The Dalit Peasant’s Struggle for Self and Community in Jatin Bala’s Short Stories

Abstract

Jatin Bala was born in a peasant family. He spent his early years in different refugee camps. He
served as a Block youth officer of the state government for thirty years and it brought him in close
contact with the rural life of West Bengal. His familiarity with the lives of the poor Dalit villagers
of West Bengal forms the crux of his narratives. His stories are about Dalit self-awakening within
the specific context of caste relations in Bengal and the Dalit movement at large. The paper seeks
to enquire into the matrix of politics of selfhood as they reflect in Jatin Bala’s narratives of rural
Bengal and the insights he offers there in.