Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 1, Number 1. May 2018. ISSN: 2581-7094
Revolt
within Dalit Voice
Dalit Voice, Literature and Revolt, Edited by Sharankumar
Limbale & Jaydeep Sarangi, Authorspress, New Delhi, ISBN- 978-9387281783,
Pp 282 , Rs. 1200/-
In India we have Dalit literature, since the late
50s, or even going back to the 19th century. Perhaps these writers have
achieved something by non-violent means, in not only creating awareness of
their plight, but also encouraging others to follow them. But I believe that we
could use Dalit for the literature of all suppressed and oppressed people in
the world, the Afro-Americans in the United States, Rohingiya in Myanmar and
all minorities, the children and women around the world, all who are suffering,
despite all the world religions who claim to care for these people.
‘Dalit Voice. Literature and Revolt’ is an
anthology compiled by Sharankumar Limbale and Jaydeep Sarangi. True literature
is always in revolt, against the society, culture, religion, politics and against
literature itself. 'Dalit Voice' is such a revolt, a revolt that should be
carried all over the subcontinent, and across the seas to the rest of the
world, and within ourselves. Reading 'Dalit Voice' should open our eyes to the
plight of all Dalits among mankind.
The book talks about the unmentionable issue of
the inhuman socio-religious treatment of a section of mankind. The subject is
unmentionable because those who are guilty of the inhuman act are aware of the
wrong they are doing and are ashamed to openly mention, discuss or admit it.
There are still others who do not accept their wrongdoings, or that their
actions or inactions are wrong.
The book traces the history of the Dalit movement
and the revolt by the writers to create and develop a Dalit Literature. It
covers the works of Dalit writers from many regions of India, from Punjab to
Bengal and Tamil Nadu, facing different degrees of oppression and suppression
but with the same pain and suffering faced by their people. It exposes the
misconceptions that in regions like the Punjab there is no caste suppression or
oppression. While in most other regions the Dalits are openly treated as
sub-humans, trying to call themselves subalterns, identified by different caste
labels, in other regions where the religious practices or social norms do not
recognize castes, the people still suffer, they are the have-nots, the
landless, who are enslaved by the landlords.
The Dalit revolt may have begun with the Buddha, when he said,
"Birth makes not a man an outcast,
Birth
makes not a man a brahmin;
Action
makes a man an outcast,
Action
makes a man a brahmin."
(Vasala Sutta,
Sutta-nipâta, 142
Throughout history the suppression and oppression
of the fellow human beings by a few others have shown the world who the real
outcasts in India have been. The true Brahmins are among the Dalits, who by
their actions have proved they are truly humane human beings, while the true
Vasala or the untouchables have been among those who consider others as Vasala.
A person could consider himself as of the highest caste, highest in social
ranking, richest in material wealth and power. Yet if he is inhuman and evil in
his actions, he is spiritually a pauper, a person to be pitied, a person who
should be cast out from society because he pollutes the world.
'Dalit Voice' is a continuation of the revolt
begun by Buddha, awakenings the minds of the suppressed, giving them the
confidence that they are equal, or often superior to those who oppress them.
They are polluted not by birth, but by the pollutants among those who are
oppressing them.
When Bama comes out with the plight of the female
among the untouchables, she also exposes the pathetic and inhuman treatment
even a Christian nun faces among the followers of Jesus Christ, including the
‘touchable’ priests and nuns. These 'touchable' priests would probably have
pushed down Jesus Christ himself as an outcast, had he come amongst them today.
Meena Kandasamy also brings out the plight of the untouchable woman. When Joshi
Barbara writes, “A nasty joke, a quick and sudden hug a slap upon your heavy
buttocks. You are cornered like an easy prey. They enjoy the delicious most
touchable flesh of an untouchable girl. You moan and become a mother - mother
of a bastard. They button up the trousers and take a plunge in the Ganges.”
These few line describes the plight of the Dalit woman, throughout history, not
only among the 'scheduled castes' in India, but among all womankind. The
'touchable' male is absolved of any sin with the “dip in the river”. Was the
pun intended? Jaydeep Sarangi’s long
interview with Bama gives fresh
insights into Dalit feminism. Jaydeep is successful in bringing out Bama’s
inside out. What a life!
The same issue is faced by the untouchables who
had embraced Islam, as with those who embraced Buddhism. In a majority Hindu
region, being a low caste Muslim is a situation we cannot even imagine, and
even to think how a woman or a girl-child would feel, because they are thrice
oppressed, by gender, caste and religion. This is what F. M. Sahashinde
describes in his poems. The Dalits in Punjab had to face the Brahmanization of
Sikhism as explained by Neha Arora.
Ashok Gopal mentions the first Dalit autobiography of the cricketer Vithal
Palwankar, written in 1948. It is a book that we should study as to how Vithal
managed to enter such an exclusive domain where even a 'high caste' Indian
would have been treated worse than an untouchable by the white sahibs. Yet
Vithal gained the admiration of all. Articles on Bangla and Odiya Dalit
writings are eye openers for Dalit studies. I’m sure scholars will get to know
many unknown terrains of cultural silence for decades, which needs to heard all
over the world today.
In the end what we find is that everyone
throughout history had failed to correct the inhuman treatment of fellow human
beings. From Mahavira, Buddha, Ashoka, down the line to Mahatma Gandhi and
Babasaheb Ambedkar, all failed. Had Babasaheb tried to get the high caste
Hindus to accept and follow Buddha Dhamma, perhaps he would have been more
successful. Dalits converting to Buddhism or Islam or Sikhism did not help
these helpless people. They still remain as 'Scheduled castes', with just an
added religious label. Even Chritianization
of Hinduism failed to address the Dalit issue, while Brahmanization of Buddhism
carried over the caste conflict among the Buddhists too, as we find even in Sri
Lanka, specially among the Buddhst Sangha.
One area of study that is required, for a next
edition of Dalit Voice is to find out why king Ashoka had never mentioned the
caste problem in any of his inscriptions. It could be that the social evil of
caste discrimination was not found in the Greater Magadha country, or even
beyond. Had it been a problem, Ashoka would have commented and taken action
against it. When Ashoka wrote about “people mingling with the gods”, he would
have meant all the people, not a select caste or class. If we are to accept
this possibility, then it would also mean that caste discrimination was not
found during the time of Buddha or Mahavira, and that could be the reason they
had not taken a serious interest in the problem. Then we cannot say that Buddha
and Mahavira had failed. Instead what we need to study then is when and why the
Greater Magadha people gave in to the Brahmins, and accepted the lower status.
Ashoka also is evidence that the belief “caste
system controls Indian society from time immemorial” (M. B. Gaijan p. 143) is a
myth which has been forced down our throats by the Brahmins much later. But the
writer is bringing up a very important stage of Bangla Dalit literature by
writing on Manohar Mauli Biswas, a poet I admire and empathize with, even
though I live in far off Sri Lanka. I recall from his autobiography (translated
by Angana Dutta and Jaydeep Sarangi), where he compares their people to water
hyacinth, probably because of its high adaptability, tolerance to pollution and
toxicity and resistance to disease and pests. Yet the Namashudra are not an
introduced alien group, like the water hyacinth, but our own brothers and
sisters. "Now it sometimes occurs to me that we were the children of the
sun - the infinite power of the sun was present in us and we lived on the
strength of that infinite power" May all the downtrodden, oppressed and
suppressed living beings, continue to have the strength of the infinite power
to survive and to achieve victory over the inhuman 'touchables'.
A question we have to ask ourselves, and the male
Dalit writers should ask themselves, is how we treat our own women and the
girl-child. Have we given them their freedom and their rights or are we ready
to grant them now? Let the female Dalit writers first fight for their own
emancipation from their own men, from their suppression and oppression. Begin
their revolt at home, emancipate their women and children at home, before
stepping out to revolt against the village. Teach the non-Dalits, how to
respect their women and children, specially the girl-child.
Dalit writers have been publishing for over a
century. Not only the Dalits but the non-Dalits, the people of the 'unscheduled
castes', the 'touchables’, too have been reading them. But have we really read
and accepted all these writings for what they really are, for the message in
them beyond their literary value? We have appreciated the autobiographical and
biographical works and admired their success despite all the obstacles they
faced. But what we need now is to study why the other siblings in such
families, why the other children in such villages, failed to overcome the same
obstacles. What kept them back. We have to find the cause or causes, we have to
find ways and means to motivate these other children, to guide and help them
too to overcome the obstacles.
Dalit literature needs to take a new turn, to aim
at the literate Dalits, to motivate them to pull the rest of their people out
of the purgatory. It is pointless to keep on about the suffering, inequality
and inhumanity of the rest of the society. This
all encompassing book will help the Dalit children to help themselves
than to try to reform the non-Dalits. Where Buddha had failed, where Ambedkar
had failed, it would be only wishful thinking that that the Dalits today could
reform the non-Dalits. Instead what is needed is to continue the struggle to
rise above the non-Dalits.
The revolt should be taken into their camp, the
camp of the others. Since already the suppressed people have identified and
labeled themselves as Dalits, why not label the others as 'non-Dalits', as
'touchables' as 'no-scheduled castes' and consider them as the untouchable,
unclean and of lower caste.