Salt, sweat & sacrifices

Set in Gujarat's Rann of Kutch, Arunava Sinha's A Touch of Salt is a blend of history, politics, and social struggles; it explores the legacy of the Dandi March, salt-making Agarias, and their post-Independence marginalisation, woven together by intersecting themes of caste, gender, and displacement

- SANJEEV CHOPRA

Arunava Sinha's English translation of the Bangla 'Lobonakto' by Anita Agnihotri—A Touch of Salt' (ATS)—is set in the Rann of Kutch and those villages and towns of Gujarat where the Mahatma (referred to as Gandhi Baba) undertook the Dandi March in 1930, a turning point in the history of our freedom movement. Geology, geography, morphology, mythology, history, hagiography, political economy, social history as well as the intersection of gender and caste come together in this intergenerational story, in which all characters, except historical ones—Gandhi, Kasturba, Patel, Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Miraben and Lord Irwin—are fictional.