Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Vauhini Vara. The Immortal King Rao. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2022. “We should be free to pursue our ambitions” (Chinna Rao, owner, coconut grove) “My ambition is to program” (King Rao) The Immortal King Rao is an innovative piece of writing that captures the social life of caste and provides a rich ethnography of Dalit ambition, initiative, and achievement through hard work. Several reviewers have written of the novel’s dystopian themes, the existence of a single shareholder’s government managed by an algorithm that has replaced nation-states, and the “exes” or large groups of people who have rejected this system and live in autonomous island zones. Vauhini Vara uses this original framework to offer new insights into Dalit lives by showcasing Dalit ambition and achievement, simultaneously tracing Dalit lives and mobility in India and in the United States while also expanding the genre of caste fiction. As a Dalit woman whose father grew up on a coconut farm in India, Vara has written a formidable novel on breaking free from the shackles of caste through education and migration—in India and abroad.
Source: The American Historical Review
DOI: 10.1093/ahr/rhae236
Author: Ramnarayan S Rawat
Institution: University of Delaware
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4403148319