I Named My Sister Silence - Manoj Rupda (Translated by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar)

LONGLISTED FOR THE JCB PRIZE FOR LITERATURE | An unusually quiet, searing, and devastating novel about the brutal destruction of ancient peoples, forests, and lands.

As a little boy in the heart of Bastar, he follows a wild elephant into the deep forest, fascinated and completely in a trance. His innocent foray ends in a sudden, haunting tragedy: from his perch atop the majestic beast, he watches it get cornered and eaten alive by a pack of wild dogs.

Years later, working aboard a giant ocean liner, that unforgettable memory resurfaces. Looking out at the water, he begins to wonder if it is his ultimate destiny to stand by and witness the destruction of immense things—like the ancient tribal lands of his childhood, like that fallen elephant, and like the massive ship beneath him that will soon be sent to the scrapyard to be decommissioned.

More than anything, he recalls the immense, unyielding silence of his older half-sister, Madavi Irma. A silent, fiercely protective girl, Irma nurtured him and single-handedly funded his formal education by gathering and selling what she collected from the bountiful forest. Until one day, without a word, she left home to join the armed ranks of the Maoist rebel fighters, the Dada Log.

When he finally returns to his roots as a young man, he finds Bastar consumed by fire. The indigenous Adivasi population has mounted a desperate, armed rebellion to protect their sacred land and lives from state-backed corporate exploitation. In a ruthless retaliation, entire villages have been razed to the ground, and their displaced inhabitants packed into dingy, militarized camps. Determined to find his silent sister, he enters the forest once again. This time, he is forced to confront the complex, violent deceptions of those who rule, those who rebel, and those who profit from a land they do not own or understand.

Originally published in Hindi as Kaale Adhyaay, Manoj Rupda’s I Named My Sister Silence is a quietly fierce, profoundly moving masterpiece. It is an indictment of modern progress that continues to burn bright in the mind long after the final page has been turned.

Why This Translated Masterpiece is a Must-Read:

• JCB Prize Recognition: Highly acclaimed within the Indian literary community for its radical perspective on the central Indian tribal conflicts.

• Powerhouse Collaboration: Combines the visceral, razor-sharp Hindi prose of Manoj Rupda with the empathetic, award-winning translation skills of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar.

• An Urgent Eco-Political Novel: Strips away mainstream narratives to offer a deeply human, devastating look at the cost of corporate displacement and structural violence on Adivasi lives.