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1 month ago | 
thequint.com | Manoranjan Byapari |Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
A group of Dalits' struggle to enter a temple has now brought the caste conflict in West Bengal into the spotlight. "Only Muslims and families with the Das surname were prohibited from entering the temple premises.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
devdiscourse.com | Manoranjan Byapari
In West Bengal, two young girls were allegedly sexually assaulted by their neighbours in the past 24 hours, a situation drawing sharp condemnation and calls for action from political leaders. Local authorities confirmed the arrest of those accused in the separate incidents in Hooghly and North 24 Parganas districts.
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Oct 19, 2024 | 
purplepencilproject.com | Manoranjan Byapari |Arunava Sinha
Indian literature, while vast, often remains limited in the mainstream. Outside the handful of classics and Booker-winning titles, the vast reservoir of stories and voices frequently are deprived of the spotlight. Here’s an attempt at change. Our list of books from the literature of India travels across languages, periods, voices and styles to bring a diverse set of books to read and use as a tipping point to go into several rabbit holes.
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Oct 18, 2024 | 
shethepeople.tv | Manoranjan Byapari
After escaping a deadly bomb blast in the city’s red-light area, Jibon returns to the Jadavpur railway station having lost his memory. He is instantly recognised by those who live in and around the station—squatters, rickshaw-drivers, beggars. liquor vendors, ragpickers. pickpockets—as the daring young man who rescued them many a time. However, Jibon has become a stranger to himself. Like a wheel, he is simply caught up in a cycle of relentless destitution, oppression and hatred.
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Oct 4, 2024 | 
purplepencilproject.com | Manoranjan Byapari
History is complex. Quite complex. And yet, all too often, our perception of our past is shaped more by the contemporary fashions of the day instead of some “objective truth.” Moreover, the world, for better or for worse, exists beyond the silos created by the internet and social media.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Manoranjan Byapari |V. Ramaswamy |R.K. Radhakrishnan |Vivek Katju
The InterloperManoranjan Byapari, translated by V. RamaswamyEkaRs.599In mid-1970s’ Calcutta, as the Naxalite movement wanes, Jibon feels like stranger in a city now dominated by the nouveau riche, for whom the poor do not exist. ___Border CrossersBhaskar RoyHachette IndiaRs.599Desperate for survival in the city, Rita is hired as a household help by a retired diplomat, Arijit Basu. However, Rita is an undocumented migrant and soon the past catches up with her, to turn both into a wreck.
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Oct 1, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Manoranjan Byapari |V Ramaswamy
Perhaps the news spread through the railway station and its vicinity, in the neighbourhood and the railside squatter settlement more speedily than a flame in a forest turns into raging forest fire. Jibon is back! Our Jibon-da has returned! Pa-khara Kedar, or Lame Kedar, who ran the small tea shop at the western end of Platform No. 2 of the railway station, was the first to spot Jibon, and he passed on the news to everyone. “When I first saw him, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was I seeing right?
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Aug 31, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Manoranjan Byapari |V Ramaswamy |Sayari Debnath
A youth walks into the Jadavpur railway station. Very soon, the denizens there – liquor vendors, rickshaw drivers, squatters, beggars, ragpickers, pickpockets – recognise him as Jibon, the daring young man who had done them many a good turn. And those who were certain he had perished in a deadly bomb blast in the city’s red-light area are astounded. His memory lost, this Jibon finds himself a stranger to his own self.
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Apr 30, 2024 | 
thehindu.com | Manoranjan Byapari |Shashi Tharoor |Soma Basu
Celebrated as the Dalit History Month, April is the time to reflect upon Dalit literature. There are many books in multiple Indian languages that raise issues related to caste and casteist patriarchy, oppression of the marginalised communities and their quest for equality. The Dalit history month was started in India in 2015 by a group of young women activists who came together to assert their rights and resistance to the existing class conscious system.
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Feb 19, 2024 | 
fivebooks.com | Manoranjan Byapari |Arunava Sinha
As the world's biggest democracy, India could be an inspiring example of how a multiethnic, multilingual country with many different religions can come together to form a vibrant state with equality enshrined in its constitution. But all that is in danger of going down the drain, as the country transforms into a brutally exclusionary Hindu-supremacist state under the leadership of Narendra Modi, says Kapil Komireddi, essayist and author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India.
