About the Book: The Step Child: Angaliyat
Angaliyat tells the story of oppression and exclusion by transforming the
vanquished into the victor, by turning the periphery into the core. The
portrayal of Methi and Kanku as pure women challenges the age-old perceptions of
higher castes which denigrate the practice of remarriage among backward
communities. The stepchild who follows the mother to a new home holding her
finger or angali, remains on the periphery of the stepfathers family.
Significant from several points of view, the novel provides a view of the
history from below. Caught in external and internal forms of colonization, the
community of weavers, the