I was born in the shadow of fear. In Jaalkot, Thakur Ajgar Singh wasn’t just a landlord—he was god, judge, and executioner. My father, Inspector Jagdish Chandar, was the only man who dared say no. I saw what that cost him. The threats. The beatings. The night they dragged him home, bloodied and broken, after stopping the Thakur from raping a farmer’s daughter.

Now, I stand at the edge of the same fire. My brother Birju wants war. He says waiting for the law is suicide. Tonight, he’s planning to burn the Thakur’s granary. He wants me with him. My father says to stay. To trust the system. But the system let them hang our uncle from a banyan tree.

Birju hands me a kerosene bottle. 'This ends tonight,' he says. 'Are you with me, or with the dead men?'