Kunal Basu is an Indian author of English fiction who has written five novels - The Opium Clerk (2001), The Miniaturist (2003), Racists (2006), The Yellow Emperor's Cure (2011) and Kalkatta (2015). He has also written a collection of short stories, The Japanese Wife (2008), the title story of which has been made into a film by the Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen.
He is one of the few Indian practitioners of historical fiction, and has recently published his latest novel, Kalkatta, and is set to participate in two sessions at the Dhaka Literary Festival 2015.
What role does history play in your latest novel, Kalkatta?
While my previous historical novels were set in distant times, Kalkatta takes off from the Partition. It harks back to the painful history of displacement, the cruelty of rejection that several thousands were forced to undergo through no fault of their own. While this novel is set in the present, it bears the scars of 1947 in the psyche of the key players.
Tell us about your latest novel. What motivated you to make the lead character a refugee from Bangladesh?
The riots in the subcontinent during Partition left Bihari Muslims homeless. They left for what became East Pakistan. Sadly, there was no "home" to be found there, rendering them refugees for generations. My lead character Jamshed Alam, Jami, was born in Geneva camp in Bangladesh, as a third-generation refugee and arrived in Kolkata as a young boy with his family. For the likes of him, the dream is to belong, to become a permanent part of society which will accept them as one of their own. For his mother Ruksana, there is no greater dream than for her children to become true Kalkatta-wallahs and Kalkatta-walis, to forget the horror of camps. This dream powers Jami's life, as it propels the story of this book. Will Jami succeed in breaking the curse of history, or will life defeat him yet again?
Tell us about your session at the Dhaka Literary Festival.
As I understand, my session will be one of introducing Kalkatta to the audience - the crux of the novel, the settings and characters, as well as my journey as a writer as I navigated this story.
Have you ever travelled to Bangladesh before?
I had visited Bangladesh - rather, the border areas - during the liberation war in 1971, carrying in supplies for the Muktibahini. I was very, very young then, and the trip was tinged with a great deal of romanticism, as you can imagine. This will be my first proper visit. Which Bengali isn't enthralled with Bangladesh? This is my country, notwithstanding the sins of Partition. Three quarters of my ancestry is from here. But as a post-Partition person, I am not teary-eyed nostalgic about Bangladesh. I plan to cross immigration as a legitimate son of this soil.
Bangladeshi writers have recently been attacked by fundamentalists, and Indian writers are also protesting against right-wing Hindu nationalism. What is it like to be a writer in these times?
I have just recently returned to Oxford from Paris, where I was witness to the 13th November carnage. In French, the word "livre" for book and "libre" for liberty are similar sounding and almost synonymous. Books and writers stand for freedom. Writing back is the best offensive against the deranged lot of fundamentalists wherever they might be.
Find Kunal Basu at:
Thursday, November 19
2:15PM – 3:15PM
DISPLACEMENTS| KK Tea Stage
Featuring Benyamin, Kunal Basu and Meike Ziervogal with Antara Ganguli.
Saturday, November 21
10:30AM – 11:30AM
KALKATTA | Bhasha Stage
Novelist and short story writer Kunal Basu in conversation with writers Wasi Ahmed and Tilottoma Majumdar. Moderated by Poulomi Sengupta. Marking the Bangladesh launch of Basu's new novel Kalkatta.
