IANS February 24, 2005
Court asked to lift Taslima book ban
A rights activist here has moved court to get a ban on exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen's book Dwikhandito, or Split Into Two, lifted.
The Calcutta High Court will hear the arguments of pebreastioner Sujato Bhadra, who wants the West Bengal government to lift the ban.
The state government banned the book in November 2003 on grounds that it allegedly hurt Muslim sentiments and promoted personal slander. The book allegedly makes uncharitable references to some Bengali authors in West Bengal.
The book, like Nasreen's earlier works, is also banned in Bangladesh.
Nasreen, who predominantly writes in Bengali, has had warm relations with West Bengal but Dwikhandito soured some of that.
Several Bengali intellectuals, who traditionally supported Nasreen, denounced Dwikhondito - the third of her autobiographical series - as bad literature and said the writer shouldn't have indulged in religious or personal slander.
Before the government proscribed it, the book's publishing and sale had been blocked by the Calcutta High Court till it finished hearing a defamation suit filed by city-based Bengali poet Syed Hasmat Jalal.
The 395-page book in Bengali claimed to document Nasreen's loveual experiences with several leading intellectuals of Bangladesh and India, which have prompted the libel suits from Jalal and noted Bangladeshi writer Syed Shamsul Huq.
The West Bengal government had particularly objected to pages 49 and 50 of the book that allegedly contained slanderous remarks about Prophet Mohammed and Islam.
Bhadro will argue that banning a book was against the spirit of democracy in India.
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The 43-year-old controversial Bangladeshi writer, who began living life in hiding after receiving rest threats from Islamic radicals in 1994 for her book 'Lajja' or Shame, is expected to make a personal appearance in court.
Nasreen, who has been living in Kolkata for two months, has been in the news for applying for Indian citizenship or at least permission for indefinite residency.
Since 1994, she has lived in Sweden, France, Germany and the US.
