In his latest work, Aatish Taseer revisits the political and personal upheaval that led to his ‘exile’ from India, the country he called home for almost three decades. The book opens with the 2019 revocation of his Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status by the Narendra Modi government, an act that allegedly followed his critical Time magazine cover story labelling the prime minister ‘India’s Divider in Chief’. What begins as a personal account of dislocation becomes a wider examination of the fault lines shaping India today, viz. religion, identity, and the erosion of secularism.
Drawing from a rich and complicated family history, an Indian mother and a Pakistani father who was assassinated for defending a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, the author reflects on how lineage, faith, and nationhood collide in modern India. Though estranged from his father for most of his life, Taseer had never hidden his background, even publishing a book about it. But it was only after he criticised Modi that this lineage was suddenly deemed politically suspect.
Taseer delves into how the very name ‘India’ stands in contrast with ‘Bharat’. He also turns a critical eye on India’s English-speaking elite, a class he once belonged to, who insulated themselves from the “heart of the nation”. This separation, he argues, created a vacuum that has been filled by a new nationalism, one that sees this elite, and minorities, as cultural interlopers. The book unpacks how Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology, has become a dominant force by linking modern grievances to ancient mythologies.
At its core, the book is a lament, not just for the personal loss of home, but for the fading ideal of a secular India. Through his displacement, Taseer explores the deeper spiritual and political question of belonging.
Aatish Taseer is the author of Stranger to History: A Son’s Journey Through Islamic Lands and several acclaimed novels, including The Way Things Were (a finalist for the 2016 Jan Michalski Prize), The Temple-Goers (shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award), and Noon. He also wrote the memoir and travelogue The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges, and translated Manto: Selected Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto from Urdu. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Taseer is a writer at large for T: The New York Times Style Magazine. He was born in England, grew up in New Delhi, studied in the US, and now lives in New York.
Also Read: New book unravels individual and social subtleties of living in a digital age