India, May 30 -- Where Freedom Reigns is a powerful and poignant novel that challenges the conventional narratives of India's struggle for independence. Originally penned in Odia and translated into English by Kanak Hota, the novel is a stirring political allegory that honours the unsung heroes of the freedom movement, ordinary people who dreamed of justice, equality, and dignity in a liberated nation.

The novel unpacks the idealism and later disillusionment of a generation that sacrificed everything in the hope of building a just and equal India. Ray dares to confront the postcolonial truth: that the end of British rule did not automatically dismantle oppression. In fact, as the protagonist Diganta Keshari learns upon his return after t...