Back to the debate on freedom of speech

Vandana Shukla

Tribune News Service

Jaipur, January 25

On the concluding day of Jaipur Literature Festival today, authors of books on wars and dictatorial regimes tried to make sense of unimaginable violence and atrocities unleashed during wars in a civilised world.

There may be no apparent relationship between war and literature. While wars disturb the psyche of a nation, literature examines the strains that societies are fraught with that culminate into a war.

Books written on wars also offer a sense of closure to the victims. In doing so, perhaps they also offer lessons to societies to not repeat the mistakes.

Salil Tripathi and Sadaf Saaz offered insights into the bloodbath during the Bangladesh war of 1971, which lasted for just 19 days, but left behind 2,00,000 women being raped, mutilated and killed by the nine- month-long oppression unleashed by the West Pakistani army.

These women could not find justice; 25,000 children were born out of these rapes and the women couldn’t get rehabilitated. Even after decades, a hint of their past stigma would lead to their family lives being ruined.

“Sari Reams” by Sadaf Saaz and “The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: Bangladesh War and its Unquiet Legacy” by Salil Mishra examined the lives of the survivors of the war.