Novel
The Last Flicker
ਮੜ੍ਹੀ ਦਾ ਦੀਵਾ
Gurdial Singh · 1964
Synopsis
In a village of the Punjabi Malwa, at the end of the fifties, Thola, a sharecropper, was treated like a brother by the landowner Dharam Singh. His son Jagseer, a Dalit, born to a mother from a nomadic caste, is condemned by custom never to marry. He loves in secret Bhani, the young wife of his friend Nikka, and finds some solace in opium, while Bhanta, the landowner's son, who does not share his father's affection, intends to take back the land given to Thola.
Context
The novel was published in 1964; it was its author's first, and he classed it as critical realism; it won him immediate recognition as a novelist. Critics have compared it to Premchand's Godan. It was also adapted for the stage, and in 1989 Surinder Singh made a film from it with Raj Babbar and Deepti Naval. Ajmer Rode translated it into English for the Sahitya Akademi.
Who it is for
A short novel, in the language and customs of the Malwa, with no French translation; it exists in English.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first Punjabi novel with a Dalit hero and as the most discussed book of this literature; its adaptation won an award.
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