None
EN
A River Remembers: Author Zeyaur Rahman on memory, identity, and the politics of belonging
['Aishwarya Khosla', 'Aishwarya Khosla Spearheads The Digital Strategy', 'Execution For The Books', 'Literature', 'Puzzles', 'Games Sections Of The Indian Express. With Over Eight Years Of Experience In Journalism', 'Aishwarya Specialises In Literary Criticism', 'Cultural Commentary', 'Long-Form Features', 'Which Explore The Intersection Of Identity']
The Indian Express
Short story writer and socio-political commentator Zeyaur Rahman’s debut novel A River Remembers articulates the anxieties of a fractured identity caught between caste, religion, and geography, and posits an insolent question: who gets to belong.
The Indian Express spoke to Rahman about the politics of belonging, the weight of representation and sidestepping the dangers of empathy tourism.
Edited excerpts:The protagonist Roshan carries no caste marker or religious identity, nor does he belong to any one region.
In many ways, he is an outlier in a society that organises itself through categories.
We often mistake identity for identification.