INTRODUCTION When I first encountered Gurdial Singh’s Marhi Da Deeva, it wasn’t in a classroom or a lecture hall — it was in the quiet corners of my university library. The book’s unassuming cover belied the weight it carried. What began as an academic reading for a Dalit literature seminar turned into a deeply personal experience, a mirror reflecting not just the rural Punjab of the 1960s, but the layered complexities of caste, memory, and survival. This novel didn’t...