"Nasreen: Sensibility And Sensitivity"

By I. K. Shukla       
                               
                   
                                                                            
A book becoming a sensation, for any number of reasons, is no more rare. 
That a book is selling well (not always necessarily as "hot cake") is always welcome                                                                    
news both to the publisher and the writer, and of course, the readers.   
 
Whether its contents are "hot" or perceived as "hot", cold , or just cool, and     
mostly for and by whom, will always be debatable. It may not always have much to  
do with either the style or the substance of the writing. It can be deemed   
"hot" for wrong reasons or different reasons. The label does not add to or detract                                                                    
from its value. Nor, for being "hot", it can be banished from literature. The                                                                        
writer cannot be prescribed what to write about (theme) or how to write (mode/form) .                                                              
                                                                            
Why this brouhaha over Taslima Nasreen's new book and massive unease over  
disclosures which, it is implied, should have been kept under the wraps?   
                                                                            
For whose benefit, remains unstated. But ostensibly, for the sake of certain                                                                    
(male) reputations.                                                        
                                                                           
There is the terror or titillation that politicians, artists, writers have been strip-mined.
They should not have been exposed so? They were "used" as promo devices
toward her career, that is why?                              
                                                                            
So, they were not using the author? They were either innocent simpletons, or                                                                         
altruistic, or both? Not having fun stealthily available? Not exploiting their station
in life for "helping" some green horn come up? Why would they (powerful)
do something for nothing?                                       
                                                                           
Why do we relish reading the torrid affairs of foreign writers, but squirm to know
something steamy about our own?                                    
                                                                            
Is this a prerogative of the sub continental male, predatory and privileged,
to be a profligate and yet masquerade as a saint? Can the tables be not turned
once in a long while both for the sake of expose and confessional,
and for setting the record straight?                                       
                                                                            
Or, it can be allowed, this permissive and exploitative one-way street,
even its "literary" exposure, in the case of men but is verboten for women?     
                                                                            
Is misogyny fine, and patriarchal profanity eternally acceptable,
because "boys will be boys" in perpetuity?                                          
                                                                            
Is not jealousy (inflected by inferiority complex) the poisonous prod of this "holy horror"?
Or, is it the "shock of recognition" that many in the fields of art and literature are alarmed at?
The mirror is too big, too bold?                                                             
                                                                            
Why should not there be some sympathy or admiration (depending on your viewpoint)
for the author, the woman, who too is thus exposed? Whether daring, foolhardiness, indiscretion,
or getting even prompted the writer and suffused her literary product, can be endlessly speculated.                
                                                                            
But that would not detract a bit from her pains or her long suppressed anguish nor from the reprise
of that pain as she put them in black and white. Maybe she is only one of numerous sufferers,
and other victims find their fleeting sanctuary or vicarious salve in the book. Maybe,
after reading the book, they get similarly reactive and bold.                    
                                                                            
Sexual terrorism is the vogue now. A groper as governor, a molester as supreme court judge,
acid throwing on the female rejectionist, killing a woman for refusing to marry a cleric,
raping hundreds of women in Gujarat   -  are these just aberrations?
Why do Modi and his ilk deny there was savage outrage perpetrated on Muslim women?
Because they are sure they can get away with it.                                                                   
                                                                            
If nothing else, Ka may embolden women to scream and fight and retaliate,
and not take the hurt and humiliation of a lifelong trauma lying down.