Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin on Friday (July 31, 2026) returned to Kolkata after nearly 19 years, describing the visit as an emotional homecoming to a city she still considers her own.
Her return marks her first visit to Kolkata since November 2007, when she was forced to leave the city following violent protests over her writings. The departure ended what she had often described as the closest thing to home after her exile from Bangladesh.
Homecoming
“I feel as though I am returning to my own country. Bengal has never been divided in my heart by a border or a barbed-wire fence. The door to the eastern part of Bengal remains closed to me, so for now, this part of Bengal is my home,” she said.
Ms. Nasrin said she was returning “with joy, but also with pain”, recalling that Kolkata had given her a home, friends, readers and a sense of belonging before she was compelled to leave.
Describing the visit as more than a personal homecoming, she said it symbolised the return of a voice that religious fundamentalists had once sought to silence.
A literary return to Kolkata
The author is set to make her first public appearance in Kolkata at an anti-fundamentalism literary programme at Rabindra Sadan, where she is expected to recite poetry. She also thanked the organisers and the West Bengal government for facilitating her visit and providing security, while maintaining that a writer’s freedom should remain a fundamental right irrespective of the ideology of the government in power.
Though conceived as a literary gathering, the event has inevitably acquired political significance, coming months after the BJP formed the government in West Bengal and amid renewed debate over freedom of expression, secularism and the State’s approach to religious sensitivities.
The BJP government has sought to present her homecoming as a correction of what it describes as the failure of successive Left Front and Trinamool Congress governments to defend free speech in the face of religious pressure.
Exiled from Bangladesh
The Bangladeshi author has lived in exile since the 1990s. She faced protests in Bangladesh and received threats from Islamist groups for her outspoken writings on women’s rights and religious extremism. Her criticism of Islamic fundamentalism has attracted both support and criticism.
Ms. Nasrin, who has spent more than three decades in exile, said she was expelled from her country for arguing that religious scriptures were no longer relevant to contemporary society. She received threats from Islamic fundamentalists for her views on Islam and the Quran.
Banished from Bengal
After fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 following death threats over her novel Lajja, she settled in Kolkata in 2004, embracing the Bengali-speaking city as a cultural refuge in exile.
That association ended abruptly in November 2007 after violent protests erupted over portions of her memoir Dwikhandito, which had been banned by the then Left Front government in 2003 for allegedly hurting the sentiments of sections of the Muslim community.
As the protests intensified and the Army was deployed to restore order in parts of Kolkata, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government asked Ms. Nasrin to leave the city.
She was moved to Jaipur and later to Delhi before eventually relocating abroad. Despite this, she repeatedly expressed a desire to return to Kolkata, even if only to participate in literary events.
‘Lajja’ play row
Ms. Nasrin has said she was forced to leave West Bengal on the grounds that her presence could provoke unrest orchestrated by fundamentalists. She had also accused the previous Trinamool Congress government of “forcefully” removing her play ‘Lajja’ from State theatre festivals.
‘Lajja’ remains one of the author’s most widely read and controversial works and has elicited varied responses across the world.
Although India has periodically renewed her visa, her stay has often been restricted to Delhi, prompting debate over her freedom of movement and broader human rights concerns. Her long-standing wish to return to Kolkata, a city she once considered home, has frequently been raised by civil society groups and rights activists. BJP leaders have also supported her on several occasions, including during the controversy surrounding the play.
Critique of religious fundamentalism
Ms. Nasrin said she has consistently criticised all forms of religious fundamentalism, as well as patriarchal traditions, cultures and customs, while advocating women’s rights.
Reflecting on childhood encounters with religious texts that, she said, led her towards atheism, Ms. Nasrin maintained that science alone could provide a true explanation for observed phenomena in the universe. She argued that the principal conflict was not among religions but between “secularism and fundamentalism, the rational mind and irrationality, innovation and tradition, and between people who value freedom and those who do not”.
According to her, no country has become civilised without critically examining the dogmatic practices associated with religion.
“Without separating State and religion, no State or society has ever become modern. Freedom of speech and expression must include the right to differ, to offend as well as to praise, a truth that many people in many countries neither know nor accept. Without the right to offend, freedom of expression cannot exist. And without freedom of expression, democracy will not work,” she said.
Parallel between India and Bangladesh
Drawing a contrast between the condition of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority and Muslims in India, Ms. Nasrin said Indian Muslims have “equal access to all benefits as a Hindu and can take legal recourse when necessary”.
“The Muslim population in India is not declining, and no one from the community thinks of migrating to a Muslim country for a better life. But can you say the same about Hindus in Bangladesh? Their numbers have declined over the years due to migration and other factors. Very often, they do not approach the courts for fear of persecution when wronged,” she said.
Ms. Nasrin also argued that all religions contained anti-women elements, though fundamentalist interpretations often exacerbated them.
“You have to keep religion separate from government. There is no need to practise seventh-century laws in the 21st century,” she said, adding that the influence of religion on law-making had contributed to the oppression of both Muslim and Hindu women in Bangladesh.
Referring to Iran, Ms. Nasrin said she opposed what she described as the “mullah-cracy” that denied equal rights to women and enforced the hijab. At the same time, she said she did not support military intervention by the United States and Israel, arguing that while it weakened the regime, it had also resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
Published – July 31, 2026 05:21 pm IST
