Tapan Kumar Pradhan

Kalahandi - The Untold Story Tapan Kumar Pradhan

Once known as the "rice bowl" of India, Kalahandi became infamous for large scale starvation deaths in the 1980s. The agrarian economy of Kalahandi was devastated following a 20 year famine starting in 1965. This book shows that although the famine was a natural calamity, the starvation deaths were an avoidable manmade disaster. The real life stories and poems in this book describe in graphic details the economic and sexual exploitation of poor tribals of Kalahandi by scheming moneylenders, businessmen, local contractors, politicians and indifferent bureaucrats. Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan won the Indian Academy of Letters Sahitya Akademi's Indian Literature Golden Jubilee Prize in 2007 for his poem collection "Kalahandi". His other works include "I, She and the Sea", "Wind in the Afternoon", "Dance of Shiva" and "The Buddha Smiled" which won prize at All India Poetry Competition.