ABSTRACT
The interview and critical piece on the Bengali Dalit writer Manoranjan Byapari together explore the social and political situation of Bengal in order to situate Bangla Dalit literature in its context. The two common assumptions regarding Dalit lives in Bengal are that there is an absence of caste oppression and that the identity of class dominates that of caste. Both of these have been explored through the writer’s personal experiences as well as his authored literature. Issues and themes distinctive to Dalit literature from Bengal, such as the late beginnings of Dalit literature, the question of communal/religious identity and the experience of Partition, have also been addressed.
