This Land is Ours

About This Land is Ours

One of India’s leading novelists and poets Romen Basu has once again written in his latest novel This Land is Ours” about injustice this time against the tribals. Readers familiar with Basu’s work will observe his well articulated crusade for yet another neglected minority. Cause is everything for me.In this latest novel Romen Basu has taken up the cause of the forgotten adivasis who are scattered throughout this vast land.The story is centred round the construction of the Narmada Dam in the state of Gujarat. Following the dictates of the political leaders, the planned height of the dam will not only dislocate hundreds of thousands of homeless tribals who for generations have lived by the river bank in the forests without any rights of ownership of the land, but also destroy their culture and their communitarian way of life.Neither the state government nor the central govemment have made adequate plans for their rehabilitation once their homes are submerged. Lata,the protagonist and her followers take up the challenge by launching a non-violent resistance movement for forcing the state to lower the height of the dam to contain the damage in the large number of adivasi villages.In this novel Romen Basu has written a moving account on behalf of the helpless adivasis who have no one to speak for them. It is a heart warming tale of injustice at the hands of an uncaring government.