make her first public appearance in the city at an anti-fundamentalism literary programme at Rabindra Sadan, with security arranged by the West Bengal government.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Readers who followed Taslima Nasreen's earlier writing can see her return marks a change in how a West Bengal government handles her presence.
- Anyone tracking free expression debates in India gains a concrete case study spanning nearly two decades of one writer's shifting access to a single city.
- Kolkata residents attending literary events can look out for her scheduled appearance at Rabindra Sadan, her first public event in the city since 2007.
What's Happening
- Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen returned to Kolkata on July 31 for the first time since November 2007, calling it an emotional homecoming.
- She is scheduled to make her first public appearance in the city at an anti-fundamentalism literary programme at Rabindra Sadan.
- The West Bengal government facilitated her visit and provided security, months after the BJP formed the state government earlier this year.
From Army Deployment To A Poetry Reading
- Nasreen left Kolkata in November 2007 after violent protests over her memoir Dwikhandito, when the Army was deployed to restore order and the Left Front government asked her to leave.
- She fled Bangladesh in 1994 following death threats over her novel Lajja and settled in Kolkata in 2004 before her 2007 departure.
- Her stay in India has since largely been restricted to Delhi, despite periodic visa renewals and repeated requests from civil society groups for her return to Kolkata.
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