India is my home, says Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen

I feel I have nowhere to go or country to return to, the writer said at India Ideas Conclave 2016

Canacona (Goa), Nov 5: Noted Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on Saturday said India is her home and she has no alternative but to live in exile for rest of her life.

"I have been living in exile since 1994. I know I have no other alternative but to live in exile for rest of my life. I feel I have nowhere to go or country to return to. I say now India is my country, India is my home," the 54-year-old writer told the gathering at the "India Ideas Conclave 2016", currently underway in Goa.

The Conclave is organised by India Foundation. "How much more we have to suffer at the hands of fundamentalists and their political allies for daring to articulate the truth. Even after all that has happened, I still believe, that sincere honest truly secular part of the continent, India is the safe refuge, only refuge," said the writer.

"They must understand that Islam must go through enlightenment process similar to that other religion that has gone through by questioning the inhuman, unequal, unscientific and irrational aspects of the religion," she said referring to the fundamentalists.

"The narrow minded and the political (people) will forever throw society into the darkness, quiet a handful others will always strive for betterment of society and good sense prevail. "It is only few special people who seek to dream about change, that is how it has always been," Nasreen, the writer of much acclaimed book "Lajja" said.

Talking about Bangladesh, she said, "I truly hope that the secular movement in my country will begin and turn into positive political movement for true democracy and secular state. The state which will govern on equality and educational system that is secular, scientific."

"People must know that Islam must not be exempted from the critical scrutiny that applies all other religions as well," said the writer.

PTI