"I am not anyone's servant. I am my own master": In conversation with Manoranjan Byapari

Manoranjan Byapari is a notable writer within the Bengali Dalit literary canon. The central topic of Byapari's writing has long been the subjugation of Dalits in India based on factors of both caste and class, and this has also informed his activism and political career as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. His autobiography, Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit, is a profoundly moving book dealing with the Dalit experiences of the Partition of India in 1947. This perspective contradicts the elite Bengali bhadralok's (upper-caste Hindus) experiences during Partition. In this interview, Byapari discusses his perspective on caste and class; his experiences of refugeehood when he and his family left their motherland, East Pakistan; his emergence as a writer; his understanding of the idea of "Dalit" in India; and how he uses his writings as a tool of resistance to fight against casteist and classist subjugation.