Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (1983- ): Author Profile
Shekhar has won considerable national attention and praise for this English language works, including The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey (2014), The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories (2015), Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: Adventures in Champakbagh (2018), and My Father's Garden (2018). He also translated Manoj Rupda's novel Kaale Adhyaay into English as I Named My Sister Silence; that translation was published in 2023.
The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey deals with family and village society in a Santhal village, with the titular character Rupi Baskey being a middle-aged mother who competes with various rivals for social status. Throughout, she is battling a mysterious debilitating illness. Elements of witchcraft play a role; there are also encounters with modern medicine as well as homeopathic medicine along the way.
The Adivasi Will Not Dance features short stories that address questions of the Adivasi encounter with modern life in India.
- "They Eat Meat" deals with the cultural gap between Adivasis and caste Hindus -- with an Adivasi living in Ahmedabad at the time of the 2002 riot. An Adivasi family has been relocated to Gujarat for work, and encounter caste Hindus who have stereotypical attitudes about Adivasi culture and dietary habits. Later in the story, the entire 'colony' comes under threat as a Hindu mob attacks.
- "Getting Even" is from the point of view of a doctor who deals with a complex sexual assault case involving children of different / mixed castes. A young girl has apparently been raped, and a slightly older boy is accused. The boy's family is of mixed caste (Thakur and Santhal), while the girl's family is entirely Santhal; they are distant relatives of the boy's mother. The protagonist is a doctor at a hospital who has to examine the boy and help the police adjudicate culpability.
- "The Adivasi Will Not Dance" speaks to issues of displacement from the land, government and industrial appropriation of Adivasi land for mining contracts, exoticization of Adivasis, and more.
A representative quote from the short story "The Adivasi Will Not Dance":
“But what can we do? They outnumber us. [...] They are only interested in making us sing and dance at their weddings. If they come to help us, they will say that we Santhals need to stop eating cow-meat and pig-meat, that we need to stop drinking haandi. They too want to make us forget our Sarna religion, convert us into Safa Hor, and swell their numbers to become more valuable vote banks. Safa Hor, the pure people, the clean people, but certainly not as clean and pure as themselves, that’s for sure.[...] In the eyes of the Hindus, we Santhals can only either be Kiristan or the almost Safa Hor. We are losing our Sarna faith, our identities, and our roots. We are becoming people from nowhere.” (Shekhar, “The Adivasi Will Not Dance”)
Journalistic writings and Interviews by and With Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar:
At the Caravan
Short story by Shekhar available online: "Joga"
"Joga" is a short story about an older man from a tribal community in the hills ("Paharias") who does not speak any of the major languages in the region (Hindi, Bengali, or Santhali). Joga is arrested in connection with a murder. He is held in prison for three years without trial and without much in the way of evidence. One theme the story invokes is the incompetence of the police in dealing with Adivasi communities; there are also accounts of health conditions in prison. However, the central theme might be the cultural gap between modern / urban India and more remote Adivasi communities. Joga and his community remain a mystery to outsiders.
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar interview with Shobhaa De (2018) (YouTube)
In the interview, Shekhar discusses My Father's Garden; he speaks openly about his sexuality. Shobhaa Dee asks him whether My Father's Garden is autobiographical, but he insists it is a work of fiction.
Hansda Sowvendra Interview with Goa Literature Fest (2015) (YouTube)
The author describes the process through which he came to write his first novel The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey. He mentions The Color Purple as a point of inspiration for his novel. He also discusses the genesis of the stories in The Adivasi Will Not Dance.