Mahua Maji Whiplash with words

Her debut novel sold well and went on to win the International Katha UK Award from the House of Lords, London, and be included in the syllabus of Sapienza University, Rome.

The author is the capital’s noted Hindi writer Mahua Maji, whose debut novel Main Borishaila (I am from Borishal), 2006, won accolades after it was brought out from Raj Kamal Publishers, was translated in English and published by Rupa & Company to reach a wider readership.

Maji is now coming out with her second novel on industrial and mining pollution affecting Jharkhand’s tribals. It will have a rather hi-profile release at India International Centre, New Delhi, on February 28.

The very title, Marang Gora Neelkanth Hua, is rich in imagery. A fictional tribal village Marang Gora symbolises Lord Shiva, who, according to a legend from the Puranas, drank poison or halahala that came out of churning the ocean of milk, in a bid to save humanity. Terrified, consort Parvati prevented the poison from descending to his body, with the result that it stayed in Shiva’s neck, turning it blue or neelkanth.

Interestingly, the other gods drank the nectar.

Tellingly, Maji’s imagined tribal village, in Chaibasa, West Singhbhum, shares this fate — toxins for it and its people — while the industrial nectar of ores, fuel, energy and development go to the rest.

“My novel talks of how tribal villages suffer from the after-effects of industries and mining, as well as radiation due to uranium mining across Singhbhum region. I have met and interacted with Ho tribals to understand their problems. The village and people are protagonists and the world-view of my new novel,” Maji told The Telegraph.

She has also drawn parallels from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japan towns ravaged by nuclear bombs in the Second World War.

The writer, who touched upon identity and partition in her first book — Borishal, in undivided Bengal was partitioned off to Pakistan and is now in Bangladesh — is keen to delve deep into the state’s glaring mismatch of rich mineral reserves and a gasping-for-breath, miserably poor tribal population.

Maji, who toured villages extensively to understand the issue and also read books on atomic radiation, says firmly: “Jharkhand is rich in mineral resources, particularly coal and uranium, which are used in thermal power plants and atomic reactors to generate electricity. But, pollutants generated by mining poison the rivers and fields of villages. Ho tribals have been victims of radiation. Even in the case of coal mining, residents suffer the pollution while the rest of the world gets light.”

She is also looking forward to the book’s launch in New Delhi. “Many reputed novelists and writers from across the country have been invited,” she smiled.

Can you think of a way to protect tribals from mining hazards?

Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com