Anil Gharai was born on November 1, 1957 at Rukminipur in the district of undivided Midnapore. Kak and Noonbari are his first published collection of short stories and novel, respectively. His works deal with the harsh realities of the downtrodden people. He is not merely an author who depicts the beauty and vivacity of nature in his fictional texts; he is also an interpreter of Dalit life with a conscious urge to develop a new aesthetic of Dalit literature. For his outstanding contribution to literature, he has received many awards: Sanskriti Puraskar, Bharat Excellency Award and Gold Medal, Somen Chanda Memorial Award, Tarasankar Puraskar, Michael Madhusudan Award, Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Sahitya Puraskar and Bankim Puraskar. Anil Gharai passed away in 2014. Indranil Acharya is Professor and Head of the Department of English, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal. Some of his major publications are Beyond the Sense of Belonging: Race, Class and Gender in the Poetry of Yeats and Eliot (2011), Survival and Other Stories: Anthology of Bangla Dalit Stories (2012), Many Coloured Glass (2013), Towards Social Change: Essays on Dalit Literature (2014), Listen to the Flames: Texts and Readings from the Margins (2016), Paschimbanger Bhasha (2017), Smritibiloper Pore (2017), The Languages of West Bengal (2019), Mahatma Gandhi in Bangla (2022), Geographical Imaginations: Literature and the Spatial Turn (2022), The Almond Flowers and Other Stories (2022) and Writings from the Sundarbans (2023). Dr Acharya is also the Editor of Janajati Darpan, the only international multilingual publication series from Bengal on Indigenous Studies.

• List of Contributors. Series Editor’s preface. Introduction. Acknowledgements. Introduction I Novella 1. Noonbari II Stories 2. The Old Man and His Vote (Vote Buro) 3. Kalketu 4. Gung Tor 5. Kak – Janmo 6. Khadya Khadak Kanya 7. Bhumi III Poems 8 Hope 9 Life 10 Compliance 11 Hunger and Melody IV Critical Essays on Anil Gharai 12 Dalit Literature 13 Women, Oppression and Emancipation: A Study of Anil Gharai’s Select Short Stories V Interview 14 Interview

Anil Gharai was born on November 1, 1957 at Rukminipur in the district of undivided Midnapore. Kak and Noonbari are his first published collection of short stories and novel, respectively. His works deal with the harsh realities of the downtrodden people. He is not merely an author who depicts the beauty and vivacity of nature in his fictional texts; he is also an interpreter of Dalit life with a conscious urge to develop a new aesthetic of Dalit literature. For his outstanding contribution to literature, he has received many awards: Sanskriti Puraskar, Bharat Excellency Award and Gold Medal, Somen Chanda Memorial Award, Tarasankar Puraskar, Michael Madhusudan Award, Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Sahitya Puraskar and Bankim Puraskar. Anil Gharai passed away in 2014. Indranil Acharya is Professor and Head of the Department of English, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal. Some of his major publications are Beyond the Sense of Belonging: Race, Class and Gender in the Poetry of Yeats and Eliot (2011), Survival and Other Stories: Anthology of Bangla Dalit Stories (2012), Many Coloured Glass (2013), Towards Social Change: Essays on Dalit Literature (2014), Listen to the Flames: Texts and Readings from the Margins (2016), Paschimbanger Bhasha (2017), Smritibiloper Pore (2017), The Languages of West Bengal (2019), Mahatma Gandhi in Bangla (2022), Geographical Imaginations: Literature and the Spatial Turn (2022), The Almond Flowers and Other Stories (2022) and Writings from the Sundarbans (2023). Dr Acharya is also the Editor of Janajati Darpan, the only international multilingual publication series from Bengal on Indigenous Studies.

• List of Contributors. Series Editor’s preface. Introduction. Acknowledgements. Introduction I Novella 1. Noonbari II Stories 2. The Old Man and His Vote (Vote Buro) 3. Kalketu 4. Gung Tor 5. Kak – Janmo 6. Khadya Khadak Kanya 7. Bhumi III Poems 8 Hope 9 Life 10 Compliance 11 Hunger and Melody IV Critical Essays on Anil Gharai 12 Dalit Literature 13 Women, Oppression and Emancipation: A Study of Anil Gharai’s Select Short Stories V Interview 14 Interview

Anil Gharai was born on November 1, 1957 at Rukminipur in the district of undivided Midnapore. Kak and Noonbari are his first published collection of short stories and novel, respectively. His works deal with the harsh realities of the downtrodden people. He is not merely an author who depicts the beauty and vivacity of nature in his fictional texts; he is also an interpreter of Dalit life with a conscious urge to develop a new aesthetic of Dalit literature. For his outstanding contribution to literature, he has received many awards: Sanskriti Puraskar, Bharat Excellency Award and Gold Medal, Somen Chanda Memorial Award, Tarasankar Puraskar, Michael Madhusudan Award, Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Sahitya Puraskar and Bankim Puraskar. Anil Gharai passed away in 2014. Indranil Acharya is Professor and Head of the Department of English, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal. Some of his major publications are Beyond the Sense of Belonging: Race, Class and Gender in the Poetry of Yeats and Eliot (2011), Survival and Other Stories: Anthology of Bangla Dalit Stories (2012), Many Coloured Glass (2013), Towards Social Change: Essays on Dalit Literature (2014), Listen to the Flames: Texts and Readings from the Margins (2016), Paschimbanger Bhasha (2017), Smritibiloper Pore (2017), The Languages of West Bengal (2019), Mahatma Gandhi in Bangla (2022), Geographical Imaginations: Literature and the Spatial Turn (2022), The Almond Flowers and Other Stories (2022) and Writings from the Sundarbans (2023). Dr Acharya is also the Editor of Janajati Darpan, the only international multilingual publication series from Bengal on Indigenous Studies.

• List of Contributors. Series Editor’s preface. Introduction. Acknowledgements. Introduction I Novella 1. Noonbari II Stories 2. The Old Man and His Vote (Vote Buro) 3. Kalketu 4. Gung Tor 5. Kak – Janmo 6. Khadya Khadak Kanya 7. Bhumi III Poems 8 Hope 9 Life 10 Compliance 11 Hunger and Melody IV Critical Essays on Anil Gharai 12 Dalit Literature 13 Women, Oppression and Emancipation: A Study of Anil Gharai’s Select Short Stories V Interview 14 Interview