When an upper-caste mob sets fire to a Dalit settlement in Lathore village, Odisha, forty families become homeless overnight—refugees in their own land. Seen through the unflinchingly honest eyes of Makaru, a Dalit migrant settled in Raipur, returning to his ancestral village after years of exile, Burnt is a powerful meditation on memory, trauma and survival.

As he journeys by train to the place he had fled as a boy, Makaru also journeys deep into his childhood, tracing the roots of caste violence and resilience that have shaped his community, and confronting memories he wants to forget. The train—linking past and present—is a symbol of mobility and change, and a vital catalyst of Dalit self-awareness and emancipation.

Based on a true 2012 incident, Basudev Sunani’s Odia novel Padapodi—from pada or locality and podi, which means burnt—is an urgent reckoning with India’s caste realities. Sunani weaves an unforgettable tale of systemic oppression over three generations, while lyrically and vividly portraying the many life worlds of the Odia Gana community: their festivals, music and deities; the scars left by violence, migration and erasure; their humanity, humour and restraint. He celebrates the stoic dignity and fierce pride of a vibrant people battling subjugation even as they continue to hope, to dream and to remember.

A story of loss and resistance, despair and defiance that comes alive in Raj Kumar’s compelling and evocative translation, Burnt is a searing reminder that as long as caste endures, the fires it ignites will continue to raze histories and futures. Yet from the ashes, voices will always rise. This landmark novel by an award-winning writer is a must-read for lovers of Indian literature.