Matua Ek Mukti Senar Naam (Bengali)

About the BookBASED ON TRUE EVENTSMore than two hundred years ago, in a neglected, remote, water-logged part of East Bengal, in the village of Orakandi in Faridpur district, lived the poor, low-caste Namashudra community. This community was deprived of modern education, deprived of everything that characterizes the life of the civilized. Among such people was born an enlightened thinker: Guru Chand Thakur, son of Harichand Thakur.Following in the footsteps of his father, he tried to mobilize, awaken and uplift the Namashudra people, who the Hindus did not consider good enough to worship their gods. Matua Ek Mukti Senar Naam is their story. It is the story of a movement, a new faith called Matua, which gave the Namashudras an ideology, a faith to anchor their lives in.This novel is the result of Guruchand and Harichand Thakurs leadership that a vast working population of our societywho were called Chandal Achhut, untouchables, who were forever humiliated and considered sub-humanhas been able to create its own unique identity in social, political, economic and literary fields. This novel tells the story of all of them.About the AuthorManoranjan Byapari writes in Bengali. Some of his important works include Chhera Chhera Jibon, Ittibrite Chandal Jibon and the Chandal Jibon trilogy of novels. He taught himself to read and write at the age of twenty-four when he was in prison. He has worked as a rickshaw-puller, a sweeper and a porter. 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 his 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 2019, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019, the Crossword Prize 2019 and the Mathrubhumi Book of the Year Prize 2020. The English translation of his novel Chhera Chhera Jibon (Imaan) was shortlisted for the JCB Prize 2022. He also received the Shakti Bhatt Prize this year for his body of work. In 2021, Byapari became a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly.