Post-colonial literature addresses the problems and consequences of the de-colonization of a country and of a nation, especially the political

and cultural independence of formerly colonial people, it also covers literary works, which justify racialism and colonialism and political tension.

Taslima Nasreen,a contemporary woman novelist who presents the agony of the post-colonial citizens of Bangladesh. Their quest for self-identity is the pivotal point in her novel Lajja. She is a Bengali author and former physician who lived in exile since 1994. Taslima Nasrin was born on August 25, 1962 in Bangladesh to Rajab Ali and Edul Ara.

Lajja (Shame) was published in Bangladesh in the Bengali language in February 1993,three months after the razingof Babri mosque in India that touched off a wave of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. Nasrin states in the preface to the English-language edition of the novel that she wrote the book in seven days soon after the demolition of themosque because I detest fundamentalism and communalism The riots that took place in 1992 in Bangladesh arethe responsibility of us all, and we are to blame. Lajja is a document of our collective defeat.

In her novel,Lajja, Nasrin questions the conversion of Bangladesh into an Islamist state, leading to the treatment of Hindus as second class citizens. Lajja (Shame) is a documentary novel about the plight of a Hindu family in Bangladesh persecuted by Muslim fundamentalists during an outbreak of anti-Hindu violence in 1992. All through the book, we can see people tortured, humiliated and living in fear for no fault of their own. People who have fought for the independence of their country, being ostracized due to the religion they were born into. It is also written anger and sadness that anyone who believes in equality, human rights, democracy and secularism, would feel.

On December 6, 1992, Hindu extremists demolished the Babri masjid, a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, India. The incident set off weeks of mob violence in India during which more than 1200 people were killed. In Bangladesh, Muslims terrorized Hindus and ransacked and burned Hindu temples, shops and homes in retaliation. Hindus are a minority in Bangladesh, which has an Islamin constitution.

Let us live, let us go away. - When they were tortured and terrorized by the political and religious heads. - When they were uprooted out of their ancestral home along with the other members of the family. They found it hard to adjust to the new surroundings and would often wake up crying at night and remember the beloved home they had left behind. The novel traces the events of 13 days in the life of a fictional family, the Duttas Sudhamoy Dutta, a physician, his wife Kironmoyee and their grown children Suranjan and Maya in the aftermath of the razing of the Babri mosque. It also reflects Hindu complaints of persistent violation of their rights.

Many Hindu friends of the Dutta family, crossed the border into India to settle with relatives, particularly after a 1990 wave of anti-Hindu violence. But Sudhamoy, now an invalid, had long ago moved from the countryside to the capital, Dhaka, after being forced from his house and land. He chooses to stay, though his wife wants to flee to India.

Sudhamoy, an atheist who fought for the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan, believes with a nave mix of optimism and idealism that his country will not let him down. His son

Suranjan, rebels against the prospect of having to flee his home as they had in 1920, when the family took shelter in the home of Muslim friends.

Maya is never found and is presumed dead. In the end Suranjan and his family decide to flee to India, their lives and hopes for their country in ruins. There was absolutely no one to depend upon, Nasrin writes. He was an alien in his own country.

Nasrin is an uncompromising critic of patriarchial religious traditions that she sees as oppressive to women and an outspoken advocate of womens social, political and sexual liberation. In her crusading syndicated newspaper colums,collected and published in two books, she protested religious intolerance and increasing incidents of violence against women by local salish, or Islamic village councils in Bangladesh, as well as the failure of the government to take adequate measures to stop them. According to Amnesty International, salish have sentenced women to death by stoning, burning or flogging for violating the councils interpretation of Islamic law. Nasrins newspaper columns,her bold use of sexual imagery in her poetry, her selfdeclaredatheism, andher iconoclastic lifestyle aroused the fury of fundamentalist clerics. By early 1992, angry mobs began attacking bookstores that sold her works. They also assaulted Nasrin at a book fair and destroyed a stall displaying her books. That year, en route toa literary conferencein India, her passport was confiscated by the Bangladeshi government, ostensibly because she listed her employment as a journalist rather than a doctor. (Nasrin is a gynecologist and at thetime was employed by the MinistryofHealth).

Taslima Nasreen was born in August 1962 to a Muslim family in Mymensingh, East Pakistan. Because the area became Independent in 1971, her cit y of birth is now in the country called Bangladesh. Growing up in a highl y restrictive and conservative environment, Taslima was fond of literature while she also excelled in science. She started writing when she was 13 years old, beginnin g with poetry in literary magazines, and afterwards herself editing a literary periodical called SeNjuti (1978 - 1983). She was the president of a literary organization while in medical college, where she staged many cultural programs. Earning her medical degree in 1984, she worked in public hospitals for eight years. Her first book of poetry was published in 1986. Her second became a huge success in 1989, and editors of progressive

dail y and weekl y newspapers suggested that she write regular columns. Next she started writing about women's oppression. With no hesitation she criticized religion, traditions, and the oppressive cultures and customs that discriminate against women. Her strong language and uncompromising attitude against male domination stirred many people, eliciting both love and hatred from her readers. In 1992 she received the prestigious literary award Ananda from West Bengal in India for her Nirbachito Kolam (Selected Columns), the first writer from

Bangladesh to earn that award. Despite allegations of jealousy among other writers about this, the topmost intellectuals and writers continued to support her. Islamic fundamentalists started launching campaign against her in 1990, staging street demonstrations and processions. They broke into newspaper offices that she used to regularly write from, sued her editors and publishers, and put her life in danger, a danger that onl y increased over time. She was publicl y assaulted several times by fundamentalist mobs. No longer was she welcomed to any public places, not even to book fairs that she loved to visit. In 1993, a fundamentalist organization called Soldiers of Islam issued a fatwa against her, a price was set on her head because of her criticism of Islam, and she was confined to her house. Th e government confiscated her passport and asked her to quit writing if she hoped to keep her job as a medical doctor in Dhaka

Medical College Hospital.. She was thus forced to quit her job. Inasmuch as she had become a best-selling author in Bangladesh and West Bengal in India, she managed to survive the hostility. The government, however,

banned Lajja (Shame), in which she described the atrocities against Hindu minorities by Muslimfundamentalists, her main message being "Let humanism be the other name of religion." According to Taslima, the religious scriptures are out of time, out of place. Instead of religious laws, she maintains, what is needed is a uniform civil code that accords women equalit y and justice. Her views caused fourteen different political and non - political religiousorganizations to unite for the first time,

starting violent demonstrations, calling

general strikes, blocking government

offices, and demanding her immediate execution by hanging.The government, instead of taking action a gainst the fundamentalists, turned against her. Acase was filed charging that she hurt people's religious feelings, and a non -bail-able arrest warrant was issued. Deeming prison to be an extremel y unsafe

place, Taslima went into hiding. In the meantime two more fatwas were issued by Islamic extremists, two more prices were set on her head, and hundreds of thousands of fundamentalists took to the streets,demanding her death. The majorit y who were not fundamentalists remained silent. Regar dless, some anti -fundamentalist political groups did protest the fundamentalist uprising, but did not defend Taslima as a writer and a human being who should have the freedom to express her views. Onl y a few writers defended her rights. But the international organization of writers, and many humanist organizations beyond the borders of Bangladesh, came

to Taslima's support. News of her plight became known throughout the world. Some western democratic governments that endorse human rights and freedom of expression tried saving her life. After long miserable days in hiding, she was finall y granted bail but was also forced to leave her country. Wherever she lived, she fought for Human Rights and Womens Rights. In

1998, without the government's permission sh e risked a return, to be with her ailing mother. Again, fundamentalists demanded she be killed. When her mother - a religious Muslim - died, nobody came from any mosque to lead her funeral, her crime being that she was the mother of an 'infidel'. A case ag ain was filed against her on the charges of hurting religious feelings of the people. After a few weeks of staying, Taslima more. Taslima was desperate was forced to leave her country once

to see her father when he was ill,but the

government did not let her go to Bangladesh. Her passport was not renewed, her rights as a citizen had constantl y been violated by the

governmental authority.

Taslima has been living in exile in Europe. She has written more than thirt y books of poetry, essays, novels, and short stories in her native language of Bengali. Many have been translated into twent y different languages. Her applications to the Bangladesh government to be allowed to return have been denied repeatedl y. One Bangladesh court sentenced her in abs entia to a one -year prison term. The Bangladesh government has recentl y banned three other of her books, Amar Meyebela ( My girlhood), Utol Hawa (Wild wind) and intellectuals both in Ko ( speak

and Sei sobondhokar (Those dark days). Writers

Bangladesh and West Bengal went to court to ban her autobiography

up) and Dwikhandito (The Life Divided). Two million-dollar defamations suits were filed against Taslima by her fellow writers. The West Bengal government finall y managed to ban Dwikhandito on the charges of hurting

religious feelings of the people. A Human Rights organization in Kolkata flied a case against against West Bengal government for banning a book that is

freedom of expression. After twoyears, the ban was lifted by

the Kolkata High Court, which, Taslima says, is a victory for freedom of expression. The numerous prestigious awards she has received in western countries have resulted in increased international attention to her struggle for women's rights and freedom of expression. She has become a symbol of free-

speech. Taslima has been invited to speak in many countries and at renowned universities throughout the world.Her dreams of secularization of societ y and secular instead of religious education are becoming increasingl y more accepted and honored by those who value freedom. Taslima was forced to leave

Bangladesh for Europe.

After a decade, when

she was granted a visa, she

visited India, her second home. When she was granted residence permit, she moved there. But onl y after 3 years of living in West Bengal, because

some Muslim extremists wanted her to leave India, the West Bengal Government and the Indian Government forced her to live under house arrest and put

pressure on her to leave the country. She was forced to leave India after being confined for seven and half months. The real tragedy is that two countries which give her the oxygen of language have cut her off. It's not the geography alone, but the languagescape also. That's the real crime... a fish being made to live on land. She does not have home. She is homeless everywhere. Taslima's Banned Books Lajja, Amar Meyebela, Utal Hawa, Dwikhondito, Ko, Sei Sob Ondhokar

In view of the serious rupture in the socio-political situation in Bangladesh consequent upon the victory of Kha

Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the simultaneous spread of fundamentalist carnage in the nation, it would be p read once again Lajja, the novel written eight years ago by Taslima Nasrin, the Bangladeshi writer now in historical context of the novel was the demolition on 6 December 1992 of the 16th century Babri Mosque in

U.P., India, and its devastating fallout in Bangladesh where, in putative retribution, temples were destroye

(minority) Hindus overnight became victims of insensate and barbaric violence at the hands of Muslim hoods

The same set of circumstances obtain there again and vest the novel, retroactively, with a poignant prescien books acquire over time a piquant distinction and abiding relevance in human affairs. Lajja is among them, at far as the sub-continent is concerned. It remains seminal and

Hindu women are being raped, Hindu males are being beaten, their property destroyed or looted, their lives bei

nightmare of random terror and orchestrated tyranny once again. Several women's organizations, one headed b

Kabir, have brought to light the atrocities being visited upon the hapless Hindus. This is courageous solidarity a reprisals from the Razakars who are currently on the rampage in Bangladesh, having distinguished themselves hundred murders prior to the elections. Razakars are the Islamic fanatics, who opposed the Liberation War of

who were the militant fifth column of Pakistani army, wreaking havoc with their brutalities and savageries in a n

was struggling to throw off the colonial yoke of an alien military dictatorship. The USA was massively aiding th

of Islamabad and their native death squads known as subhuman Razakars. With Khaleda Zia government now again, the minorities, i.e., the Hindus, face a long dark night of knives and dreadful days of rapine and physical

It was these inhuman atrocities that Taslima had used as the staple of Lajja. It was her protest against and res inhuman injustice and feral blood lust. Then, as now, the government had denied any such thing happening

called evidence and reports detailing these crimes against humanity all exaggerated and fabricated. The ro

reflexive response of the complicit administrations. It is nothing new. Isn't there a sense of deja vu in the ver

inanity that the states vainly but aggressively seek to spread over their crimes? This is the banality Indians regu

in exoneration of the saffronite criminals belonging to the Hindu Taliban gangs, viz., BJP, RSS, Shiv Sena, Ba Vishwa Hindu Parishad , Jan Sanskriti Manch, Vidyarthi Parishad,

etc

Before we read a few quotes from Lajja bearing on this discussion a few cognate things need to be mentioned.

refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, seeking to escape terror, foreign and native, met their watery grave

19 October in Indonesia when their overloaded ship capsized. Over 900 Palestinians have died from Israeli (weapons of mass destruction supplied by the US) during the last several months. And, thousands of civilians

murdered by American bombs raining on Afghanistan now (www.AlterNet.com). All these humongous num

numbing tragedies have gone unreported in the Western media, hence remain unknown and ignored, as design

dislocations stagger the imagination by their magnitude. These abrupt disruptions of life disintegrate individu beings. The depth of their pain and rootlessness remains

unfa

Equally abominable has been the blackout in the US media of massive European demonstrations against th

Afghanistan (30,000 in Berlin, 20,000 in Britain). India did one better. It banned all protests against the

imperialist war on Afghanistan and arrested those demonstrating and leafletting! Can servility and peonage go an

This is the logical wages of a sin: demolition of the Non-Aligned Movement by the BJP-led National Disaster

Why? Among other things, the acronym, NAM, offends the US by reminding it of Vietnam, which was known

both in its official records and popular parlance. It is a good example of how master's wishes are anticipated and by their

Should we expect Dhaka to arrest and punish the goons and gangsters terrorizing the Hindus? No, to be ho

creator is always indulgent to its creatures. As in Bangladesh so in India. Do we expect the BJP-led National D

Alliance to arrest and punish the Hindu Taliban anti-socials guilty of rape, rapine, arson, assassination that the

with impunity against the Christians and Muslims? Certainly not. Because they have been brainwashed and conv

their crimes constitute "cultural nationalism" and real secularism, that these make them virile and patriotic. T

Bombay, Maliana, Asind, Pune, Muradabad, Muzaffarnagar are just some of the pinions and pennants of thei That these bloody and tribal savageries have made them more and pure

Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh paid a handsome tribute to these Hindu Taliban pioneers by emulating them

and spectacularly. If Dhaka can ban the Kolkata weekly Desh (Special Puja Number) for featuring a story by

Mazumdar touching upon the misery of the Hindus in Bangladesh, Bharat did one better by vandalizing the set

in Varanasi, a film on the plight of Hindu widows. Thus the Hindu Taliban proved that there have been no Hind

in Bharat, nor have they ever been treated inhumanely. The project of cleansing, once it starts, won't discrimin stop. It will kill the "other" as gleefully as its

Taslima was ranged against a host of enemies: Islamic tribalism, fossils of patriarchy, the privileged establish

traitorous Razakars, the illiterate maulvis and the cynical elite. She, perhaps unwittingly, took on all these

singlehandedly. She bore a hole in their medieval egos and their pathological ignorance, as she tore to shreds the

immoralities and traditional hypocrisies. The only regret is that several other Taslimas in the making, conscie

capable, perhaps remained suppressed because of the intimidating example of her travails as a woman, as a w

dissident, as an independent thinker. Perhaps temporarily. Or, she opened the doors and windows for others to b

fresh air of freedom of thought and expression and venture forth, to stamp out the fog of obscurantism, and to ge choking miasma of inhuman and enslaving

sup

Just as we must recall Taslima and her writings to get a grip on the extent of her persecution and the deprav

tormentors, so too we must recall Khaleda Zia's earlier stint in power in 1995. Ansars, marginalized and eco

deprived, suffering from malign neglect by the government, had rebelled to protest their inhuman existenc

Khaleda Zia did not flinch from shedding a lot of Ansar blood to smash the rebellion. Ansars were the Auxili

Force which had rebelled on 1 December 1994. The army under Zia dispensation brutally crushed the revolt. W

credentials, she must be dreaded, and not only by the minorities, progressives and secularists in B

The assinine reaction of the Hindu Taliban to the Hindus fleeing Bangladesh is: hound out the "illegal" Banglad

India. They are forgetting that the Razakar terror against Hindus may be their belated but vengeful respo

incessant hurt and humiliation heaped these several years on the unfortunate Muslims of India. And the Razakar

may not be limited just to the Hindus. There are Muslim victims of the Razakar tyranny too. The stupidly myop

of the Hindu Taliban is manifest in their plea that Hindu and Sikh Afghans be let into India but not Muslims. A

in a perversion that is mind-boggling, the Afghan refugees in India are now being harassed and deprived of the

jobs. These Afghans are not Taliban's proteges or followers, but either neutral or owing allegiance to Rabbani's Alliance to which Bharat pretends to be

(Translations below from the Bangla original of Lajja are mine):

Do the protectors of Hindu interests know that there are two crore Hindus in Bangladesh? Why in only Bang

every country of West Asia are Hindus resident. Have the Hindu fundamentalists pondered what their plight wil

They set fire to Dhakeshwari temple, and the police remained standing inactive. It didn't stop it...The communa numbering 2 to 3 hundred looted the homes of 25 families.

When the campaign of the Committee to Uproot Traitors and Touts reached its peak, exactly then, all of a sudd

the episode of the Babri Masjid. It was taken advantage of by the anti-national communal forc

From the attacks of the communal forces 28,000 homesteads, 2500 commercial establishments, 3500 tem suffered damage. p.66.

Do we want more of these orgies of waste and violence? If not, it is time, people and their well-wishers in the ci

- progressives, liberals, secularists, independents should let their voices be heard by the powers that be in countries of the sub-continent. Natural calamities and man-made deprivations are by themselves more than

render the lives of millions of fellow human beings unbearable in this god-forsaken continent. Why compound t by fanning communal

And, will there be another Taslima to document in a fictional writing the plight of the recent victims of Muslim Bangladesh?

More implacable is the angst: will India ever have her own Taslima documenting in a fictional work the tragedy

Christians and Muslims who have long been the silent victims of Hindu Taliban depravity aided and abette criminal godfathers in the

Taslima Nasrin (Bengali: ; also Taslima Nasreen, born 25 August 1962) is a Bengali author and former physician who has lived inexile since 1994. From a modest literary profile in the late 1980s, she rose to global fame by the end of the 20th century owing to her feminist views and her criticism of Islam in particular and of religion in general. Since leaving Bangladesh in 1994 on account of threat calls, she has lived in many countries;[1] as of June 2011 she lives in New Delhi.[2] She works to build support for secular humanism, freedom of thought, equality for women, and human rights by publishing, lecturing, and campaigning. Lajja (Bengali: Ljja) (Shame) is a novel in Bengali by Taslima Nasrin, a writer of

Bangladesh. The word lajja/ljja means "shame" in Bengali and many other Indo-Aryan languages. The book was first published in 1993 in the Bengali language, and was subsequently banned in Bangladesh,[1][2]and a few states of India. It nonetheless sold 50,000 copies in the six months after its publication,[3] though Taslima fled her native Bangladesh after death threats from Islamic radicals.[4] Nasrin dedicated the book "to the people of the Indian subcontinent", beginning the text with the words, "let another name for religion be humanism." The novel is preceded by a preface and a chronology of events. Lajja is a response of Taslima Nasrin to anti-Hindu riots which erupted in parts of Bangladesh, soon after the demolition of Babri Masjid in India on 6 December 1992. The book subtly indicates that communal feelings were on the rise, the Hindu minority of Bangladesh was not fairly treated, andsecularism was under shadow. In Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, on 6 December 1992, Babri Masjid is demolished, and the demolition has repercussions even in neighboring Bangladesh. The fire of communal rioting erupts, and the Dutta family also feels and faces the heat of the communal hatred. Each member of the Dutta family feels about this in his / her own way. Sudhamoy, the patriarch of the family, feels that Bangladesh, his motherland, shall never let him down. Kiranmayee as a faithful wife stands by her husbands views. Suranjan, their son, believes that nationalism will be stronger than communalism, but is progressively disappointed and finds himself adopting communal reactions which contrast entirely with the ideology of patriotism he

has always had faith in. Nilanjana curses her brothers apathy and coaxes his brother to take the family to a Muslim friends house for safety. It is a story of metamorphosis, in which disastrous events create disillusionment, resulting in violence and resentment. The novel Lajja has been translated into many language

including French, Dutch, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish,Icelan dic, Persian, Arabic, Assamese, Kannada, Hindi, Oriya, Urdu, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil Punjabi, N epali, Malayalam and Sinhalese. I have been hearing about Taslima Nasrinfrom the time I was a child. The Muslim Bangla woman was accused of writing blasphemous anecdotes about Islam in her 1993 novel Lajja, which drew a number of protests, including at least one group calling for her death and offering a reward;Lajja was banned in Bangladesh following widespread protest against its contents. So it was natural that I picked up a copy of Lajja when I recently found it in a roadside bookshop, as it was hard to find a copy in established book houses in India. Nasrins work over the last twenty years since the publication of Lajja has been controversial as well, but this post will focus on Lajjaspecifically. Lajja is about a Bengali family, the Duttas, who are Hindus by birth, but are atheists in their belief system. The family consists of Sudhamoy and his wife, Kiranmoyee, and their two adult children, Maya and Suranjan. Though the book is written about the 1992 Riots in Bangladesh following the Babri Masjid Demolition, during which there was widespread violent riots in Bangladesh, against its Hindu minority community, it also mentions in detail two other significant events in Bangladesh history: 1. The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, which was fought with the State of Pakistan, where Bangladesh fought to become an independent secular state. This is told through flashbacks from Sudhamoys experience as a young man. 2. The 1990 Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya India, during which large scale communal disturbances were caused in Bangladesh. The book chronicles the story of the family in the 13 days following the Babri Masjid Demolition. While news of an ensuing riot fills the news channels, Sudhamoy is reminded of his grim experiences during the Bangladesh Liberation war, where he was captured by Pakistanis and tortured. His wife had to stop wearing the Sindhur, which is a compulsory custom among married Hindu women, for fear of being identified . However, following the declaration of

Bangladesh as an independent state, Sudhamoy believed all his trials and tribulations would be over. Much to Sudhamoys dismay, Bangladesh, which was founded on secularism, was later converted to an Islamic state. There are constant references to partiality against the Hindus in government offices. Sudhamoy, who is a medical practitioner, is not promoted duly in his jobs; Suranjan, his son, is still unemployed at 33 years of age. There is also mention of Muslims general disconcert with music, where Kiranmoyee is treated as unchaste because she sings in public. Despite all of the cruelty and discrimination they face, Sudhamoy and Suranjan find it belittling to leave their motherland and move to India as most of their Hindu relatives and friends have been doing. (The Bangladesh Liberation war led to about 10 million refugees moving to India.) Once the riots reach their door step, the Dutta home is attacked, and the rioters abduct Maya, the daughter, following which she never returns home, and her whereabouts remain unknown until the end of the book. Suranjan, haunted by his sisters abduction, seeks his revenge, by picking up a Muslim prostitute and physically assaulting and raping her in his home. There is news that Mayas body may have been discovered; however, Suranjan doesnt confirm it and chooses to live with the hope that she will return. Much to Kiranmoyees relief, Sudhamoy and Suranjan decide to leave for India, unable to suffer anymore, in the name of their motherland. All through the book, we can see people tortured, humiliated and living in fear for no fault of their own. People who are atheists, and who have fought for the independence of their country, being ostracized due to the religion they were born into. Most importantly, its written from a Hindus perspective, by a woman of Muslim background. Nasrins book is well researched and is interspersed with pages of factual knowledge of the various and immense attacks carried on Hindus by Muslims in Bangladesh all throughout history. It is also written with anger and sadness that anyone who believes in equality, human rights, democracy and secularism, would feel.From a literary point of view, Lajja is an average book, where a new writer is trying hard to bring a riot to life, but is caught up between journalism and fiction. However, nowhere in the book is any reference made to Islam, in a way that should hurt Islamic sentiments. When reading it, I wondered if some of the protests had to do with the graphic description of rape in the book, but it runs for only about three lines, and as this womans rights activist points out, the sexual violence in the book is not unrealistic. Islam or the Hadith arent quoted anywhere in the book, and its hard for anyone Muslim or otherwise to understand why this book was banned. It

talks about oppression of a minority ethnic group; it just happens to be that, in this scenario, Muslims are the majority, and Hindus the minority. Nasrin questions the conversion of Bangladesh into an Islamist state, leading to the treatment of Hindus as second class citizens. For this non-Bangladeshi Muslim reader, Lajja reads as an at times boring account of a riot. This book by no means deserves any fatwa, and if left alone, might have been dismissed as average writing, instead of getting so much attention. The novel opens with a helpless Hindu family comprising of four members - the father is a doctor named Sudhamoy Dutta, who has a patient and strong willed wife Kironmoyee, an educated but unemployed son Suranjan and a bright diligent girl Maya. The narrative is fast paced with numerous newspaper reports, infiltrating into the story which involves the Dutta household from 1947 to 1992. Nasrin takes the pain of keeping a record of numerous newspaper articles related to persecution of Hindus by Muslim in 1947, 1952, 1964, 1971, 1978, 1988, 1990 and 1992, incorporating them within the narrative to show the shame on religion and politics. It was not only a matter of communal violence that drove the Hindus out of their homes in Bangladesh; it was also a serious breach in the faith one person can have on the other. Lajja addresses the dark realities of the violence which is not a spontaneous outburst against a community, but has, along with it, the ulterior motives of gratifying the greedy desires of property, money, and women.

All over this cosmos, most of the people believe that there is an invisible supreme power that is the creator and the runner of this world. Human being is supposed to be the most intelligent and loved creation by that power and that is being searched by human beings in different ways into different things. As a result people reveal His assumed form as per their own perceptions and beliefs. It has

given birth to different religions and people are divided on the name of religion viz. Hindu, Muslim, Sikhs, Christian etc. People do not stop at this. They debate the superiority of one over the other and fight to establish their views. Shrewd people like politicians oppose and support them at their own convenience to divide them and control them. It has intensified to the extent that even parents of a new born baby teach it about religious differences and recommend their own religion superior to that of others and let the child learn to hate other people just because of religion. Jonathan Swift, an eighteenth century novelist, observes that we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. The word religion does not have a derogatory meaning - A literal meaning of religion is A personal or institutionalized system grounded in belief in a God or Gods and the activities connected with this. At its basic level, religion is just a set of teachings that tells people how to lead a good life. It has never been the purpose of religion to divide people into groups of isolated followers that cannot live in harmony together. No religion claims to teach intolerance or even instructs its believers to segregate a certain religious group or even take the fundamental rights of an individual solely based on their religious choices. It is also said that Majhab nhi sikhata aaps mai bair krna. But this very majhab or religion takes a very heinous form when it is misused by the shrewd politicians and the fanatics e.g. in Ayodhya on 6th December, 1992 some right wing political parties and communal organizations incited the Hindus to demolish the 16th century Babri Masjid in the name of religion to polarize Hindus votes. Muslim fanatics in Bangladesh retaliated and destroyed a

number of temples, assassinated innocent Hindus and raped Hindu girls who had nothing to do with the demolition of Babri Masjid. This very inhuman act has been presented by Taslima Nasrin, a Banglsdeshi Doctor-cum-Writer in her controversial novel Lajja (1993) in which, she seems to utilizes fiction's mass emotional appeal, rather than its potential for nuance and universality. Written in mere seven days, Lajja sold over 60,000 copies in the five months before it courted religious controversy and a fatwa was issued against Taslima Nasrin's life as the crooked politicians and the fanatics in Bangladesh found the book to be a living proof against their persecution of innocent Hindus. Her work was called an assault on Islam and she found herself at the receiving end of the wrath of the society. The book, however, does not seem to contain anything against any religion. Rather it was read and appreciated all over the world and subsequently, it was translated from Bangali into many languages including French, Dutch, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic, Persian, Arabic, Assamese, Kannada, Hindi, Oriya, Urdu, Marathi, Telugu, Punjabi, Nepali and Malayalam. Lajja, which spans over a period of thirteen days in the year 1992, is a mirror on the antiHindu riots that broke out in Bangladesh in retaliation to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in India. Bangladesh witnessed a massive massacre of Hindus by Muslims. Its intent is to warn the www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 Vol. IV. Issue V (October 2013) 1 Editor-In-Chief: Dr. Vishwanath Bite Bi-Monthly refereed and Indexed Open Access eJournal people of Bangladesh that communalism is on the rise, that the Hindu minority is badly mistreated and that the secularism they once fought for is in grave danger. In the Preface to the novel, Nasrin herself states the reason of writing the book:

I detest fundamentalism and communalism. This was the reason I wrote Lajja soon after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on 6 December, 1992. The book which took me seven days to write, deals with the persecution of Hindus, a religious minority in Bangladesh, by the Muslims who are in the majority. It is disgraceful that the Hindus in my country were haunted by the Muslims after the destruction of the Babri Masjid. All of us, who love Bangladesh, should feel ashamed that such a terrible thing could happen in our beautiful country. Lajja is a document of our collective defeat. (1994: ix)

The novel opens with a helpless Hindu family comprising of four members - the father is a doctor named Sudhamoy Dutta, who has a patient and strong willed wife Kironmoyee, an educated but unemployed son Suranjan and a bright diligent girl Maya. The narrative is fast paced with numerous newspaper reports, infiltrating into the story which involves the Dutta household from 1947 to 1992. Nasrin takes the pain of keeping a record of numerous newspaper articles related to persecution of Hindus by Muslim in 1947, 1952, 1964, 1971, 1978, 1988, 1990 and 1992, incorporating them within the narrative to show the shame on religion and politics. It was not only a matter of communal violence that drove the Hindus out of their homes in Bangladesh; it was also a serious breach in the faith one person can have on the other. Lajja addresses the dark realities of the violence which is not a spontaneous outburst against a community, but has, along with it, the ulterior motives of gratifying the greedy desires of property, money, and women. Nasrin talks about the essence of riots through the words of Sudhamoy where he says: Riots are not like floods that you can simply be rescued and given some muri to survive on temporarily. Nor are they like fires that can be quenched to bring about relief. When a riot is in progress, human beings keep their humanity in check. Riots are not natural calamities, nor disasters, so to speak. They are simply a perversion of humanity (165) The story of the Duttas - Sudhamoy, Kironmoyee, and their children, Suranj an and Maya is more interesting. For generations they have been land owners, possessing coconut and betel nut plantations, yards and yards of rich paddy fields, a house that stands on over two bighas of land near Myemsingh, what is now in Bangladesh. After the partition of India in 1947, when most of the Hindus left for India, a secular country, Jinnah, the Governor-General of Pakistan, assured

Hindus security and equal rights in Pakistan. He, for the sake of his vote and power, declared that a man was Punjabi or Bengali before he was Hindu or Muslim. They shared a common language, culture, and economy. Yet, by drawing up nationalism against religious fundamentalism, the novelist emphasizes the not so ancient or organic borders that separate West Bengal from Bangladesh and in effect says: Lets forget about our historical connection to India; in Bangladesh we must remain faithful to the secular ideals we have fought for. From this day onwards, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists will not be identified by their respective religion, but by their identity as Pakistanis. (87) So Sukumar Dutta, the father of Sudhamoy believed in Jinnahs words and refused to leave his motherland. Sudhamoy, who was a medical student at the time, believed in his father's rationale and refused to leave Bangladesh for India. Being an atheist Hindu, he had seen many disputes and riots in his lifetime. From the Partition of 1947, to the relatively recent Independence of Bangladesh in 1971, he had lived through and participated actively in every kind of struggle that his country had to endure. His fundamental ideology in life was, Why should I leave my homeland and go somewhere else?... if I live it will be on this soil, and if I die it will be in this very same place. (7) He stayed in Bangladesh, working as a physician. Sudhamoy Duttas ideas were courageous and blatantly patriotic. His belief was that he was a Bengali first and a Hindu later. Unfortunately, the system in which he lived did not allow such ideals to flourish and repeatedly reminded him of his minority status in society, whether in the matters of career or personal life. His fight for survival, literally, put him on stake many times. He remembers his participation in the freedom

movement when he was caught and thrown in the prison where he including other Hindus was humiliated inhumanly. They were not given food and water for a number of days. He felt so thirsty that it was impossible for him to live without water. The narrator points out: When they begged for water, the sadistic guards would laugh at him. One day.they took off his blindfold and forced him to watch them urinate into a jug. When the jug was put to Sudhamoys lips, he had turned his head away in disgust, but one of them had forced his mouth open while

the other poured the contents of the jug in. salty liquid had tricked down his throat. Sudhamoy had felt at the time that he would rather have drunk poison! (65) Moreover, in that very camp Hindus were tortured in different ways by the hooligans and the contemporary government in Bangladesh was doing nothing. It rather indirectly encouraged the Muslims to convert Hindus into Muslims. Police force was also seen with the marauders. The police had not made the slightest attempt to stop them. Even during the rule of Pakistan, Hindus were targeted. Even the Muslim mob was testifying by opening the lungi off. If the person was found to be Hindu, they beat him mercilessly and forced him to read the Kalma and announce that he had converted to Islam. This also happened with Sudhamoy but he refused it forcefully. For this he was tortured badly. When he refused finally, his tormentors, decided to make a Muslim out of him: One day, after Sudhamoy had again thwarted their efforts, they jerked up his lungi and mutilated his penis.(66) This resulted into the permanent impotency of Sudhamoy. The Communist in Lajja have been described as the follower of the secularism or humanity, as Suranjan tells that he could not remember having ever prayed in his life. Nor had he ever visited a temple, nor believed in religion. On the demolition of the Babri Masjid, he clenched his fists in disgust at the Hindu fanatics. If he had the strength, he would line up all the fanatics from every corner of the world and shoot them. The communists of Bangladesh had announced that the Indian government was responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid and for this fault of the Indian government; the Hindus in Bangladesh should not be held responsible. But he had heard the leftist leaders swearing: the Hindus were referred to Bloody swine! Even Hindus in the communist party were bowing to the current mood. Krishna Binod Roy was now Kabir Bhai and Barin Dutta, has had his name changed to Abdus Salaam. That is why Ms. Amrita Mazumdar says, the secondary theme of this political novel (Lajja) is the failure if Marxism in Bengal. (SPIEL, 99) When Muslim communists bowed completely to the wishes of Islamic fanatics, their surrender was full and final. It was a bitter irony that Muslims of Bangladesh now supports that Islamic communalist who opposed the independence of Bangladesh. These fanatics who were now the masters of their destiny did nothing for the country. These people wanted to destroy everything which was related to either India or Hindus:

They kept abusing Bloody low caste Hindu well kill you, you bastard. You think youll get away with breaking our masjid? Well see to it that the whole of you are chucked out of this country. (74) 28,000 houses, 2700 commercial establishment and 3600 temples have been damaged (188)Terrorists from the Jamaat Shibeer Youth Command have done all this. They burnt the party office, the bookshop and the Indian Airlines Office..(28-29)

The novel shows how these fanatics got tremendous support in the country. The administration was made inactive so that the communalist could get free hand to fulfill their nefarious designs. It is worthy to note that communalists are always on the look out for an enemy for their own business. Such fanatics were determined to clean the Bangladesh off its enemy, the Hindus. They were so sure about the coward and inactive nature of the government of India that, They intend to walk up to India and rebuild the Babri Masjid. In their mind there was no fear and respect for India. Even the most liberal leader of Bangladesh, Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, was free to speak about the safety of the Muslim in India and rebuild the Babri Masjid, but the leaders and government of India has no courage to speak about the safety of Hindus in Bangladesh and the temples in Bangladesh. Nasrin blames the selfish and coward nature of Hindus and the safe and diplomatic stance of the Government of India for the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh. The novelist reminds the people of India and Bangladesh of Nehru Liaquat Pact (1947), under which in both the countries, the minorities will be allowed to enjoy equal rights and there will not be any discrimination on the basis of religion. But in practice while in India, Muslim became very powerful due to the vote Bank polices of Nehru, in Pakistan the condition of Hindus worsened. And Pt. Nehru could not dare to ask the then government of Pakistan to honor this Pact; fearing, losing his secular level and subsequently Muslim votes. Nehru was an internationalist. Such issue like pogrom of Hindus in Pakistan was a non issue to him. As a result of the callous attitude of Pt. Nehru towards Hindus, they lost heavily in every field. Hence role of subsequent government in India have come under mild criticism from Taslima Nasrin. Right from Nehru till 1992, none of the Indian governments dared to open their mouth on the mayhem of Hindus in Bangladesh. On the other hand due to democracy and over dose of secularism, Muslims have become so powerful in India that the Muslim minorities have the right

to retaliate that too in a much crueler manner but in Bangladesh, Hindus dont have the right to touch Muslims(187). This is the hollowness of Indian democracy and secularism.

The novelist goes back to the day of partition to point out that immediately after the partition, the contemporary government of East Pakistan started acquiring the property of Hindus: The law Ministry of the Awami League moved in the parliament, the much hated Enemy Property Act of Ayub Khan under a different name, The Acquired Property Act. Under the previous regime, the property of Hindus who had left the country was declared Enemy Property. (123-124) Even the justice system was made biased and communal. Sudhamoys uncle, Tarapada Ghoshal lived in the Akur Takur area in Tangail and a Muslim neighbour called Jamir Munshi had claimed a yard of his land. The matter was taken to the court. Five years later, the suit was decided in favour of the neighbour and Tarapada was compelled to leave Bangladesh and migrate to India. Taslima Nasrin has given ample evidence about the communal and sadistic approach of the government administration and the justice system towards Hindus. During the Bangladeshi War of liberation, the people of Bangladesh, irrespective of the Hindus and the Muslims fought together against the oppressive rule of Pakistan. Independence was the fruit of their united efforts and the view of a new society was an egalitarian one, where narrow non-secular outlook would not be encouraged. But it was proved an illusion when the Jammati, who were against the freedom, persecuted Hindus, robbed them of their money, demolished a number of temples, abducted Hindus women and even raped them before their family. Since most of the people in general assembly were Muslim, they brought change after change in the constitution of Bangladesh for their own benefits. Hindus were ignored every time: In 1978, the commencement of the constitution of 1972 was changed to Bismillahir Rahmanair Rahim the 12th clause read as follow: Secularism and freedom of religion.the word Secularism was removed and clause 25(2) now read, the state shall endeavour to consolidate, preserve and strengthen fraternal

relations among Muslim countries based on Islamic solidarity. (183). After the 8th Amendment in 1988, the constitution of Bangladesh acquired the following insertion: The State religion of the Republic is Islam, but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in Republic. Why were the words may be used? Why not shall be? (181)

The novelist tries to bring home the fact that biased amendment in the constitution provided the hidden authority to the fanatic Muslims to catch the Hindus and kill them or convert them to Islam. The narrative goes: Let us catch a Hindu or two, eat them in the morning and evening too (17) Hindus became the second class citizens or have no citizenship except to vote the Muslims in order to make them their masters who in return did not provide them any facility to have a peaceful life and equality in the society. Suranjan told his father that being the members of the second class Hindu minority, it was foolish to try and see themselves as equal to the Muslims who were the first class citizens of this country. At every level, they were harassed and haunted. Their system blindly favoured the Muslims and Islamic communalism. It was almost impossible for the Hindus to get jobs or admissions in educational institutions. If they were appointed, they were harassed at all levels and then their due promotions were also denied to them In Dhaka, Sudhamoy had applied for a senior government job, one that would be a promotion on the official position he had in Mymensingh.. But he had discovered that officers junior to him had got their promotion. In his very presence, Sudhamoy had seen his file being slipped under those of Dr. Karimuddin and Dr. Yaqub Molla he had finally retired as an Assistant Professor Sudhamoy realized that he was not made Associate Professor simply because he was a Hindu called Sudhamoy Dutta. Had he been Muhammad Ali or Salimullah Chowdhury there would hardly have been any obstacles in his way. (20-22) Not to speak of the promotion, Hindus were not selected in any government job. The ministers, the officers, the clerks all showed religious bias, incited by the contemporary politics indirectly. Suranjan, the protagonist in the novel, is a brilliant person having Masters Degree in Physics. Though he had been one of the sharpest students in the university yet the students whom he

helped in their studies, got more marks than him in the final examination. The same thing happened when after, completing his college education, he went looking for job. The Muslim candidates, who had scored less than him, got good job as teachers but he was not selected even for clerk. He did his best in the interviews yet he was not selected. He was surprised enough to find that those candidates who had clicked their tongues in disappointment at not having fared well would be the first to get appointment letters. His outbursts: It was a fact that those who said Assalaam Aleikum incessantly and made a great show of respect towards their examiners were the first.thought to be well mannered and it was those who passed the interviews It was because he was a Hindu, but there were no jobs forthcoming with the government. (52-53) Nasrin has given a vivid and authentic description of how many Hindus are in Government services which are supposed to be the sole right of Muslim in Bangladesh. She writes: It is a fact that there are no Hindus of the rank of Brigadier or Major General. Out of seventy colonels there is only one Hindu, there are eight lieutenant colonels out of 450, forty majors out of 1000, eight captains out of 1300, three second lieutenants out of 900, only five hundred sipahis out of 80,000. And there are only 300 Hindus out of 40,000 BDRs. There is only one Joint Secretary out of a hundred and thirty-four. (137) The novel reveals that minority in Bangladesh suffered not only deprivation but also operation and subjugation. Hindu students were forced to attend the Islamic classes. If any complaint was lodged by Hindu students, no attention was paid to it: Indeed she (Maya) was so taken with religious instructions, even when she played alone; she could be heard chanting Alhamdo Lillahe Rabbil Aalemin(12) When Maya was a little student, some girls of her class teased her, Hindu, Hindu Hindus eats cows head I dont want to be a Hindu anymore. They tease me for being one. (122) One day Maya was teaching the students, among them a girl named Minati was muttering Alhamdo Lillahe Rabbil AaleminAr Rahmanir Rahim (98). Maya was very much surprised and shocked to find that it was the prayer in the most famous school of the capital named Bhikarunessa School. The students of all the religions had to recite the Kalma after the national anthem. After the demolition of Babri Masjid in India, the Muslim fanatics declared not to have any connection with the Hindus who were supposed to be the responsible for the same. Even the young children were filled with the hatred for Hindus; they strictly

refused to play with Hindus children. Suranjan found Poluks six years old son crying and lying on the floor. On asking the reason Pulok told him: the children next door, who used to play with Alok every day, have refused to play with him today. It seemed the Hujur asked them not to mix with Hindu children. Who is this Hujur? Hujur is the Maulvi who comes to their house to teach the children Arabic.(71)

In every field of life, Hindus suffer serious problems because of the communal attitude of the authorities. Almost all the political parties in Bangladesh supported an agenda of Islamicization. The notorious communal ideology uses the institution of parliamentary democracy to grow, often being dangerously successful in its efforts. But the kind of Islamic fascism not only poisoned the political realm but also the social one. Long before, the demolition of Ram Janambhoomi/ Babri

Masjid, a hate campaign was going on against the Hindus in Bangladesh. Hindus were plotted to eat beef. Suranjan cannot forget the day of his great humiliation in the school where he studied in 7th standard: a friend called Faroukh had taken him aside during the lunch break and said, I have brought some thing delicious to eat, and I wont tell anyone about it; you and I will eat quietly upon the roof, okay? It was not as though Suranjan was famished, but he had approved of Faroukhs proposal To his surprise, once they had finished eating Faroukh had cheered aloud. Before Suranjan could react, he was bounding down the stairs, and before long he and the rest of the class were yelling with joy over the fact that Faroukh had made Suranjan eat beef. (62)

Suranjan felt isolation and the very first time he thought himself to be a Hindu not a Human being. His Muslim classmates were taking sadistic pleasure by demolishing his religion which worships the cow. He wept bitterly and told his father who knew the reality of his minority status and rights very well. He is an atheist, which is a very common fashion with Hindu Communist to boost their intellectualism and liberal attitude. In order to stay in Bangladesh, he always made a compromise

with the situation. Now he advises his son not to weep and pretends that beef is a delicacy. He even encourages his family members to eat beef: Kironmoyee had cooked the beef after a good deal of cajoling on Sudhamoys part who had explained to his wife, at great length the futility and illogicality of observing such customs. (64)

The novel shows that in Bangladesh Islam was synonymous of human being. Only Muslims were considered as the only human being in the country. They were free to pray in the mosque, to do what they want for their religion, to wear Burkha, to have a beard, to wear a round cap on their head, to follow the rituals of their religion. But Hindu are like their slaves and every time they have to hide their identity. They cannot follow any religious rituals and use anything signifying their religion. Being afraid of Muslims, Sudhamoy asked his wife to hide their identity as Hindu: Kiranmoye had stopped using sindur in the parting of her hair and loha and sankha on her wrist as was expected of every married Hindu woman.Sudhamoy, too, had given up his beloved dhuti to have a set of pajamas stitched. (97) Even the honour of Hindus was not safe. Abduction of Hindu girls was a common thing in Bangladesh. The Hooligans did not have any type of fear. Whenever they wished, they abducted a woman and raped her brutally. So, most of the Hindus sent their daughters to India for their education and security. Nasrin has mentioned in the text: Manju Rani Seal, a student in the ninth standard..was abducted at 8 p.m., on the evening of 4 December 1988 by Abdur Rahim and his goons.there is no trace of Manju Rani..In Parkumaria village of Tala sub district in Satkhira, Rabindranath Ghoshs young daughter, Chanda, a third standard student her schoolteacher abducted her with the help of some hooligans. They took the terrified little girl to garden nearby and raped her.a case was filed but no one was arrested. (48-49)

While coming home from the school, Maya was also abducted, when she was only six years old. Nobody knew who the abductors were and what they did with her. She returned home herself two days later. For two months she behaved strangely and slept fitfully and would wake up abruptly in the middle of the night. They used to receive anonymous letters that threatened to kidnap Maya again when she grew a young girl of 19 years and the ominous day came on 11th December 1992 when a group of seven hooligans entered the house of Sudhamoy who had recently suffered paralysis, and began to break the goods of the house. They were all about twenty-one years old. Two of them wore caps, pajamas and Kurtas. One of them said, You bastards! Did you think you could get away after destroying the Babri Masjid? Sudhamoy and Kiranmoye tried their best but they could do nothing against seven hooligans who very quickly took Maya away. Maya was crying for help but nobody came forward to help her because she was a Hindu girl and the abductors were Muslims. She only screamed to her mother for help Ma please help me, Ma (148). This inhuman incident shattered all the hopes and dreams of Sudhamoys family. Being Communist, they did not believe in religion whether Hindu or Muslim; Humanity was the only religion for them. But now they broke into pieces and decided to leave for India. Suranjan tried his best but he could not find Maya. In frustration he began to drink wine and abuse Muslims. He had a strong desire for the revenge on the hooligans. Suranjan asked, Debabrata, cant we burn a mosque? Mosque? Are you crazy? Come, lets go and set the Tara masjid on fire tonight! . There are twenty million Hindus in this country. If we had wanted to, we could even have burnt up Baitul Mokarram ! yes, I used to call myself a human being, and I believed in humanism. But these Muslims did not let me stay human. They made me a Hindu. .. Even if

we dont gain anything. We can at least prove that we too can destroy. Shouldnt we make it known that we too are capable of being angry? the Babri Masjid was four hundred and fifty years old, but Chaitanyadebs house was five hundred year old monuments in this country too? I feel like tearing down the Sobhanbagh mosque. The mosque as Gulshan Part one was constructed by the Saudi Arabians. Why dont we build a temple? (163) Suranjan was full of anger and hatred for the Muslims. He, like the hooligans wanted to kill the Muslims and abduct their daughters for taking revenge. It was the eleventh day of riot in Bangladesh i.e. 16th December and the people were celebrating the victory day. Suranjan was abusing the system and his own incapability. Again and again he was thinking about Maya what they were doing with her, whether they had tied up her legs and then raped her one by one; how she was tolerating the pain; whether she would be living or dead. He also thought of committing suicide but it would be the work of cowards. He thought something else and sitting in a rickshaw he went to Bar council where he met a whore named Shamima, the daughter of Abdul Jalil. But Suranjan did not take Shammima as a whore. For him she was a girl who belonged to the majority community. He was longing to rape one of them, in revenge for what they had done to his sister. He took the girl into his room and turned off the lights: He threw the girl on the floor and stripped her of all he clothes. Suranjan took quick deep breath, as he dug his nails into the girls flesh. He bit her breasts, one part of his mind understanding that what he was doing was certainly not love. Relentlessly he pulled her hair; bit her on the cheek, neck and breasts. He scratched her waist, her stomach, her buttocks and her thighs with his sharp nails.the girl moaned with pain, screaming occasionally, O my God! I am dying of painSuranjan laughed with savage satisfaction. (200-201) That was an illusory victory day for Suranjan also because he had done inhumanity with a girl who had nothing to do with the demolition of the temples, usurpation of the Hindus property, persecution of the Hindus and the abduction of Maya; there was no difference between the Muslims hooligans and Suranjan who raped a Muslim girl very brutally. Ms. Amrita Mazumdar

observes in this context: The attempt of Suranjan, the Marxist, to revenge himself for his sisters rape by raping a Muslim prostitute, is a shabby anticlimax as it is intended to be. (SPIEL, 100) But Suranjan having sympathy for humanity in his heart, felt his mistake and cursed himself for that. This was not the solution of his problems and the problems of millions Hindus in Bangladesh where all the political parties did not care for their rights and security for the sake of Muslim votes and religion. Nasrin through her novel wants to remind the politicians and the religious fanatics that the Hindus are also the Human beings, they also possess red blood in their veins, they also have dreams and aspirations, they also love their motherland, they are also the citizens of the country and they are also the creation of the same God Who created Muslims. The politicians should not discriminate human beings in the name of religion, belief, tradition and culture. They must not intensify the communal hatred among the people who are innocent. The

common people must not work as per the instruction of the politicians and the religious fanatics. She makes a universal appeal, Let another name of religion be humanism. According to V. Pala Prasad Rao, The dominated motif of the novel (Lajja) is the consequences of religious fundamentalism on the hopeless minorities. Nasrin strives to show how communal violence has been generated by the lunatic fringe in all communities, how innocent persons are duped into serving the ulterior purpose of communalists, how extremist elements in the communities infuse tension and hatred for their own ends at the cost of inter-communal harmony. (IJES, 93) In broader sense the novel appeals to every majority community to respect their minority brothers and reminds every government of its duty to its citizens to be discharged without any fear or favour. The novelists, whose heart bleeds for the minority to which she herself does not belongs, is according to Ms. Amrita Mazumdar a spiritual heir of Gandhi. (100) Works Cited: Dev, Rajendra. The Pioneer, Tuesday, August 7, 2007, P-6.

Kumar, Ravindra. LAJJA: AN EVALUATION, An International Journal of Research in English Studies, ed. Dr. Pratibha Tyagi, Meerut, 2006, p.113. Mazumdar, Ms. Amrita. In Defense of Taslima Nasreens Lajja. The Spiel Journal of English Studies, vol.1, No-2, July-2005, pp. 99-100. Nasrin, Taslima. Lajja. Tran. Tutul Gupta, New Delhi, Penguin Book: 1994. (All references are from this edition) Rao, V. Pala Prasad. Syncretic Culture in Nasreens Lajja and Tharrors Riot. The Indian Journal of English Studies, vol. xlvi, 2009, pp. 92-100. Sen, Sujata. I write because I want to change society. The Statesman. 9 May 1994: 2A. Weaver, Mary Anne. A Fugitive from Injustice. The New Yorker. 12 Sept. 1994: 48. Zakaria. Rafiq, The Struggle Within Islam: The Conflict Between Religion and Politics, London: Routledge, 1988. www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN 0976-8165 Vol. IV. Issue V (October 2013) 9 Editor-In-Chief: Dr. Vishwanath Bite Bi-Monthly refereed and Indexed Open Access eJournal

Lajja is about a Bengali family, the Duttas, who are Hindus by birth, but are atheists in their belief system. The family consists of Sudhamoy and his wife, Kironmoyee and their two adult children Maya and Suranjan. Based on 1992 riots in Bangladesh following Babri masjid demolition, during which there was widespread violent riots in Bangladesh, against its minority community. The Bangladeshi government filed a case against Nasrin on the charges of hurting religious feelings of the people. Over 3,00,000 people demanded her death while general strikes were called all over the country to demand Taslimas execution in 1994.

People also offered $2,000 to anyone who killed her. A non-bailable arrest warrant was also issued against her.