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| Kolkata, after Jaipur, ducks the dissent test | | City?s first literary festival ensures Taslima Nasrin kept away, though her books are a big draw |
| Debaleena Sengupta / Kolkata Jan 26, 2012, 17:53 IST |
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If one hallmark of education is curiosity about and exploration of the unfamiliar and the unorthodox, the trait seems as under cover here as in Jaipur.
There has been much erudite comment on the lack of stomach for even listening to readings from Salman Rushdie at the Jaipur Literary Festival, let alone having him in person. Yet, the first ever Kolkata Literary Meet, a six-day affair to be inaugurated here tomorrow as an adjunct to the much-admired Kolkata Book Fair (which goes on till February 7), is to sport a conspicuous omission. While the books of Taslima Nasrin, the Bangladeshi author in exile from her country of birth since 1994, are going to be displayed at the Fair, she’s been firmly kept out of the Lit Meet.
“How many decades do I have to be a victim of banning and censorship? My books will be at the book fair. But I will not be there. My readers would like to but will not be allowed to meet me in person at the book fair,” said Nasrin to Business Standard. She had to leave Bangladesh after the violent reaction to her book Lajja (Shame), based on a story of persecution of a Hindu family by Bangladeshi Muslims. Like Rushdie’s work, it drew death threats, fulled in due course by Nasrin’s strong criticism of orthodox Islamic belief.
After fleeing Bangladesh, she spent 10 years in exile in the West, then relocated to Kolkata. She was forced to leave this city in 2007, after violent protests at her presence; the state government here has made it clear that she’s not welcome in person.
The Kolkata Publishers and Booksellers Guild, organisers of the decades-old Fair, say they had nothing to do with it. They say the agenda and invitations for the Lit Meet were not decided by them but by Gameplan Sports, the event management company to whom the job was delegated. On being asked why Nasrin was missing from the guest list, Tridib Chatterjee, general secretary of the Guild, said: “Ask the organisers who have compiled the guest list.” He declined to comment further.
"We wanted to organise a literary forum where authors can communicate with their readers and the Guild, who was looking for a partner, approached us to organise this literary meet," says Malavika Banerjee of Gameplan Sports. She says Gameplan has been earlier associated with organising art exhibitions and other social events, besides being a sports marketing company.
She says there was no politics involved in not inviting Nasrin. “We have invited a host of recent writers and Taslima did not figure in the list for she has not been writing regularly,” says Banerjee of Gameplan.
However, Nasrin’s publishers rubbish the idea of her being out of the literary horizon. “Taslima’s books continue to sell like hot cakes, regardless of her controversies,” says Subir Mitra of Ananda Publishers.
Her longtime critique and chairman of the Sahitya Academy here, Sunil Gangopadhay, told Business Standard he would welcome Nasrin if the organisers invited her. “As an author, she must be allowed to interact with her readers,” he agreed, saying he was hopeful about the organisers doing so in the future.
Before that happens, it appears both Kolkata and their fellow denizens in the country will probably need to have developed a more robust appetite for handling dissent and threats.
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