“Someone like Ashoka the Great will be born again to set up a casteless society”: An Interview with Manohar Mouli Biswas

Abstract

Manohar Mouli Biswas (born 3 October 1943) is a long-time Dalit activist and writer from West Bengal, president of Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, and vice-president of West Bengal Dalit Sahitya Academy. In this conversation with Mahitosh Mandal, conducted over email and face to face, Mr Biswas talks in-depth about his views on Dalit identity, casteism and the current state and future of anticaste politics in West Bengal, drawing on his lived experiences of casteism and anticaste activism, as well as his literary practice and membership of two important Dalit literary establishments. He also comments on religious conversion among Dalits in the current wave of saffronisation of India. The interview is supplemented by a select bibliography of Manohar Mouli Biswas.

Full text

ALL ABOUT AMBEDKAR:
A
JOURNAL ON THEORY AND
PRAXIS
VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2
31 December 2021
ISSN 2582-9785
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Vacuuming the Dalit Identity: Upper-caste Writers and the Bubble of
Representation in Indian Novels
UDAY KHANNA
A Language of One’s Own: The Politics of the Body, Language and
Identity in Sukirtharani’s Poetry
B. MANGALAM
Subalternizing Caste: Questioning the Postcolonial Reading of
Subalternity vis-à-vis Caste in Spivak’s Translation of “Draupadi”
AHANA BHATTACHARJEE
Caste, Ecology and Nature: Environmentalism in Indian Dalit
Literature
NISHANTA GHATAK
Vulnerable Manhood and Subordinate Dalit Masculinity: A Critical
Study of Select Dalit Autobiographical Narratives
MAHAMADUL HASSAN DHABAK
B. R. Ambedkar and His Radical Anti-Caste Philosophy
SUSMITA PAUL
Till Death Do Us Part: Casteism, Economic Divide and Patriarchy in
the Death Rituals of the Bengali Hindus
ARITRA BASU
Reading Annihilation of Caste from a Cultural Perspective
DIPAK BARKHADE
Postcolonial Governance and Social Stratification: Revisiting
Ambedkar to Imagine Inclusive Society
MUSTAKIM ANSARY
INTERVIEW, FILM REVIEW, BOOK REVIEW
“Someone like Ashoka the Great will be born again to set up a
casteless society”: An Interview with Manohar Mouli Biswas
MAHITOSH MANDAL
Understanding Caste and Its Unperturbed Continuation in Article 15
SANGITA NEOGI
A Bitter Remembrance: Re-vision of Ambedkar’s Political Cartoons in
No Laughing Matter
JAHNAVI GUPTA
https://www.allaboutambedkaronline.com/
GENERAL ISSUE

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis
Volume 2, Number 2, 31 December 2021, pp. 183-195
ISSN 2582-9785
“Someone like Ashoka the Great will be born again to set
up a casteless society”: An Interview with Manohar Mouli
Biswas
MAHITOSH MANDAL1
___________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
Manohar Mouli Biswas (born 3 October 1943) is a long-time Dalit activist and writer from
West Bengal, president of Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, and vice-president of West
Bengal Dalit Sahitya Academy. In this conversation with Mahitosh Mandal, conducted
over email and face to face, Mr Biswas talks in-depth about his views on Dalit identity,
casteism and the current state and future of anticaste politics in West Bengal, drawing on
his lived experiences of casteism and anticaste activism, as well as his literary practice and
membership of two important Dalit literary establishments. He also comments on
religious conversion among Dalits in the current wave of saffronisation of India. The
interview is supplemented by a select bibliography of Manohar Mouli Biswas.
KEYWORDS: Dalit, Dalit literature, casteism, anticaste activism, Buddhism, conversion
1 Mahitosh Mandal (mahitosh2020@gmail.com) is Assistant Professor and Chair at the Department of
English, Presidency University, Kolkata. He is the founder and chief editor of All About Ambedkar: A
Journal on Theory and Praxis. He was awarded the Navayana Dalit History Fellowship in 2021.
Copyright © 2021 Manohar Mouli Biswas & Mahitosh Mandal. This is an open access article licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 184
Mahitosh Mandal (MM): Jai Bhim, Manohar-da! You are an inspiration to many of us
who are engaged in anticaste activism. It is my absolute pleasure to interview you for
All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis. Who, according to you, is a ‘Dalit’?
Are all ‘scheduled castes’ Dalits? Or is Dalit an anticaste political consciousness that
certain sections of scheduled castes develop, internalise, identify with, and assert? Can
anyone other than the former Untouchables be a Dalit, that is, anyone who does not
hail from a scheduled caste background but is experiencing oppression and
exploitation—caste-based or other?
Manohar Mouli Biswas (MMB): I interpret the term ‘Dalit’ in my own fashion, without
going into the historicity of it. In my view, anyone severely marginalised in the domain
of social pursuit of prestige, or [consistently trapped by] economic impoverishment and
the cultural tragedy of backwardness, that is, groups with poor representation in
education and literary spaces, due to being placed on the lowermost rung in the Hindu
caste system, is a Dalit. A large number of sub-castes and groups fall into these
categories. They all are now known as ‘scheduled castes’ as per our national
constitution. In this respect, all scheduled castes are Dalits.
‘Dalitality’ in that sense is about developing and internalising an anticaste
political consciousness to enable assertion of a Dalit’s future upliftment in a positive
direction, although there are also some exceptions to this. Regarding Dalit politics in
India, we can mention, for example, the BSP [Bahujan Samaj Party] and their shadow
organisation BAMCEF [The All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees
Federation], which are now politically well-established all over India. Their main
challenge, I think, is to organise Dalit political workers to rid us of our subjugation
under the prevailing nationwide caste hierarchies. Another example is the 1937 election
when Jogendra Mandal who belonged to a scheduled caste category from Perojpur
contested the unreserved Parliamentary seat of Barisal and defeated his opponent, the
Congress candidate Saral Dutta who came from a zamindar family, by an overwhelming
margin. Jogendra Mandal was a devoted follower of Dr B. R. Ambedkar, and he was
instrumental in ensuring Dr Ambedkar’s election to the Constituent Assembly from
Bengal.

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 185
All former ‘untouchables’ are seen to identify themselves as Dalit, but all the
Shudras have not been equally ‘untouchable’ all the time. For instance, in Bengal, and
even all over India, over time, a socially upward mobility movement has been taking
place. As a result, a section of Shudras in Bengal began to deny their Dalitality, claiming
they had developed socially, culturally, educationally, and economically, as for example,
the Kayasthas and the Baidyas. They had been granted the status of Jal-chal, which
means that Brahmins could accept water from their hand. They were non-Dalits but
they suffered from caste hatred. So, previously, they had been Shudras, but now they
are [part of] the ruling class. And rest of the Untouchables were considered as Jal-achal,
meaning water from their hands was not drinkable.
No one belonging to the Dalit or Shudra categories of Hinduism can be alienated
from the suffering of caste hatred. In this context, one should keep in mind that in
Bengal there are no other castes except Brahmins, Shudras and Atishudras.
MM: As you are aware, there is a popular perception that there is no casteism in Bengal.
How would you respond to such a claim?
MMB: The communists are largely responsible for such misconceptions. The
Communist Party of India was first formed in Moscow in 1920 by some Bhadralok
Bengali students who went there for higher education. In this sense, we can say that
Bengal pioneered the communist movement in India. This communist movement is a
class-based struggle and not a caste-based one, and in Bengal, the communists
explained ‘class’ to be the real problem of society bypassing the fact that it is ‘caste’ that
is detrimental to the progress of India. Practically speaking, these communists
misguided people by brushing the problem of caste under the carpet by teaching that
caste is the superstructure of society and would automatically fade away. This is, I think,
a misconception about the mechanism, genesis, and development of the caste system
of the Hindus.
MM: Bengal has about 60 different scheduled castes and they experience different kinds
of caste-based discrimination. How would you categorise and differentiate the

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 186
discriminations faced by them, for example, by the Namasudras, Poundras, and
Rajbanshis?
MMB: Namasudras, Poundras, and Rajbanshis are the three major scheduled castes in
the state of West Bengal. All of them are predominantly endogamous in character and
this is self-regulated by each caste. That is, the people of one caste cannot marry into
another caste and one caste does not usually have any blood relation with another caste.
As a matter of fact, each caste forms a small nation itself. In other words, we can say
that caste creates a nation within the nation. Due to this heinous social system, Indians
have failed to integrate, because of which each scheduled caste faces different
deprivations and discriminations. The solution would be for these castes to build blood
relations with each other, thus making possible an integrated and casteless society.
MM: Tell us briefly about your own experiences of caste-based discrimination.
MMB: I experienced a horrible form of caste-based discrimination in 1968 when I joined
as a trainee at the Department of Telecommunication in Nagpur [in the state of
Maharashtra]. On the first day, and in the first period, when the lecturer came into the
class, all of us stood up and wished him, “Good Morning, Sir!”, and he replied, “Good
morning to all. Please sit down.” Then there was pin-drop silence. We were an all-India
batch and students had come from different states—Punjab, Karnataka, Bihar, West
Bengal, and so on. And then, the first question the teacher put to the class was, “Who
amongst you are scheduled castes, stand up please!” I was ashamed but I stood up and
also stated my name. The teacher responded mockingly by referring to reserved
category candidates, “You are all lucky sons of the soil.”
I can mention another small incident. The electronics teacher would take classes
successively for five days, and then at the end of the week, we would have a test on what
he had taught. In one such test, I scored 6/10 and a Brahmin friend of mine, who had
also taken the same test with me, scored 9/10. I compared our answer sheets and the
two scripts were identical, even in terms of language. I approached the teacher, who was
sitting in his room, and tried to show him both the answer scripts but he refused to see
them. Instead, he told me, “You belong to the reserved category of students and should
be happy with lower marks. This score will not hamper anything for you.”

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MM: Let me move from life to literature. How would you define Dalit literature? What
are some of its characteristics? Can Dalit literature be written by non-Dalits? How is
Dalit literature different from non-Dalit literature?
MMB: Dalit literature may be defined as a form of introspection by Dalits, that is, the
self-expression of their historic suffering due to their misfortunes under a caste society.
Dalit literature advocates for an equal society, free from caste-based prejudice and
discrimination. It is a form of protest against the curse of cruelty, hatred, rebuke and
dishonour associated with a caste-hierarchical society. Dalit literature disobeys the
kinds of superiority-inferiority that the caste system tries to impose on our society. So
it can be broadly described as literature evolving out of caste-based suffering, hatred,
dishonour and neglect.
No non-Dalit can produce Dalit literature. The reason is very simple. A person’s
caste is related to birth. When a non-Dalit writes about the sufferings or pains
experienced by a Dalit she draws on her imagination and whatever she writes, she writes
out of sympathy. But Dalits refuse to be anyone’s object of sympathy and pity and so
when a Dalit writes about the Dalits, his writing is derived from his own real sufferings
and experiences. He does not need the help of imagination and consequently, his
writing is not a product of sympathy. It is simply an empathetic and genuine piece of
creation.
MM: When and why did you start writing? What kind of works do you write, and what
is the ultimate purpose of your writing?
MMB: After the completion of my departmental training at Nagpur I came back to
Kolkata, and whatever I have written since then is all about marginalised people and
Dalits. The ultimate purpose of my writing is to bring about the social changes that are
necessary for a human society to live in peace and to progress.
I developed a habit of writing both in verse and prose every early when I was a
student in class III or IV at my village primary school. At that time I would try to
describe, in my own language, the beauty of the sky at the time of rainfall or the
magnificence of the setting sun. I believe that I have always had a creative mind, but in

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 188
my childhood, I experienced dire poverty, about which I have written in my
autobiography. Moreover, the human mind is inherently sensitive. In my childhood,
whenever someone from another caste, particularly, from the ‘superior’ castes, would
call me a chanral (Chandal), I would not react due to my lack of knowledge about the
abusive term. But [as I mentioned earlier], after my graduation in pure sciences, I
secured the job of engineering supervisor in the Department of Telecommunication and
was sent to their Nagpur Training Centre for a four-month training course. Very soon
after starting the course, I came across an article in an English daily newspaper about
the Dalit literature movement in Maharashtra. It had a tremendous impact on my mind
and my heart. I realised that similar kinds of caste sufferings were experienced there as
in West Bengal, and I asked myself: Why don’t we too revolt categorically, at least by
creating anticaste literature?
MM: What are some of your representative works?
MMB: I have the social commitment to awaken Dalit communities about the [roots] of
their poverty, illiteracy, social backwardness and the caste hatred they suffer. No other
person except Dr B. R. Ambedkar has so truly and deeply looked into the tragedies of
life they [continue to] experience. Dr Ambedkar advocated their causes in the
Constitution of the country to provide them relief from the tragedy. In my life, I have
tried to establish Dalit literature in human society as the canonical literature of India’s
marginalised peoples. I have written more than a dozen books, including my
autobiography Surviving in My World: Growing Up Dalit in Bengal and a book of short
stories, Deshvāg o viswāyon: parājito mānusher galpo [Partition and Globalisation:
Stories of the Defeated People]. My critical and analytic works range from An
Interpretation of Dalit Literature, Aesthetic, Theory and Movements: Through the Lens
of Ambedkarism to Dalit sāhityer ruparekhā [An Outline of Dalit literature].
MM: You are a founding member and president of Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha [Bengali
Dalit Literary Organisation] or BDSS. We know that BDSS was set up against the
backdrop of the suicide of Chuni Kotal (1965-1992). Approximately, how many works

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 189
has your organisation published so far? How, according to you, has BDSS contributed
to the anticaste struggle? How much work is left to do?
MMB: Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, or BDSS, was set up in 1992 after the tragic
immolation of Chuni Kotal, a tribal woman who was pursuing her Master’s degree at
Vidyasagar University [in Midnapore, West Bengal]. It happened due to her experience
of caste hatred inside and outside the classroom. BDSS has over one hundred life
members, and started publishing the Dalit literary journal Chaturtha Dunia after
recognising the ground reality: that no publisher in the Kolkata book market was willing
to publish Dalit writings. So BDSS set up their own publishing house and a book shop
“Chaturtha Dunia” at stall number 22 in Bhabani Dutta Lane, Kolkata 700073. So far 42
issues of the journal have been published and it is ironical that some well-reputed
publishers have started publishing our books now. Chaturtha Dunia has published over
two thousand books, written by more than one hundred Dalit, Adivasi, and Bahujan
writers. The first three editors of Chaturtha Dunia were from a scheduled caste, a
scheduled tribe and ‘other backward class’ [OBC] backgrounds, and thus it has become
a platform for bringing these communities together.
Ideologically, BDSS has engaged in anticaste movements and literary activism
since its inception and much has been achieved so far. But plenty of work is yet to be
done.
MM: Tell us briefly about your anticaste activism.
MMB: Dalit literature is always associated with literary activism, and our organisation,
BDSS, contributes to anticaste movements whenever and wherever they happen in West
Bengal. In 1990, when the Viswanath Pratap Singh government tried to introduce the
reservation policy for the OBCs, there were strong objections from different groups
within the caste hierarchies. At that time, BDSS, along with other organisations,
organised a protest rally on the streets of Kolkata. It was attended by about 15,000 people
and led by Santosh Rana.
Our Dalit litterateurs might have inherited the spirit of activism, anticasteism,
and secularism from the Dalit Panthers of Maharashtra. The ‘panther’ organisation was
formed on 9 July 1972 under the tile-roofed house of Namdeo Dhasal in a basti [slum]

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 190
in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Namdeo Dhasal, Raja Dhale, and others gave the lead. Dalit
litterateurs, I wholeheartedly believe, are secular in character. After the sad demise of
Rohith Vermula at the University of Hyderabad, BDSS took out a procession on College
Street and organised a meeting at College Square in Kolkata. We also organise the
annual Chuni Kotal Memorial Lecture on her death anniversary on 16 August. The
lectures address the subject of casteless society, and academic scholars and social
activists are invited to the event, which is held in various locations in West Bengal. As
of now, 26 memorial lectures have been delivered.
In addition, BDSS organises an annual sangeeti (Buddhist term for ‘conference’)
on 24 and 25 December, in various districts of West Bengal. The event aims to sensitise
people regarding anticasteism and also tries to amplify the everyday issues faced by
Dalits. One of the achievements of BDSS in this respect is the conversion of Pakuhata
High School in Malda into Pakuhata College for the educational upliftment of the local
rural populations of Malda, Bamongola, and Habibpur, which are predominantly made
up of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
MM: Dalit women are the worst victims of the caste system. How would you define their
victimisation? Why do you think they continue to be victimised?
MMB: I have always supported the feminist movement. After the sad murder of Phoolan
Devi, Chaturtha Dunia published a special issue on the sacrosanct and vigorous protest
she had launched in her life. Phoolan Devi was a Dalit woman and was forcibly
kidnapped from her house by twenty-two dacoits of the Thakur caste, who were flagrant
oppressors of the scheduled castes. What did Phoolan Devi do? She formed a dacoit
team and became their leader. For her courage and excellence in the profession, she
earned fame as ‘Bandit Queen’. One night, she took her revenge by entering the Thakur
village and shooting 21 of them. Dalit women are doubly oppressed—for being women
and for being Dalits.
MM: Recently the government of West Bengal established Dalit Sahitya Academy.
While Dalits have welcomed it, many have been critical of it. Taslima Nasrin, for
example, mocked this move by the government and argued that there is no need to have

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 191
a separate literary organisation for the Dalits. She even made fun of the idea of ‘Dalit
literature.’ Many others have criticised it as a political move to win the scheduled castes’
votes. How would you respond to such criticisms?
MMB: The West Bengal Dalit Sahitya Academy is a praiseworthy move by the
government of West Bengal. It is a positive gesture to uplift the Dalits, not only for the
expansion of their literary activities but also for extending solidarities for their
organisational abilities. Does Taslima Nasrin know the history of the Muslim Sahitya
Samaj which was formed at the University of Dhaka in 1926 for the spread of literary
culture among the Muslims? She displayed ignorance about social reality even though
she is a well-known public intellectual and activist.
I am not a sceptic by nature and view Dalit Sahitya Academy as a positive gesture.
And as you already know, I have been elected as vice-president.
MM: There is a dangerous saffronisation increasingly devouring India. This has visibly
worsened the condition of Dalits, tribals, and minorities. The right-wing government
has also been insisting on implementing policies such as the NRC [National Register of
Citizens of India], CAA [Citizen Amendment Act], and CAB [Citizen Amendment Bill].
What are your views on saffronisation and the concerned laws and policies? Also, in this
context, is conversion to Buddhism a way out for Dalits of our time? Would you
recommend conversion?
MMB: I personally feel that NRC, CCA, and CAB have been designed for the political
saffronisation of the country.
Conversion to Buddhism might enable Dalits to shed off Hindu caste hierarchies
and escape casteist abuse. But, this will turn us into a religious minority of this country
and add to our suffering in the political sphere. Hence, conversion—at least individual
conversion or conversion of a few—may not be the solution. Only if huge groups of
people from scheduled castes and tribes—which together form 30% of the country’s
population—and others convert then a real transformation can happen. Otherwise, like
Chandragupta Maurya (321-297 BCE), one can remain an undeclared Buddhist and a
declared Hindu. We must note, though, that Buddhism is very effective and remember
that the relatively less frequency of caste atrocities in Bengal is not due to the 34 years

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 192
of Communist Party of India rule here but due to 405 years of Buddhist rule by the Pal
dynasty (750–1155 AD).
MM: History has witnessed several anticaste movements and many legal strategies to
prevent casteism have been adopted. However, casteism is exponentially on the rise and
caste is far from being annihilated. In today’s India, every ten minutes a crime is
committed against a Dalit, and eight Dalit women are sexually abused every day. In such
a situation, do you think casteism shall ever come to an end? Do we need to rethink
anticaste politics and develop new strategies?
MMB: The anticaste movements we have witnessed so far have neither happened
nationwide nor evolved into an effective agenda and policy for the Government of India.
People coming from the lowermost strata of the caste hierarchy clearly want the
abolition of the caste system but the beneficiaries of the system are always in favour of
maintaining the same as is. Although many legal strategies to prevent casteism have
been adopted and although in the eyes of law all are said to be equal, the cries of the
appellants do not find fairness in justice. Unless a true cultural revolution occurs, which
can change the mindset of caste Hindus, they will never be capable of compassion. The
day the national parliament, as well as the government, is adorned with a majority of
Ambedkarites, the wave of social change may take another praiseworthy colour which
will reduce the shades of sadness among the margins.
I firmly believe that somebody like Ashoka the Great will be born again to bless
the soil of India and to set up a casteless society.
Works Cited
Biswas, Manohar Mouli. Dalit sāhityer ruparekhā. 1st ed., Bani Shilpa, 2007.
---. Deshvāg o viswāyon: parājito mānusher galpo. Chaturtha Dunia, 2018.
---. An Interpretation of Dalit Literature, Aesthetic, Theory and Movements: Through
the Lens of Ambedkarism. 1st ed., Chaturtha Dunia, 2017.
---. Surviving in My World: Growing Up Dalit in Bengal. Translated by Angana Dutta
and Jaydeep Sarangi, Samya, 2015.

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 193
Nasrin, Taslima. Why A Separate Sahitya Academy for the Dalits is Unnecessary.
Facebook, 16 Sep. 2020,
https://www.facebook.com/nasreen.taslima/posts/2140590316085415. Accessed 30 Dec.
2021.
A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MANOHAR MOULI BISWAS
POETRY COLLECTIONS
Biswas, Manohar Mouli. Bibikto uthone ghar. [House in a Deserted/Separate
Courtyard] Dipali Book House, 1991.
---. Bikkhato kāler bānshi. [Flute of the Wounded Time] Chaturtha Dunia, 2013.
---. Orā āmār kabitā. [They are My Poems] Dipali Book House, 1985.
---. Poetic Rendering As Yet Unborn. Chaturtha Dunia, 2010.
---. Tārer kānnā: titikkhā. [Weeping Strings: Endurance] Aditya Prakashalaya, 1987.
---. The Wheel Will Turn. Cyberwit.net, 2014.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Biswas, Manohar Mouli. Deshvāg o viswāyon: parājito mānusher galpo. [Partition and
Globalisation: Stories of the Defeated People] Chaturtha Dunia, 2018.
---. Krishna mrittikār mānush. [Humans of the Black Soil] Nirmal Book Agency, 1988.
ESSAY COLLECTIONS
Biswas, Manohar Mouli. Dalit Literary Horizon. Translated by Asit Biswas et al.,
Amazon KDP, 2020.
---. Dalit sāhityer digbaloy. [Horizon of Dalit Literature] 1st ed., Ambedkar Prakashani,
1992.
---. Dalit sāhityer digbaloy. [Horizon of Dalit Literature] 2nd ed., Ekush Shatak, 2019
---. Dalit sāhityer ruparekhā. [An Outline of Dalit Literature] 1st ed., Bani Shilpa, 2007.
---. Dalit sāhityer ruprekha. [An Outline of Dalit Literature] 2nd ed., Bani Shilpa, 2021.
---. Dalit Samāj o Vastubād. [Dalit Society and Materialism] Forthcoming.

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 194
---. An Interpretation of Dalit Literature, Aesthetics Theory, and Movements: Through
the Lens of Ambedkarism. 1st ed., Chaturtha Dunia, 2017.
---. An Interpretation of Dalit Literature, Aesthetics, Theory, and Movements: Through
the Lens of Ambedkarism. 2nd imp., Chaturtha Dunia 2018.
---. Matuā dharmo o samprodāy: rājnaitik o samājtātwik byākhyān. [Matua Religion
and Community: A Political and Sociological Analysis] Chaturtha Dunia, 2019.
---. Probandhe prāntojan: Athobā asprishyer diary. [Essays of the Marginalized: Or, the
Diary of the Untouchable] Chaturtha Dunia, 2010.
---. Vinnochokhe probandhamālā. [Essays from a Different Point of View] Chaturtha
Dunia, 2003.
---. Yuktibādi vāratvarsha: ekti aitijyer sandhān. [The Rationalistic India: In Search of a
Tradition] Chaturtha Dunia, 1998.
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
Biswas, Manohar Mouli. Āmār vubone āmi bneche thāki. [I Stay Alive in My World]
Chaturtha Dunia, 2013.
---. Surviving in My World: Growing Up Dalit in Bengal. Translated by Angana Dutta
and Jaydeep Sarangi, Samya, 2015.
CO-EDITED VOLUMES
Biswas, Manohar Mouli and Achintya Biswas, editors. Advaita Mallbarman: ekti
sāhityik protisrot. [Advaita Mallabarman: A Literary Counter-current] Chaturtha
Dunia, 1995.
---. Anyo vāsār dalit kobitā. [Dalit Poetry from Different Languages] Chaturtha Dunia,
1994.
---. Chaturtho duniār galpo. [Stories from “Chaturtho Dunia”] Chaturtha Dunia, 2005.
Biswas, Manohar Mouli and Kalyani Thakur, editors. Krishnochandra Thākur: smriti
sambhār. [Krishnachandra Thakur: Memoirs] Chaturtha Dunia, 1999.
Biswas, Manohar Mouli and Kapil Krishna Thakur, editors. Grāmganjer galpo. [Stories
of the Villages] Chaturtha Dunia, 2007.

All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis 2.2 (31 Dec. 2021)| 195
Biswas, Manohar Mouli, Shyamal Kumar Paramanik and Asit Biswas, editors.
Satobarsher bānglā dalit sāhityo. [Hundred Years of Bengali Dalit Literature]
Chaturtha Dunia, 2011.