Abstract
Akshaya Kumar and Navdeep Singh (Trans), Gangrene: Punjabi Dalit Short Stories, 2026, 208 pp., ₹499 (Paperback), Penguin Random House India. ISBN: 9780143471240.
Punjab, or Panjaab, is culturally, historically and agriculturally an important landscape. In movies and on digital platforms, it is shown as the most vibrant piece of land in India, with crops and businesses blooming and industries growing. From a bird’s-eye view, Sikhism promotes equality. It denies every aspect of injustice, differences and casteism within the religion. But conversion to other religions breaks the image of Sikhism in real time. We see and read Punjabi stories from the perspectives of upper castes, feudal lords and jamindars. Those narratives never mentioned the land labourers they possess or those who work for them. They are and were mostly from the lowest caste as per the Indian caste system. They are known as Dalits. The narratives by Dalits find a significant yet neglected spot in the Indian literary discursive landscape. It is important to explore how a complex trajectory of storytelling evolved in response to fluid hierarchies of caste and lived marginalization. However, there is still a notable lack of English-language literature that centres on Dalit voices from Punjab. Under these conditions, the Gangrene: Punjabi Dalit Short Stories, which has been translated from Punjabi into English by Akshaya Kumar and Navdeep Singh, is an important and timely work. This anthology offers a collection of 12 impactful narratives stemming from direct encounters with discrimination, indignity and social suffering, thereby ensuring immediate engagement with caste. The collection is not merely documentary, which makes it pertinent to our times, but rather one that can enrich one’s literary and ethical imagination.
The collection’s first story, ‘Bathloo Chamiar’ by Attarjit, shows the naivete of a poor Dalit man who is forced to perform an apparently impossible manual task of filling a deep sinkhole in his village, which is graphically depicted with a tragic pathos that reveals the suicidal bravado of a Dalit to prove himself as an able-bodied Dalit who may be able to redeem himself through his labour. The sinkhole comes to represent the plight of all Dalits, who are forced to live in substandard conditions. They cannot reach an equal level space, no matter how hard they try.
The author’s disenchantment with Sikhism gave rise to the second story titled ‘Maaskhore’ or ‘Gangrene’, also written by Attarjit, which challenges Sikh customs. The author presents characters in this story who desire inter-caste love marriages. To overcome the evil of casteism that stands in their path, they look to Sikhism for a solution. However, this illness is incurable even by Amritdhari Sikhs, the so-called guardians of Sikhi. To be on par with his beloved Paramjeet and marry her, Master Jagtar becomes a baptized Sikhism (Amritdhari). However, Paramjeet’s family is still against their match. The author raises concerns about the discrepancy between what Sikhs really do and the utopian, casteless character of biblical Sikhism. This disparity impedes any significant progress towards caste equality. In this story, the author shows us that this gap is growing and refers to those who continue to do so as ‘maaskhore’ gangrene. He thinks there is no room for social equality because the world is overrun with such individuals. Gurmeet Karyalvi wrote the third story, ‘Aatu Khoji’. A synoptic history of the de-notified tribes is provided in the story. The narrative ‘Aatu Khoji’ is one instance that aims to convey the voice of Punjabi tribal people. In the tale, a Dalit’s natural strength—whether physical or intuitive— boomerangs as their attempts at self-emancipation end in failure and death. Bathloo and Aatu both become anti-heroes after yielding to the ancient dharma.
In the fourth tale, ‘Doomsday’, written by Sarup Sialvi, we see the story of an unmarried, educated, metropolitan Brahmin mother who struggles to claim her daughter, conceived by a man from a lower caste, as her own. When she discovers her reading a Dalit short story in her kitchen, she eventually expels her, accusing her of contaminating the area. Through this story, the author tried to show the mentality of the Savarna women in our society, and also, even if the other person is their offspring, they cannot forgive because of their casteist mindset and society. The idea of caste equations in relationships is another issue that Sarup Sialvi explores. He paints a stark and harsh image of how caste affects bloodlines as well as romantic relationships.
The fifth tale, titled ‘Cobbler’s Son’, by Moahan Lal Phillauria, shows us the story of an uneducated cobbler father who criticizes his educated, city-dwelling, government-employed son for concealing his caste. The narrative highlights how one’s identity is inextricably linked to one’s line of work and how people attempt to conceal it, only to be discovered. To secure safe housing in an upper-caste enclave, the narrator must conceal his caste. By smoking with a nearby cobbler, the narrator’s father reveals his true identity. Afterwards, they face many problems. This story clearly shows us the true nature of high-rise buildings and their tenants.
The unequal power dynamics between the elite and poorer classes of society are the foundation of Makhan Maan’s ‘Iron-Boned’. It is the sixth story that explores ‘Dulla, a young buffalo herder known as the “iron-boned,”’ who succumbs to the evil schemes of the upper-caste village sarpanch and his spouse, demonstrating how unbeatable the upper-caste order is in the real world and life.
In the seventh story, ‘Cancer’, written by Nachhatar, the author tells the story of Gurtej, a former classmate from a lower caste, who performs surgery on Simran, an upper-caste female, after she receives a breast cancer diagnosis. The grandpa of Simran, Bakhtaur Singh, finds it unacceptable that a guy from a lower caste would treat or touch his granddaughter. The narrative explores the intricacies of Punjabi Dalit life, where traditional social systems are so inflexible that one group expects the other to perform only the menial duties assigned to them.
In the eighth tale, ‘Roots’, by Bhagwant Rasulpuri, we are introduced to a Dalit influenced by Ambedkarite ideology who returns from England to build a Buddh Vihar, only to face opposition from the Ravidassia community. Following in Ambedkar’s footsteps, the main character, Gian Chand, has converted to Buddhism, yet he is unable to break free of his Ravidassia Chamar heritage. The intricate connections of identity are highlighted in the narrative.
The ninth story in the book is Harnek Singh Kaler’s ‘Cactus’, which tells the tale of the conventional aestheticization of communities. The story revolves around a young, tall, attractive girl who sets the giddha floor on fire; she is instantly recognized as a Jatt girl and considered for a marriage proposal. The protagonist falters and leaves as soon as it is discovered that she is Chamar. The author discusses the history of caste and how it has impacted relationships in the story’s backdrop.
The 10th short story, ‘Cry of the Sky’, by Bhura Singh Kaler, shows us the life of a young lady from a lower caste named Kaati, who was raped several times by the landlord’s son, with whom she had a romantic relationship and hoped to marry, but ultimately decides to marry within her own community, accepting her ‘destiny’ as a poor Dalit girl. This story explored the true nature of upper-caste men and their mentality towards women from lower-caste communities.
In the second last story, titled ‘My Story, Everybody’s Story’ by Prem Grokhi, the Dalit character takes revenge for the rape and murder of his mother and sister. Ultimately, he finds himself in a situation where the cries of his deceased mother and sister are ignored, and only the upper-caste sarpanch’s side is heard. These tales depict hardship, defeat and an uneasy acceptance or rejection of social hierarchies in society.
In the last tale titled ‘Gaurjan’, Ajmer Singh Sidhu tells of a Dalit character named ‘Gaurjan’, who gains wealth and, as a result, the status of a sardar by winning the favour of a Jatt landlord whose relative bequeaths his property. However, the locals’ constant reminders of his Dalit heritage bring him down to earth. This story explored and revealed the reality of Punjabi Dalits; it showed that even if a Dalit family acquires wealth and helps others, they remain untouchable and cannot shed their Dalit identity.
In short, Gangrene: Punjabi Dalit Short Stories is a collection that starkly highlights the Punjabi Dalit lived experience, which is otherwise relegated to the margins. The collection sheds light on the ongoing brutality of caste exploitation through its stories of discrimination, humiliation, resistance and fracture, while broadening the ethical and imaginative horizons of Dalit studies. A close reading of this book is a must for scholars, academicians and students interested in Dalit studies. Because they foreground voices that have long remained marginalized in mainstream literatures, their translated narratives are especially useful for classroom discussion and research. If you are seeking to understand caste as a reality in society as well as in literature, this anthology is a must-read.