A new cover for Ek Dalit Deputy Collector, replacing a faded photographic original.
Roop Narayan Sonkar's novel had been in print for years under a cover that was, in practice, a photocopy — a grainy black-and-white photograph on tinted stock, published by the Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi. The book deserved better than the edition it had.
The story is contemporary and political, and a cover for it can fail in two directions: too literal and it becomes a pamphlet, too abstract and it disowns the subject. It also had to work in Devanagari, at thumbnail size, on a retail listing.
An illustrated cover built around the confrontation at the centre of the book — the officer, the woman, the child — lit warm against a deep ground so the figures carry at any size. The title is set in a quote treatment at the head, the author's name anchors the foot, and the whole thing was prepared and checked through to press.
