Tinged with the salt of tears...

This is a haunting novel where the author highlights how idealism is abandoned in the name of profit, writes Areeb Ahmad.

The latest book of prolific Bengali writer Anita Agnihotri, translated into English by the equally prolific Arunava Sinha, sweeps across two parallel narratives that are connected geographically and thematically. A Touch of Salt is a trademark social realist novel. Set for the most part in the unforgiving salt marshes of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, its chapters alternate between the 1930s and the modern day.

The past narrative is centred around Mahatma Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha. At its periphery are Agariyas, a nomadic community, designated as a Criminal Tribe by the British and now a de-notified tribe, which has farmed salt in the Rann for centuries. Tribhuvan, a young Agariya boy, runs away from home to join Gandhi’s Dandi March. The present narrative is set around a small family of salt farmers whose sustenance is increasingly put at risk by the twinned forces of industrialisation and capitalism. Azad, the grandson of Tribhuvan, is a liaison with the local administration.

Agnihotri brings the Rann alive through her writing. The heat, the backbreaking work with less than plentiful rewards, the uncertainties of daily amenities ranging from freshwater to healthcare and functional schools — the life of an Agariya is embroiled in endless toil, which inevitably cuts it short before its time. Frequently, the prose shifts to the ‘mode’ of non-fiction — a recounting of facts in a dry, slightly detached tone rather than an immersive narrative; yet, it seems strangely fitting.

The Agariyas are the true salt of the earth but their exertions and exhaustions are tied to an exploitative system that uses their labour without adequately compensating them for it or even making their conditions liveable. This was the case in pre-Independence times and it remains the case today as well. Nothing changed for them on the ground even after 1947, pushed as they are to the very margins of society.

In the past narrative, Gandhi is seen as a messiah figure, especially through the eyes of Tribhuvan who almost builds his hopes and dreams around him. But it is truly a testament to Agnihotri’s skill that the novel avoids becoming another uncritical hagiography of Gandhi. There are some glimpses of his poor treatment of Kasturba who is deeply devoted to him. He is also very humanly frustrated when the Salt Satyagraha does not elicit strong reactions from the British initially. Tribhuvan is forced to wonder why Gandhi didn’t involve the Agariyas or come to the Rann if he cared for salt and the salt makers. There is also the fact that the march was unsuccessful and the high salt tax remained in place until Independence (and was even brought back later). Life for present-day Agariyas is much harder than Tribhuvan’s generation and the rose-tinted vision of ‘swadeshi salt’ is shattered.

While the narrative is hardly sunny or cheerful at any point, coloured with the present’s disillusionment, it takes a dark turn towards the end. The company which owns the Rann leases out a thousand acres to various big businesses which start to extract salt at an industrial level without any concern for the ecosystem: The Agariyas, who are already barely able to make ends meet, lose their precarious livelihoods overnight. When they try to protest, the state comes down on them in a manner that seems directly plucked out of headlines over the last few years. Bhima Koregaon comes to mind here in particular. Interestingly, Agnihotri’s original, Lobonakto, was published in Bengali in 2022.

During a speech on shunning symbols of extravagance and avoiding making others do unpaid labour, Tribhuvan realises that participating in a freedom movement is also a matter of privilege: “People had to be free, had to be independent, only then could they join the battle for azaadi. Or was it the other way round—would azaadi free people from all chains?”

Countless Agariyas continue to live and die in brine and sand. A Touch of Salt is a haunting novel where Anita Agnihotri highlights how idealist principles are abandoned in the name of profit and showcases the reality of neglect. The enduring image is of an Agariya’s salt-caked legs which refuse to burn during cremation and have to be later buried separately.