Imaan

Who could have imagined that a book with a naive-sounding title like 'Imaan' held such dark tales in its underbelly? Multiple snapshots of the subaltern world, which rarely makes it out into the open are captured by Manoranjan Byapari, effectively translated by Arunava Sinha.There is pathos, humor and an undercurrent of rage in these pages. Reminded me of similar works spawned by the Dalit movement in Kannada literature. There is also an element of dystopia when the protagonist feels that life inside a prison is better than the freedom outside. Plenty of food for thought.

Translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha, Imaan by Manoranjan Byapari is just the book that creates a world rooted in humane ethos while being physically situated in the most wretched environment.The protagonists of Imaan are mostly criminals or who are most at risk of becoming one.They are rag pickers and pickpockets, con magicians and thieves, women who sell their bodies and husbands who beat wives but each character has an innate honesty ingrained in them.What Byapari does with the narrative and the characters in Imaan is ask who is a criminal and why.Are criminals the ones who get caught? What about those respected in society commuting the same crimes but live unexposed? Starting from the opening scenes of the book in the jail to the last page, Imaan gives a quiet dignity to the lives of people on the margins, those who live with grime in their bodies but who follow a certain code of conduct with others.The female protagonists in this book are a revelation. The way they refuse to be martyrs but take charge of their fragile lives is a reflection of how women at the lowest economic and social strata do not care much of social conventions but take agency based on the reality of the life they live.Imaan's life, starting from growing up in jail and his subsequent foray into the world within and outside the jail is a powerful allegory to how the more privileged of us base our moral sensibilities and legal jargons to stay in our safe space and then sneer at the ones we keep way down the ladder, stripping away their humanity. Read this book for Byapari's powerful writing on the dynamics of social structures brought to life by Arunava Sinha who takes you to the underbelly of the world we want to live in.