Review: Sanatan by Sharankumar Limbale
Hindustan TimesIf reading for you is an exercise primarily in pleasure seeking, then Sharankumar Limbale’s novel will make you deeply uncomfortable. The battle in question is the war waged by upper castes on the bodies of Mahars, and the disfigured book is a harrowing archive documenting that barbarity in the form of a novel: Sanatan. Throughout this sprawling work, Limbale shifts perspectives at the most sensitive plot points and occasionally even forsakes the plotline and characters — Bimnak Mahar goes missing for a solid 100 pages. Limbale walks a tightrope when it comes to writing about the Mahar’s body, sometimes using animalistic comparisons to underscore its physical strength. This power tussle plays out continuously through the novel with upper caste Hindus vociferously opposing conversions but refusing to reform religious practices, and Christian missionaries using the situation to their advantage with even their sparse displays of kindness becoming a huge attraction for the downtrodden.
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Book Review: ‘Truth/Untruth’ by Mahasweta Devi, translated by Anjum Katyal
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