![]() ![]() After all, the president is coming to their area merely to open a thermal power plant, built on land from which Santals had been evicted. The narrator in the last story says that he and his troupe will not dance for the president. It refutes the stereotype of Adivasis dancing and singing as if that is all they can do. The title of the book tells us a great deal. Sowvendra Shekhar does just that, particularly in the book of his stories The Adivasi Will Not Dance just published by Speaking Tiger (It's written in English). Why should I say that Hansda Sowvendra Shek har is a major Santali writer when I rarely say X is a Goan writer, Y a Parsi writer and so on? I'm not interested in the ethnicity of writers, just whether they have something to say that deepens one's understanding of the world. I don't seem to be able to think of a suitable title. It's the first time I've had this particular problem with this column. ![]() I'm glad it did: the stories opened up a world of Santhal culture for me. I wasn't sure what to expect when a book by the Jharkhand writer Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar arrived in the mail. ![]()
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