March 2010 
Year 16    No.149
Saffronwatch


Let Taslima Bi be!      

Towards freedom from the mob

BY JAVED ANAND

Ex-Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain and Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen have hogged a lot of media attention in recent weeks. The reasons for the self-imposed exile in both cases are more or less similar. Both have been declared – extrajudicially – guilty of “hurting religious sentiments” and live under threat to life and limb. Having kissed goodbye to his Indian passport, Husain is now a Qatari citizen. Taslima on the other hand has been desperately seeking the very passport that Husain no longer needs. But as of now all that seems likely to come her way is a visa, one last time. That’s it, ma’am!

The 95-year-old Husain did not relish the thought of returning to India only to spend the rest of his life running from one court to another, being hounded by Hindutva and having his paintings repeatedly mutilated at art exhibitions. Government assurance, post facto, of full protection to him was meaningless in the circumstances. (Only our guardians of the law can explain how hate-spewers like the Thackerays and the Varun Gandhis are provided with instant security cover – no-need-to-apply – while the targets of hate must wait, and wait.)

Husain was given an option and he took the easy way out. Only he knows whether he wants to, or will be allowed to, paint any more nudes, whether he will ever place his brush at the service of artistic freedom again. Either way, sorry, I don’t feel too sorry for him. So what if he is a great artist; what about Husain, the man? He may be 95 now but he was not on Freedom’s side even three or more decades ago, during the emergency years. Nor do I recall him ever standing by the secular activists who have stood by him since he was first targeted years ago.

Sadly for her, Taslima has no real option. She could never dream of returning to Bangladesh again. Muslim fanatics will almost certainly kill her long before the courts find the time to consider charges. (When it comes to Direct Action against ‘one’s own’, the Muslim Bajrangi is more vicious than the Hindu Taliban.) Citizenship of a western country is a possibility but that is of no use to Taslima, for she is like a fish out of water there. She lacks the literary talent or the cultural flexibility to feel at home in the West like Salman Rushdie does. If not Bangladesh, home to her can only mean West Bengal.

If Husain had to surrender his Indian citizenship because of Hindu hoodlums, Taslima is being denied that same citizenship because of Muslim hoodlums. The ultimate casualty is Indian democracy; with its perennial inability to defend a principle – freedom of expression – without which democracy remains a meaningless word. But since politics always takes precedence over principles, with assembly elections due in West Bengal about a year from now, there is little hope for Taslima today.

The state’s Muslims are disenchanted with the Left Front government for a variety of good reasons. So we can expect the Left Front to do nothing to alienate a large segment of its fast depleting constituency. Nor should Taslima expect any words of sympathy from Mamata Behenji, for she is in Muslim-come-hither mode now.

In the circumstances, here is my humble suggestion to Taslima Nasreen. The moment you get your ‘last visa’ to India, Ms Nasreen, you should take the first plane/train out to Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu and ask for Sharifa Khanam Daud. You may not know this but when she was asked for her reaction to your being attacked in Hyderabad and unceremoniously bundled out of Kolkata to Jaipur and then Delhi some two years ago, Sharifa had said, “Taslima Nasreen is welcome to join us.”

Indian Muslims have been baying for Taslima’s blood because she has allegedly attacked Islam and insulted the prophet. Knowing Sharifa as I do, she and the Muslim women who are with her would never attack Islam and hold Prophet Muhammad in deep respect. Since Sharifa is not the kind to dish out flippant sound bites merely to grab media eyeballs, why would she welcome someone like Taslima with open arms? I think it’s because she believes that at heart it is Taslima’s legitimate anger against Muslim male chauvinists – a sentiment that Sharifa and her group share wholeheartedly, a battle they too are fighting every day – an anger that Taslima naïvely misdirects towards Islam thus giving her enemies a convenient pretext. Were Taslima to tell her that she was an atheist, I believe Sharifa would say that it was a matter between the writer and her creator.

Taslima should jump at Sharifa’s offer, for the two women could be of great help to one another. Sharifa’s organisation, STEP’s effort to build a mosque for Muslim women has come to a standstill due to a lack of funds. Perhaps Taslima could ask her supporters and human rights defenders in the West to raise funds in order to complete Sharifa’s dream mosque? Taslima’s beliefs, or unbelief, should be immaterial. If Sharifa can respect Taslima for her beliefs, surely the sentiment must be reciprocated? And with Sharifa and her Muslim women’s organisation by her side, denying citizenship to Taslima would likely raise just the sort of embarrassing international stink that the Indian state would prefer to avoid.

 


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