Selected Writings of Shyamali Haldar Naskar: Dalit Literature from Bangla

Shyamali Haldar Naskar, a Dalit author renowned for portraying marginalized Sundarbans women, vividly captures the struggles, survival strategies, and harsh realities of life in the Sundarbans. Through her poignant narrative, this book brings to light the agonies and humiliations endured by the oppressed communities of this riverine delta. Through her novella, short stories, and poems, she sheds light on the miseries and denial of basic human rights endured by Dalit communities in the Sundarbans. Naskar’s anthology provides a unique perspective as a Dalit woman writer, offering a subaltern reading of marginalized groups, including women subjected to patriarchal oppression. She captures the lives of fishermen, honey collectors, shrimp catchers, crab hunters, and woodcutters, portraying their struggles against nature’s fury and forced migration for survival. This pioneering work highlights gender-based oppression and the tragic realities of coastal communities in the Sundarbans. Part of the Voices from the Margins series, this critical edition will be an important resource book for students of literature, comparative literature, modern Indian literature, minority studies, Dalit studies and gender studies. It will also be of interest to those engaged with contemporary Indian/South Asian literary cultures, social sciences, history and sociology.