By Ashish Joshi
A View from the Margins, Pratap Singh, Gyan Publishing House, Pp 311, Rs 250.00
This is a collection of reminiscences based on the experiences of Preet, a Dalit, who, in the city of Ottawa, capital of Canada, sees educated Indians at a get-together feel elated and proud of India’s recent progress in various areas but at the same time, hears them voice their grievance against the rise to power of Dalits.
Preet remembers his grandfather, who suffered persecution at the hands of the upper caste. Through the dint of hard work and labour, he could become a landowner but the upper caste landlords despised him for seeing him fight for the rights of other Dalits.
A Rajput Thakur, Durganand Singh tried to get Preet’s grandfather decimated. Singh was elected Director of the local Farmers’ Cooperative Society and misused his position and forged documents to raise heavy loans in the name of his grandfather and his elder son.
(Gyan Publishing House, Gyan Kunj, 23 Main Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002; gyanbooks@vsnl.com)
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