“I am a forbidden name in my country now, as in my beloved West Bengal, a prohibited person and a banned book. … I should most definitely not be read lest it sparks rage and unrest. This is me; thus I have always been.”
Penguin presents Exile: A Memoir by Taslim Nasrin, a account of the author’s journey through tumult and turmoil.
About the book: On 22 November 2007, the city of Kolkata came to a rude, screeching halt as a virulent mob of religious fanatics took to the streets. Armed with a fatwa from their ideologues, the mob demanded that Taslima Nasrin leave the city immediately. While the police stood watching, mere dumb witnesses to such hooliganism, a morally, intellectually and politically bankrupt Left Front government, tottering under the strain of their thirty year-old backward-looking rule, decided to ban her book and drive her out of the city she has always considered her second home. This inextricable nexus of petty political conspiracies, vote bank politics and minority appeasement saw Taslima being hurriedly shifted, first to Jaipur and then to Delhi, confined to an obscure safe house, and facing incessant pressure from senior officials and politicians to leave India. Set against a rising tide of fundamentalism and intolerance, Exile is a moving and shocking chronicle of Taslima Nasrin’s struggles in India over a period of seven months. Dark, provocative and at times surreal, this memoir will resonate powerfully with readers in the present socio-political scenario.
About the author: Taslima Nasrin, eminent writer and secular humanist, is known for her powerful writings on women’s rights and unflinching criticism of religious fundamentalism, despite forced banishment and multiple fatwas calling for her death. She has been living in exile since 1994.
About the translator: Maharghya Chakraborty is a PhD scholar, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC), an avid cinephile and fledgling translator.