The second novel of the Chandal Jibon trilogy, the book gives glimpses of the lives of destitute populace in Calcutta in the 1960s and 1970s.

Going by the accounts on the Intenet, the book is the author’s loosely-knit autobiography. The first book in the trilogy, The Runaway Boy, won the Kalinga Literature award. Most critics have raved about the first book, which I have not read. Therefore, Jibon, the protagonist, is a new character for me.

Manoranjan Byapari is an award-winning author who writes in Bengali. This book has been translated by V. Ramaswamy, who is a literary translator of voices from the margins.  He was awarded the inaugural Literature Across Frontiers-Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship at Aberystwyth University to translate the Chandal Jibon novels.

Byapari is a prominent voice in Dalit writing from the Namasudra (erstwhile Chandal) community. Now a Trinamool Congress MLA, Manoranjan Byapari was once an odd-job man, a rickshaw-puller, a cook, and an ex-convict. It was in jail that he learned how to read and write. A chance encounter with celebrated writer Mahasweta Devi turned him into a writer. He has written almost 30 books and is the chairperson of West Bengal Dalit Sahitya Academy. The English translation of his memoir, Interrogating My Chandal Life, won The Hindu prize for non-fiction in 2018. The English translations of two of his novels, There’s Gunpowder in the Air (2018) and Imaan (2022), were nominated for literary awards. In 2022, he received the Shakti Bhatt Book Prize.

The Nemesis has a rich narrative and rattles the head and the heart. Though the book is based on events that took place in the latter half of the 20^th century, the narration reminds us that all those things haven’t changed even now. Racism, polarisation, and suppression are prevalent even today.

The late 1960s and 1970s were plagued by many political changes. There was the Naxalite movement, the flooding of refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the break-up of the Communist Party into CPI (M) and CPI(L) and the rise of the Congress. And all of this is a part of Jibon’s life. Along with him, we explore the city of Calcutta and the central region of India.

Jibon only wants to live a normal life, learn a skill that pays him well. He has been taught that God lives in the soul, which lives in the body and a healthy body means a healthy soul. But at every step he is broken, unable to look after his soul, his health. He is broken sometimes by caste, sometimes by circumstances, sometimes by his brethren, sometimes by his spirt and all this because of poverty and being born in the chandal community. The lack of money becomes the root cause of his vagabond life, where he tries to find an anchor and favours but life always snatches it all back.

Jibon’s youth is about deprivation in all ways–sickness, hopelessness and poverty–yet he tenaciously holds on to life. He loses fear of death, throws country-made bombs, is illiterate and has not experienced love or any other carnal pleasure. Strangely, despite the odds, Jibon is not vile, just someone trying to bring order in his chaotic life.

The book is divided into three parts. It opens with Jibon looking for work and becoming a daily wager. He is offered work with Mahadev Caterers and eventually becomes a good cook. We see him dreaming of cooking biryanis and more delicacies, but all that dies in a jiffy whereon he is trampled upon for being a chandal or belonging to the lowest strata of society. This brings a change in his behaviour. His youngest brother is lynched for allegedly stealing and killing a duck, which is eventually found alive. This is a milestone for Jibon and from thereon, his violence erupts.

The book is a series of incidents and Byapari paints a very vivid picture of the world that Jibon lives in. At every step, Jibon and his family sink deeper into poverty, sometimes going without food and water for days. They live in pitiable conditions in a shanty close to the railway lines. His brothers, too, face discrimination. They have no money to avail good medical aid. The father is an old man, unable to do much physical labour, the mother Bimla is a soft one but helpless in the harsh face of life.

Byapari expresses disdain at the way the government treats the refugees and the powerless. He shows us the evil head of power, the corruption and the inhumane behaviour. He gives us insights into the world of crimes such as rapes, theft, pickpockets and the arrogance that comes with the uniform that government officials wear.

Jibon does find a lady love, his childhood friend, Kusum, but even that does not lead to a happy end. Jibon finds help most of the times but he is always on the run, sometimes due to his escapades with the Naxalites, sometimes due to the police and sometimes due to rivalries between parties. It is not a pleasant life. Despite the fact that he finds nothing worthwhile in Calcutta, he does go on living there, with no residence, no work, just hopping from street to street, locality to locality, spending days evading the police and nights in unhealthy places, hidden from the law.

It is a sad story with a tragic end. Jibon’s life can be the life of all those who live in the streets of India, all those who are born amid broken dreams and then die with their broken dreams.

Regional literature is rich in truisms and the realities of life. It sticks to well-ascertained facts. It is worth reading as the boy you see on the road could be the Jibon you are reading about. And maybe, this book will make you more humane, make you think about being grounded and setting the wheel of equality and sanity in motion in your daily life.

Book Details
Publisher: Eka (Westland Books)
Pages: 413
Price: Rs.399 (Kindle edition available)

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