Brueck's approach goes beyond recognizing and celebrating the subaltern speaking, emphasizing the sociopolitical perspectives and literary strategies of a range of contemporary Dalit writers working in Hindi. The Dalit literary movement has had an immense sociopolitical and literary impact on various Indian linguistic regions, yet few scholars have attempted to situate the form within contemporary critical frameworks. Above all, this volume is definitely going to succeed in making the English fiction-reading junta come face to face with an issue that has largely been absent from ‘their’ literary world.Writing Resistance is the first close study of the growing body of contemporary Hindi-language Dalit (low caste) literature in India. She deftly retains the directness and ‘rawness’ typical of Hindi writing. What really saves Navaria’s collection from becoming another run-of-the-mill book about casteism is Brueck’s translation. In ‘Scream’, the unnamed lead character, like millions of lower caste youngsters, migrate to Mumbai from Dantewada for studies (and move away from prejudices and a horrid childhood incident) but ends up becoming a gigolo, discovering that “labor had many meanings in the city.” The realisation of such incidents occurr on a daily basis is what makes you realise the gravity of the problem. His biggest concern is to keep his old and tattered shoes and a tattoo of ‘Namo Budhhaya, Jai Bhim’ hidden from others so that no one questions his social and economic standing or link the two. In the first, a bureaucrat in his 40s joins a gym in a posh Delhi locality. The two stories that hit the nail on the head are ‘Tattoo’ and ‘Scream’. Here, caste becomes a baggage for everyone, with some trying to get rid of it while others hold on to it to cover up their tragic past. While Avinash and his father differ on the relevance of caste in the present time, the best butcher in the village Kalu is struggling to come to terms with the slaughtering of his beloved lamb in front of his eyes years ago. There is Avinash, the narrator of his first story ‘Sacrifice’, that raises the question of victimhood on several levels. As in real life, most of his characters in the seven stories are seen trying to break the shackles of caste in the hope of leading better lives. Navaria does not just highlight a social evil but through his seven stories, presents an honest account of how the slowly changing situation. It is, in fact, a bitter pill they are made to swallow on a daily basis.

Unclaimed Terrain by Hindi author Ajay Navaria (and translated by Laura Brueck) takes us deep into an India where caste does not get brushed under the carpet by its self-styled modern, progressive and suave people.

Unclaimed Terrain by Ajay Navaria