Andhar Bil

In 1947 and again in 1971, entire communities in the South Asian subcontinent crossed newly drawn borders, seeking new homes as partitions divided and reshaped nations. Kalyani Thakur’s evocative novel tells the story of her people, Dalits of the Matua sect, who settled around a local water body – Andhar Bil – in a newly formed country. This new bil, reminiscent of the one left behind, becomes a place for the refugees to slowly, painfully, rebuild their lives.

Children play in and around the bil, the novel’s central ‘character,’ while people catch fish and cook them in ways that recall the flavours of home. Festivals and boat races unfold, jute is harvested and sold, floods push people to higher ground, marriages are arranged, and property disputes arise. The still waters of the bil hold all these stories, while the boroi tree stands in the centre, a silent witness to everything.

Woven through this episodic, plotless narrative is the story of Kamalini, a young girl who, one day, will leave her beloved Andhar Bil behind for the city – just as her parents’ generation left their villages and their cherished bil for a new land.