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Akhila Naik's Bheda (2010) has the distinction of being the first Odiya Dalit novel. It is set in remote villages of the Kalahandi district in western Odisha mired in poverty, drought, famine, child trade, and malnutrition. The novel traces the lives of the educated members of the Dalit community, who become conscious of their plight and rise up in revolt. Threatened by the collective, the upper castes unite to take revenge on the Dalits and their leader Laltu. After gruesome violence is inflicted on the community, the movement comes to an abrupt end with the connivance of the state, the police, the media, and civil society at large. The word bheda means a sense of difference. When used with the word bhaba (meaning existence in this context), it implies the differences that exist among people in terms of caste, class, or race. It also means 'the target'. The title ties together the multiple meanings of this word.

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Akhila Naik, an exponent of Dalit literature and issues, is a leading Odia poet, story teller and novelist. He teaches at the Department of Odia at the Government College (Autonomous), Bhawanipatna, Odisha. His writings based on current rural issues centred around the Dalits and the downtrodden. Raj Kumar is a professor in the Department of English, University of Delhi. His research areas include autobiographical studies, Dalit literature, Indian writing in English, Odia literature and postcolonial studies. He has been a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, in 1999. His book, Dalit Personal Narratives: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity has been published by Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi, in 2010 and got reprinted in 2011.

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