Abstract:
Born into a fishing family, Harishankar Jaladas is the only voice from the Dalit
community in post-independence Bangladesh. A Dalit figure in Bangladeshi
literature Harishankar Jaladas is yet to be explored with full potentiality in research.
His writing about the “low-caste” people saturated with an experiential authenticity
sufficiently validates this critical investigation as it promises a fundamental
understanding of Dalits’ life and reality in Bangladesh. A late entry into the
Bangladeshi literary circle, Jaladas’ larger authorial engagement predominantly takes
“lower” caste people in his literary purview. Being a Dalit his lived experience
supplies all the materials he projects in his narrative and so the narrative-tendency is
remarkably towards an exposure of the true marginal living. This explains why his
self-narrative Nonajole Dubsantar (2018) can be considered to be an assistive base
for understanding his other fictional narratives. However, apart from its assistive
value his autobiography alone deserves to be examined for its candidature as a Dalit
autobiography. This explains why this article attempts to investigate the linearity of
Jaladas’ self-narrative in promise and purpose that a Dalit autobiography professes in
the main. Lastly, it will conclude with a commentary that will help determine its
generic fitness.
