Anya bhubon (Bengali)

FROMTHE WINNER OF THE HINDU PRIZE 2018THE SHAKTI BHATT PRIZE 2022THE GATEWAY LITERATURE PRIZE 2020THE KALINGA LITERATURE FESTIVAL AWARD 2020About the BookThere is a country within this country of ours, where no one takes refuge in falsehood, where there are no thieves, no beggars, no poverty. No one can imagine disrespecting women there. There is no such thing as an illicit transaction. This society is matriarchal. This community is home to a tribal group that has followed this practice since ancient times. We label them as savage. But Rajinder, the hero of our novel, on reaching the world of the so-called savage people, discovers a society where love, sex and individual freedom are unconditional.This novel provides glimpses into the lives of Adivasis in the jungles of Chhattisgarh. It is an attempt to highlight the life principles of a people whose land and forest rights have been repeatedly taken away, who are seen as primitive, and are despised and neglected by modern society.About the AuthorManoranjan Byapari was born in the mid-1950s in Barishal, former East Pakistan. His family migrated to West Bengal in India when he was three. They were resettled in Bankura at the Shiromanipur Refugee Camp. Later, they were forced to shift to the Gholadoltala Refugee Camp, 24-Parganas, and lived there till 1969. However, Byapari had to leave home at the age of fourteen to do odd jobs. In his early twenties, he came into contact with the Naxals and with the famous labour activist Shankar Guha Niyogi. Byapari was sent to jail during this time, where he taught himself to read and write.Later, while working as a rickshaw-puller in Kolkata, Byapari had a chance meeting with the renowned Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi, who urged him to write for her journal Bartika. He has written twenty-six books since. Some of his important works include Chhera Chhera Jibon, Ittibrite Chandal Jibon (memoir), the Chandal Jibon trilogy (novels) and Motua Ek Mukti Senar Naam. Until 2018, he was working as a cook at the Hellen Keller Institute for the Deaf and Blind in West Bengal. In 2018, the English translation of Byaparis memoir, Ittibrite Chandal Jibon (Interrogating My Chandal Life), received the Hindu Prize for non-fiction. In 2019, he was awarded the Gateway Lit Fest Writer of the Year Prize. Also, the English translation of his novel Batashe Baruder Gandha (Theres Gunpowder in the Air) was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2019, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019, the Crossword Book Award for Best Translation 2019 and the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Prize 2020. He was appointed chairman of the newly instituted Dalit Sahitya Akademi in Bengal in 2020. In 2022, Byapari was elected a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly.