After 20 years, Taslima’s <i>Lajja</i> translated afresh

September 15, 2014 03:12 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 02:53 am IST - Kolkata

Writer Taslima Nasreen during the launch of her first poetry collection in Hindi &quot; Mujhe Dena Aur Prem&quot;, in New Delhi on August 25, 2012. File photo

Writer Taslima Nasreen during the launch of her first poetry collection in Hindi &quot; Mujhe Dena Aur Prem&quot;, in New Delhi on August 25, 2012. File photo

Marking the twentieth anniversary of the controversial novel Lajja , a fresh English translation of the Bengali work by feminist author Taslima Nasreenn has now been published.

Translated by activist-writer Anchita Ghatak, the 20th anniversary edition of Lajja by Penguin is an updated one.

“This is like a documentary novel. There are fictional characters but is based on facts. Lajja has been a bestseller for a very long time. It has been published and translated in almost all Indian languages and also many foreign languages like French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, etc,” Ms. Nasreen said.

Lajja recounts the story about the Duttas, a Bengali family living in Bangladesh and their struggles during the communal riots in 1992, which started when the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished.

A year after Lajja was published in 1993, Ms. Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh in the wake of death threat by fundamentalist outfits for her alleged anti-Islamic views.

The doctor-turned-author, who has been living in exile since then, took refuge in India in 2004 after a long stay in Europe. She stayed in Kolkata, which she called her home till 2007 when she had to be bundled out following violent protests by Muslims against her work. She stayed in an undisclosed location in New Delhi for about seven months till she left for Sweden, which granted her citizenship.

She, however, returned to Delhi and her visa, which she been getting on a continuous basis since 2004, >was recently extended till August 2015.

Ms. Nasreen’s other works include Dwikhondito , Oporpokkho , Amar Meyebela and Utal Hawa and she has won a number of awards including the Simone de Beauvoir Prize in 2008 and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thoughts from the European Parliament in 1994.

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