Kathmandu, October 16
“Magani Marik,” a novel by journalist and writer Janakraj Sapkota, was launched in Kathmandu.
The author, physician Dr Ramji Ram and Anju Kumari Marik, a student from the Dom community studying in the capital on a scholarship, jointly unveiled the book at Pragya Bhawan, Kamaladi. The novel centres on the title character, from a marginalised community in the Tarai, and the hardships and struggles of making a living.
Speaking at the event, Marik said Dalit communities in Madhesh face double standards. Their blessings and the water they touch are considered pure at births and weddings, she said, but at other times the same society treats them as untouchable.
Dr Ram, who rose from the Dom community to become a doctor, said the novel brings the real condition of Madhesh’s marginalised communities before readers. Sapkota said he put into the book the experiences he could not write up during two decades of reporting, and that it is based on the story of the Dom community. He said caste discrimination, poverty and poor health and education are grim in Madhesh, and that he wrote the book after visiting the characters’ homes and seeing their lives up close.
Writer Shyam Sah said the novel exposes caste oppression, foreign employment, human trafficking and administrative insensitivity in Madhesh. It is published by Fineprint.
