A VOICE OF AND FROM THE MARGINS

Manoranjan Byapari, the celebrated Dalit Bengali writer, has taken on many odd jobs in life—as a rickshaw-puller, a sweeper, watchman, cook or whatever else came his way.

- Romita Datta

Through all this, though, he stuck unwaveringly to his one and only passion—writing. His pen, soaked in the sweat, blood and angst of the people who exist on the margins of society, has won him literary accolades over the years, most recently the Hindu Literary Award (non-fiction category) in 2018.

Byapari is one of those writers who write about the struggle they have lived. In the 1970s, following a scuffle with the police who had picked him up for being a ‘rowdy Naxal’ for beating up a so-called