LAJJA by Taslima NASREEN

LAJJA by Taslima NASREEN - Translated from Bengali by C.B. Sultan - LAJJA by Taslima NASREEN - Éditions Stock / Le Grand Livre du Mois(15 rue des Sablons, Paris) - 1994 - 287 Pages - Paperback. Lajja (The Shame), is the drama of a Hindu family caught in the trap of Bengal's history. Since the Partition of 1947, and especially since 1971, the date of Independence, two religious communities have been confronting each other in Bangladesh: despite the weaving that has taken place between Muslims and Hindus over the centuries, events periodically tear apart the work of time. The catastrophe here comes from the destruction of a mosque in India on December 6, 1992. Hindus in Bangladesh will atone, as if they were guilty, for this destruction of a holy place of Islam. And, while formally denouncing the perpetrators of this act, it is the 'shameful' situation of those who will pay the consequences that the author is keen to describe. Each member of the Datta family lives in a different way the atrocities that sectarian Muslims, throughout the country, commit on the Hindu community. The father stubbornly refuses exile, the mother, unable to flee, walls herself up in silence, the son deeply disappointed in his convictions dreams only of revenge. Maya, the beautiful and charming daughter, only wants to live loved by her Muslim friends, but in the end, it is she who will die from this obstinacy to want to bring down the borders. It is easy to imagine that this witness novel, written in urgency and emotion, to stand up against all religion and sectarianism, would, in other places and times, have led its author to the stake. It is much less understandable that it could, in our days and in a democratic country, have led to his banishment from society, along with death threats.