Description
History plays the undercurrent of my poetry. At the same time, writing poetry is an integral part of my social activism. My long years of activism taught me to become a vocal, close observer of past and contemporary situations. In the process, I became conscious of the socio-economic and political situations. I write what I see, what I feel what I understand, what I see as politically correct. My voice is for freedom, for people, against injustice, against colonialism and neo-colonialism. — Kamal Kumar Tanti
This book presents the best of Assamese poet Kamal Kumar Tanti, selected from his collections Uttar Oupanibeshik Kobita (2018), and Marangburu Amar Pita (2007), which won him the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar for 2012, translated by Shalim M Hussain and Dibyajyoti Sarma respectively.
Kamal Kumar Tanti incorporates the subaltern ethos with élan, and is a force to reckon with in Assamese poetry. If an unrelenting quest for identity, an intimate relationship with language and the audacity to tread a unique path in the labyrinth of our history distinguishes a major poet from a minor one, Tanti is your poet, rendered elegantly into the Indian English idiom by Shalim M Hussain and Dibyajyoti Sarma. — Chandramohan S, author of Letters to Namdeo Dhasal