Alokrekha by Samaresh Majumdar [Hardcover]

In the context of colonial India, amidst the hills and forests of North Bengal, there is a tea garden. It hasn't been long since the British cleared the forests in this region and took over the agricultural land of the indigenous tribes to establish the tea gardens. Ownership and control are completely in the hands of the British. The British owners and managers live in grand bungalows, resembling royalty. Nepali and indigenous servants serve them. The less educated Bengali clerks mostly work as office assistants, with a few involved in trade. The Nepalis and indigenous people are laborers. None of them are locals. The Arkatias, from Nepal and Chotanagpur, lured the simple people to the tea gardens of Assam and the Dooars with promises of a better life. They live in mud houses and thatched-roof huts. Amidst poisonous snakes, insects, malaria, and the harsh monsoon and winter, the workers endure, with the additional punishment of the British's whipping or imprisonment. Yet, on moonlit nights, the sound of the madal (a traditional drum) fills the air. The Bengalis celebrate Durga Puja. The British, thinking of themselves as a separate class, create their own clubs to drink. 

The novel’s characterization highlights the social and economic conditions of the tea gardens at the time. It portrays the tension between the oppressor’s threats and the oppressed’s cries. Alongside, it intertwines the helplessness of elephants, bisons, leopards, and deer, as well as the fearful daily existence of peacocks and hornbills.