As a backlash of the demolition of Babri Masjid in India, there was senseless violence aimed at the minority Hindus in Bangladesh. In her famous novel LAJJA, eminent author and humanist Ms. Taslima Nasrin focusses on the impact of religious fundamentalism on humanity. LAJJA means `Shame' in English. The brutal attack by Muslim fundamentalists on the Hindus in Bangladesh, who constitute a religious minority in the country, and the firm determination of the victims to stick to their motherland, is the subject matter of the book.It is a crude irony of fate that the people, who belonged to the same religion and culture once upon a time could be miserably divided on the lines of religion which had been thrust upon them with the passage of time.
The novel revolves around Sudhamoy, his wife Kiranmoyee and their two children who lived in Bangladesh. After the demolition babri Masjid in India, the fanatics in Bangladesh inflicted inhuman tortures on the Hindu minorities forcing them either to embrace Islam or to leave Bangladesh. While a lot of friends and relations of Sudhamoy decided to leave Bangladesh, Sudhamoy and his family decided to cling to their soil. The Hindu girl who was sadistically molested by the fundamentalists was at last found as a bundle of flesh. What Nasrin wanted to point out in her Novel that it is always the women who are at the receiving end, whether it is war or religious fundamentalism. Whether it is Trozan war or Second World war, it is the women who always ended up as destitutes.
Lajja is a classical exposition of the poisonous effects of Religious Fundamentalism on humanity .