Vultures

Gujarat 1964. The agrarian system of renewable annual contract mandates fulltime labour on the houses and farms of landlords. In these bleak circumstances Iso a tanner by birth graduates from being a child labourer to an adult serf on the estate of Mavaji. . His life is one of humiliation hunger and drudgery and the only respite comes in the form of Diwali Mavaji’s daughter. Between them exists a physical relationship that is shrouded in secrecy shame and fear. Even as Iso creates distance between them a chance encounter turns to violence and tragedy and he faces the brutal sword of caste patriarchy.. Based on the blood-curdling murder of a Dalit boy by Rajput landlords in Kodaram village in 1964 Vultures portrays a feudal society structured around caste-based relations and social segregation in which Dalit lives and livelihoods are torn to pieces by upper-caste vultures. . The deft use of dialect graphic descriptions and translator Hemang Ashwinkumar’s lucid telling throw sharp focus on the fragmented world of a mofussil village in Gujarat much of which remains unchanged even today.