Published Paper Details:

John Stuart Mill coined the term 'dystopia' in the middle of the eighteenth century. The term was first mentioned in his speech to the House of Commons in 1868. Dystopia, being the opposite of utopia or an ideal land, depicts a world full of chaos and destruction. It was in the twentieth century that this genre started to gain prominence. While many writers followed the pattern of creating an ideal land, with an organized structure and a civilized society, writers who engaged in dystopian genre set on to portray the world amidst chaos and destruction as opposed to an unrealistic utopian society. The characters in dystopian fiction fight against environmental destruction, totalitarianism, technological control and so forth. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale are some of the dystopian works that gained wide popularity. They focus on a world ahead in time where technology and totalitarianism hold the society in its clutches. As it emphasises on an imaginary future, it depictes a world where women are made sex-slaves in order to fulfil the needs of infertile families, a world that is run by technology where it controls the human emotions, and a world that is governed by the surveillance system that puts a halt to people's personal lives. Lately, Indian writers have turned to this genre and Leila, being one of the most influential Indian dystopias by Prayaag Akbar has reflected the same. However, unlike mainstream dystopian novels that offer a vision of an imaginary future, portraying what could possibly go wrong, Akbar's Leila echoes the present reality of the country wherein the caste system plays a crucial role. It reflects upon the current problems faced by the society in terms of social segregation and lays emphasis on the issues prevalent in the society such as honor killings, atrocities based on caste and so forth. Akbar's Leila can thus be called a 'living dystopia' which takes place in a real world and reflects upon the actual society that is slowly undergoing chaos or destruction, unlike the usual dystopia which is purely fictional and warns the real world. The caste system poses a threat to humanity. A large section of society enjoys the privilege offered by the government, while some people are exploited in the name of caste. Therefore, for such people caste can be dystopic. In this paper, the researcher attempts to delve into the aspect of caste in Leila by analysing the segregation that the society undergoes in the novel. This shall be done along with a parallel comparison with other dystopian novels like Brave New World, 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale. It will also focus on the issues prevalent in India such as atrocities based on the basis of caste and honor killings.