A powerful Tamil Novel. Kuruthi Punal is based on the dalit struggle against upper caste, culminating in a climax that depicts the burning of dalits in kezhvenmani, an obscure village in Thanjavur ( a tragic real incident).
I particularly liked the satire style. Politics & politicians are ripped apart even though they don't play a big part in the novel. It was panned by many for not highlighting the true nature of the struggle (In the novel - it paints personal vendetta as against social upheaval) The author, Indira Parthasarathy justifies that ..it is a novel based on the incident & it does not have to follow the original. Whatever, only very few mainstream novels dare to take sides on a very tragic gruesome incident. Kudos for that.