Volume VI Special Issue III March 2026

Name of Author : Naseera MK

Title of the paper : Rehabilitation and Spatial Marginality: Lived Spaces in Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit by Manoranjan Byapari

Abstract: The study examines the relationship between rehabilitation and spatial marginality through an analysis of lived spaces in Manoranjan Byaparis autobiographical narrative Interrogating My Chandal Life. Foregrounding the historical context of post Partition displacement, the text provides a critical account of rehabilitation processes undergone by Bengali Dalit refugees. Rather than functioning as mechanisms of inclusion and social upliftment, rehabilitation spaces emerge as sites where caste based hierarchies, economic deprivation, and social exclusion are reproduced. Drawing on the concept of lived space, this study examines how spatial arrangements shape everyday experiences of survival, labour, and humiliation, thereby structuring refugee subjectivities. The paper argues that the movement from camps to colonies does not dismantle marginality but reconfigures it within new spatial forms sanctioned by the state. By foregrounding lived experience, Interrogating My Chandal Life challenges dominant narratives of rehabilitation and reveals how space operates as a crucial axis through which displacement and caste intersect. The paper thus contributes to broader discussions in Partition studies, Dalit literature, and spatial humanities.

Keywords : Refugee experience, Rehabilitation ,Spatial Marginality ,Marginalised subjectivity, Lived space

DOI :

Page Number : 220-223