Harishankar Jaladas’ Nonajole Dubsantar: Looking into a Bangladeshi Dalit Autobiography

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.