There’s Gunpowder in the Air by Manoranjan Byapari
It is the early 1970s. Bengal is seeing growth in the Naxalbari Movement. In order to liberate the land from the control of oppressive feudal landowners and the government and return it to landless farmers, young men and women have abandoned their homes and taken up guns. They are being detained in high-security facilities after widespread arrests. Five Naxals are painstakingly preparing a jailbreak in one such prison. To continue the revolution, they must be set free. However, Jailor Bireshwar Mukherjee has inserted petty thief Bhagoban, who is all too willing to serve multiple terms in exchange for free food and lodging, among them as a mole. Nevertheless, Bhagoban appears to be warming up to them.
There’s Gunpowder in the Air is a brutal examination of the damage that isolation and squalor can do to idealistic people. And Manoranjan Byapari’s voice is arguably the most energizing to come out of Bengal in recent years.
There’s Gunpowder in the Air by Manoranjan Byapari
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In Bengali, Manoranjan Byapari writes. Chhera Chhera Jibon, Ittibrite Chandal Jibon, and the Chandal Jibon trilogy are a few of his notable works. At the age of 24, while inside, he taught himself how to read and write. He has experience working as a porter, sweeper, and rickshaw puller. Up until 2018, he was employed as a cook at the West Bengal-based Hellen Keller Institute for the Deaf and Blind. His book, Ittibrite Chandal Jibon (Interrogating My Chandal Life), which was translated into English, won the Hindu Prize for non-fiction in 2018. He received the Gateway Lit Fest Writer of the Year Award in 2019. His book Chhera Chhera Jibon (Imaan) has been longlisted for the JCB Prize 2022 in English translation. This year, he was also awarded the Shakti Bhatt Prize for his body of work. Byapari was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 2021.
In a Kolkatta jail, this is where the book starts. There is a noticeable feeling of apprehension. The youthful Naxals show up at the prison. They vary from the ordinary inmates in that they are not violent, murderous, or jailbirds who pose a threat to society but rather disciplined, scared, obedient employees (a thief outside but Yudhister in the jail) or volunteers. Naxals, on the other hand, are imprisoned as a result of their ideology, which calls for removing land from landowners and giving it to the landless. Even the seasoned and no-nonsense Jailer Bireshwar Mukherjee experiences uneasiness because of their basic goal to challenge authority and power to affect others.
Deftly interwoven with the actual events of the Naxal breakout attempt are the tales and anecdotes of the convicts and guards. When he was in jail himself in the middle of the 1970s, The characters in the stories he recounts are real people he encountered while doing time in prison.
The Naxalbari rebellion is depicted in the 1970s when the jails are overflowing and communist supporters are derided as anti-national. Bright young men like Porimal, Goutam, Bijon, Nemai, and Bablu reject the system because it is unfair to the poor. They do not ask for bail; instead, they prepare a jailbreak because they fervently embrace communism and want the jail’s administration to fail. a rough one. It was an amazing book to read.. These tales also serve as societal critiques of the poverty and hardship in rural Bengal. A bizarre turn of events is in store for everyone as the plot picks up steam and the jailbreak is set in motion for the second half. The incident’s aftermath is rife with sadness.
