CU-MA-Eng-SEM-IV-Dalit Literature-Second Draft

3.5 TEXT-HE SAID 51 He said – I have followed you for a long time Now you follow me They said – We have got the ‘mouth’ And you have got the feet The dharma of the feet is to walk He said – I have ‘yes-sired’ you for a long time Now you show agreement with me. They said – We have got the speech And you have got the ears The dharma of the ears is to listen He said – I am homeless because of you Please return my dwelling to me They said – Jungle is the home of the tribals We shall spread the jungle’s wind It is a sin to go against the wind. He said – I am a ‘bullock with covered eyes Remove the blinds, let me see They said – CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Your dharma is not to see 52 But to ignore what you see He said – I shall walk against the wind Your words shall be entrapped like an echo They said – To stop the wind, to entomb the voice Is now totally impossible, impossible. 3.6 TEXT-A POET ASPIRES I don’t want My poems To be like monsoon streams Ruining and merging with a river And losing their identity I don’t want My poems To be part of the mainstream Whose holy books Divide a vast field into small plots And segregate into part the velvety greens To safeguard their caps and hair locks And forbid the opening of the third eye For the dark skinned people like me. I on the other hand want My poems To be like those birds CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Who flying across lanes and drains Of the village descend in any courtyard and To pick up the grains Without caring for the high of low dweller All I want is that My poems Should join that mainstream Which contains Eklavya, war songs on Banda Bahadur. Struggles of Peer Budhu Shah And the pain of Pablo Neruda 3.7 ANALYSIS-MATELLS ME Balbir Madhopuri himself is sharing his mom’s or mother’s words with his readers. Mother of the poem looked towards him and was telling about poet’s father. Before the birth of the poet, his father have forced so many situations in his life, and the problems with that he solved those and straightened those crooked path of life, this in the poem was mentioned as hills (life) and beyond. Challenges (the curves of life), gaps (problems usually high level people show to low class). The poet praises and feels proud about his mother that she after struggles still was so bright and strong. After the birth of the poet, his father was working so hard, says poet’s mother. His father used to work all day and night to bring up his baby and do not want his child to be poor and feel low. So, he works and wished to bloom the wasteland, the desert by working hard like digging canals in the tough place like shivalik hills. As the third phase of the poet’s growth started when he started running and playing. The poet’s father gave the poet a very comfort zone. All these happened because his father was very much low in childhood, which he does not want to happened the same in his son’s life at all. Hence, he focused to narrow down or poet’s growth. Even though there are tortures, the poet’s father called loudly and worked in the field to build the palace for the high class people, but the high class replied, the low class people was born and live for ages and ages just to serve them. In the contemporary world there are many innumerable people but only a few have a brave soul. The poet’s father is also one among them. He has struggling to lift the status up and the 53 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

challenges that he faced in each and every phase of growth of a poet, who has the burning red eyes and lean face and bowed to the problems and challenges that he faced and solved them, it is just because they are low and do not want the generations to be the same. Balbir Madhopuri has used the third person narrative technique in the poem and the word “ma”is referred as “mom”. He sucked the feeling and emotions of his mother’s words and father’s hard work and wants to change the classicism in the society through his thought provoking words. 3.8 ANALYSIS-HORSE AND THE OLD MAN Balbir Madhopuri points out that riding on the back of low class people were common for ages and ages. It was because of false rituals and rites by religion and caste framed by high class people. Classicism was the most important ingredient in the meal of poor people even now. Balbir Madhopuri is of the view that when the horse is whipped at his back by horse man, he will run fast even though he feels hungry and has kindness etc. When the low class people work under the high class, he faces so many struggles as like getting beating on their naked body. The poet says that rules are always kept ready because they are low class and they have to stand near the doorstep and not allowed to come inside because they are meant to serve not for share when high class kings need fun, they take the poor people who is personified as horse but actually horse is an animal which always only the high class have with them. This fun does not have any end because the horse man, the old man (High class-rich people) is the stake holders of the horse. Balbir Madhopuri describes that even the old man did not get time to sleep; still he sleeps secretly and he have to wake up when the sound comes from the high class people. It is said that when the horse is ready for the race, he will be hammered a shoe in his feet whereas poor people have also given some rules to be followed by high class people. Poor class people are always strong and they can always show and settle with their limit but not with the high class for ages and ages it has changed and it was being thumb rule that the low class people should always be dominated, rejected, ceased, slaved, tortured and left out, because they are poor, low class black skin and not fit for the society, treated as like an animal. 3.9 ANALYSIS-HE SAID Balbir Madhopuri speaks about the oppressed people referred in the poem as ‘tribals’. The poem goes like a conversation between two as on oneside is a man belong to tribal group and on the other is a group of people who are the masters for the tribals. This man, as a single 54 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

army, boldly questions the master’s group to give back his right, which was forcefully taken from him since past days. The tone or the words spoken by the man expresses his emotion and frustration. He was serving to the upper class for a long time, and he wants to claim his rights to roam freely in the society. He cannot bow down like a slave, as he was a being then. Considering the word ‘agreement’ as harmony, he wants to sign in the harmony or bring co-operation between two. A man cannot act freely even in the independent world. Here the readers can get the insightful thought that the man wants his master to consider freedom. Even a decision cannot be taken on his own. A man cannot act freely even in the independent world. Here, one can insight the thought that the man want his master and consider even his freedom. Even a decision cannot be taken on his own. For the man’s every request on saying, the master’s group has some answer to lock him with his duty to the upper class. The words are showing the unkind, merciless state of masters. They are speaking about the dharma, where there is only dharma but not the answer for the man. For instance, they are comparing with the features of them and the man, where they have got the ‘mouth’, which represents that they are the speakers and he has got the feet, where the dharma of the feet is only to walk, which represents that he has to follow the words of his masters. The masters have to speak and he has to listen and not more than this. The group has robbed all the habitat of the man, and now he struggles to find his dwelling. The masters took all the land of their servants and bring them under their control. Here, ‘Jungle’ is said to the dwelling of the tribals. The man can live in the jungle, and he has no right to go against the jungle’s wind. It has been considered that the masters are giving residence to the man, and he cannot go against them, which is considered as sin. In every word, spoken by the masters, they use the word, ‘dharma’, we can analyze that it is not a dharma, which is universal but according to dominators, these are the dharmas. Everyone in the world should have a freedom to speak, hear and see from their own perspectives. But here, the man is dominated by the master’s group and locked under the name of ‘dharma’. The man represents the entire downtrodden and ‘they’ represents the entire dominating force. The poem gives the concealing nature of the real dharma and used the term to keep the man under the control. 3.10 ANALYSIS-A POET ASPIRES Balbir Madhopuri begins his verse with pessimistic words as ‘don’t’. But later, he ends it with all the positive attire that one poem or poet should possess this as a quality. The author has written in first person narrative to express the idea that he has as a poet. The influence of 55 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

the poem can be taken in a positive and negative sense as the poem is short with four stanzas with which he states the quality of his poem that should be and should not be. As a poet, the poem of Balbir Madhopuri should not mix up with any others. He tells that he does not want his poem to be a work of imitation. The poem should not be like monsoon streams, where it reaches the river with dust, and loses its identity. The poet states that his poems do not want to be the superior or a main purpose. He does not want such a great area with small plots. The Holy books give immense than it is seen. For instance, a couplet of Shakespeare has given a deeper meaning to the context. With reference to the holy books, the poet might have noted the book, ‘Manusmriti’, the religious text that serves as a proof for the upper class people. It conveys that humans are segregated with ‘varna system’. The holy books are protecting the upper class people with their wealth and offerings to God, in which the wealth in the poem is mentioned as ‘caps’ and the latter represents ‘hair locks’. The holy books forbid the people to recognize the truth in the name of ‘dharma’, for the humiliated people. The poet does not want his poem to be the symbol of untouchability, or one refuses the rights of a poem like the Holy Scriptures. It is said that why Balbir Madhopuri has rejected the precious ideas. The poet gives about his poems and its appearance. The poet wishes that the poem wants to be like the free flying birds, which does not have any boundary and fly through the roads and drains. It is free to fly on any village, city, palace or hut. Whenever the bird wishes to land, it can and eat the grains without any difference as high class or low class. Like a freelance writer, the poet’s ideas consist of freedom and equality. On the whole, the poem should be in the mainstream that has Ekalaya, Banda Bahadur’s war songs, and struggles of peer Budhu Shah and the pain of Pablo Neruda. The poet concludes with mentioning the legends of the world, their struggles for the oppressed and their sacrifice for the welfare of the world. His poems should reflect the thoughts of great personalities who are the victims of oppressed people. The poet has realistically depicted from ancient till the modern age, where people are the followers of holy books and suppressing their own people in the country. 3.11 SUMMARY Ma Tells Me  Balbir Madhopuri has given the point of classicism that usually people have among them.  It is of low and high class, where poet’s father belongs to low class and he faces the struggles that extremely exist in the society for low class people. 56 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Mountains are always high and used to have the bends naturally, but the gaps and the problem are only for those who reads them, or travel in that.  In such case, the poet’s parent was working with the bends and makes them straightened just to life their children’s status. Horse and the Old Man  The poet describes that eating the grass and weeds from the fertile land is the duty of the poor horse  Poor man also will eat the left-out food of high class people, because they are poor and belong to low class but still the horse so active and powerful.  That is the reason why they did not even get the electricity or the basic needs they want.  Everything will fade and faint before it reaches the poor people house. He Said  An eye for the dalits is not to see but to ignore what they see.  Until, four stanzas, the man is not speaking against his master’s group but in the last final stanza, he replies to his master’s that he can walk against the wind that hear the masters but can go against them.  The poem has the note that the man could try as much as possible to violate his master but then it is neither possible nor free from their control. A Poet Aspires  Balbir Madhopuri has used the symbolic meaning in the second stanza, where he uses the holy books as the main object.  The poet wants his poem to attain the success like Holy Scriptures.  Though a holy book reveals a great incident, it segregates the softness and to protect the power and prestige that refuse to allow the state of enlightenment. 3.12KEYWORDS  Shivalik hills - The Sivalik Hills (also known as the Shiwalik Hills and Churia Hills), are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning across the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent.  Manusmriti – The Manusmriti lays down the law that a woman who makes love to a man of a higher caste incurs no punishment; a woman who makes love to a man of a “ lower” caste than hers must be isolated and kept in confinement. If a man from a subordinate caste makes love to a woman of the highest caste, he must be put to death. 57 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Dalit Panther Movement -The Dalit Panthers are an Ambedkarite social organisation that seeks to combat caste discrimination. The organisation was founded by Namdeo Dhasal, Arjun Dangle, Raja Dhale and J. V. Pawar on 29 May 1972 in the Indian state of Maharashtra.  Dalit Movement-Dalit movement is a struggle that tries to counter attack the socio – cultural hegemony of the upper castes. So it can be called as a movement which has been led by Dalits to seek equality with all other castes of the Hindu society.  Devolution- The transfer or delegation of power to a lower level, especially by central government to local or regional administration.  Phylum- one of the groups into which animals are divided, mainly based on the shape of the animal's body and the way that the body is arranged  Emancipation- To free from restraint, control, or the power of another especially: to free from bondage.  Pessimistic-Tending to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen.  Classicism-Classicism asserts the importance of wholeness and unity; the work of art coheres without extraneous elements or open-ended conclusions. Both ancient Greek and ancient Roman writers stressed restraint and restricted scope, reason reflected in theme and structure, and a unity of purpose and design.  Tribals- A tribe is a group of people that share ancestry and cultures, while living in their own enclosed society. They usually live in underdeveloped countries or areas, where they shun industry and live off the land, though this is not always the case. 3.13 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Define Classicism ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. State the struggles that extremely exist in the society for low class people. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 3.14 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Define feeling and emotions of mother’s words in Balbir Madhopuri’s “Ma Tells me”. 2. Explain the rituals and rites by religion and caste framed by high class people in Balbir Madhopuri’s “Horse and the Old Man”. 58 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

3. Describe briefly about the oppressed people referred in the poem as ‘tribals’. 4. What do you understand by the concealing nature of the real dharma referred in Balbir Madhopuri’s “He Said” ? 5. Infer how the poet wants his poem to attain the success like Holy Scriptures in Balbir Madhopuri’s “A Poet Aspires”. Long Questions 1. Enumerate how the poet focused to narrow down or poet’s growth Balbir Madhopuri’s “Ma tells me”. 2. Describe Balbir Madhopuri’s point of classicism that usually people have among them in Balbir Madhopuri’s “Ma Tells me”. 3. What are the rules for the poor class people in Balbir Madhopuri’s “Horse and the Old Man”? 4. Describe how the man represents the entire downtrodden in Balbir Madhopuri’s “He Said” 5. Explain how ‘Manusmriti’, the religious text that serves as a proof for the upper-class peoplein Balbir Madhopuri’s “A Poet Aspires”. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. In Balbir Madhopuri’s “Ma Tells me”, in the contemporary world there are many innumerable people but only a few have a _________soul. a. Discouraging b. Enlightening c. Entertaining d. Brave 2. In Balbir Madhopuri’s “Horse and the Old Man”, the poet points out that riding on the back of ___________ were common for ages and ages. a. Low class people b. High class people c. Middle Class d. Upper Low class 3. In Balbir Madhopuri’s “He Said”,the ___________ group has some answer to lock him with his duty to the upper class. a. Students’ b. Servants’ c.Masters’ d. Visitors’ 59 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

4. In Balbir Madhopuri’s “He Said”,‘Jungle’ is said to the dwelling of the___________. a. Saints b. Tribals c.Dwellers d. Entertainers 5. In Balbir Madhopuri’s “A Poet Aspires”,the__________are protecting the upper-class people with their wealth and offerings to God. a. Holy books b. Bible c.Manusmriti d.Thirukkural Answers 1-d, 2-a, 3-c, 4-b, 5-a 3.15 REFERENCES Reference books  Baker, S. Cast: At Home in Hindu India. New Delhi: Rupa publication, 1991.  Bama. Karukku. Trans. Lakshmi Holmstrom. Chennai: Macmillan India Limited, 2000  Basu, Tapan. (Ed). Translating Caste. New Delhi: Katha, 2002  Bose, N. K. The Structure of Hindu Society. New Delhi: Orient longman, 1994.  Limbale, Sharan Kumar. Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit literature: History, Controversies and Considerations. Trans. alok Mukherjee. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2004. Textbook references  A voice from Punjabi dalit literature: an interview with balbir madhopuri  \"MY CASTE, MY SHADOW: Selected Poems (Balbir adhopuri)\". Aakarbooks.com. Retrieved 2021-06-06.  http://www.balbirmadhopuri.in/2018/07/poems-by-balbir-madhopuri.html“ Website  \"The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum\". Www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 2021-06-06.  http://www.unistarbooks.com/literary/1221-balbir-madhopuri-diswaijeevani.html 60 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT - 4: MEENA KANDASAMY: “MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND,”“BECOMINGABRAHMIN,”“HOW THEY PROSTITUTE A POEM,”“ANOTHER LOST PARADISE” STRUCTURE 4.0 Learning Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 About the Author 4.3Text-Mohandas Karamchand 4.4Text-BecomingaBrahmin 4.5Text-How They Prostitute a Poem 4.6Text-Another Lost Paradise 4.7Analysis-Mohandas Karamchand 4.8 Analysis-BecomingaBrahmin 4.9 Analysis-How They Prostitute a Poem 4.10 Analysis-Another Lost Paradise 4.11Summary 4.12Key Words 4.13 Learning Activity 4.14 Unit End Questions 4.15 References 4.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Describe devastating criticism of the Father of the Nation  Identify Gandhi’s perception of the ideal of nonviolence and “Satyagraha”  State Meena Kandasamy’s critique of documented stories of Indian history and stories of other nationalists  List Gandhi’s philosophy and ethics 61 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

4.1 INTRODUCTION The word ‘Dalit’ is in Marathi language spoken by fifty million people in the state of Uttar Pradesh in western India. It mcans “downtrodden,” “ground down,” or \"depressed.\" They have suffered from the religious-social system. Short stories of ancient texts began to appear spotless in the 1950s, but grcat creativity include novels, poetry, short stories; plays appeared in the late 1960s. The school is a Marathi literary institution known as new and an explanation of the long story of Marathi Literature. It represents new voice and its theme include protest,pain, pride, and often revolution. 4.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Meena Kandasamy is a poet, fiction writer, translator and activist who is born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She has published two collections of poetry, Touch and Ms Militancy, and the critically acclaimed novel, The Gypsy Goddess. Her second novel, When I Hit You, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018. Her latest novel is Exquisite Cadavers. Her op-ed/essays have appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, The White Review, Guernica, Al Jazeera among other places. Personal Background: Meena Kandasamy was born in 1984 in Chennai. Her maternal grandparents were lower- caste Shudras who fell in love against social norms and left the country for Ethiopia where her mother, Vasantha, was born. They subsequently returned to India. Her father, Kandasamy, born in the nomadic tribe of Andi Pandaram in a tiny village in the Pudukottai District, was the first in his family, and village, to finish school, college, and university. He went on to receive a PhD in Tamil literature. He came from a landless family and was himself of mixed-caste heritage. His father, Karuppiah was a witch-doctor, and the hereditary professions were fortune-telling and begging. Even today, the words Andi and Pandaram continue to be slur words in Tamil and Malayalam that denote ‘beggars. Meena’s father grew up in an orphanage after his father abandoned the family. Her parents’ marriage in 1981 was considered anti-caste (jaathi maruppu thirumanam). Her mother worked at IIT Madras for three decades as a faculty of mathematics, a period during which she led a legal battle for the implementation of the reservation policy and for her work to be recognized by a hostile Brahmin academia. Her father taught Tamil for a time at the Madras University. Their involvement in the anti-caste struggle led Meena to work alongside Dalit movements and it influences all her work. PUBLICATIONS: In her late teens (2002) she was the editor of The Dalit, a bimonthly “that provided a platform to record atrocities, condemn oppressive hierarchies and document the forgotten heritage.”Subsequently, she translated the essays and speeches of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal 62 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Katchi founder-leader Thol.Thirumavalavan into English: Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation (2003) and Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers (2004). In 2007, she translated Dravidian ideologue Periyar’s feminist tract Penn Yaen Adimai Aanaal? (Why Were Women Enslaved?) and co-wrote the first English biography of Kerala’s iconic Dalit leader Ayyankali. Her debut collection of poems, Touch (2006) was themed around caste and untouchability, and her second collection, Ms Militancy (2010) was an explosive, feminist retelling/reclaiming of Tamil and Hindu myths. Her critically acclaimed first (anti)novel, The Gypsy Goddess, (2014) smudged the line between powerful fiction and fearsome critique in narrating the 1968 massacre of forty-four landless untouchable men, women and children striking for higher wages in the village of Kilvenmani, Tanjore, Tamil Nadu. Her second novel, a work of auto-fiction, When I Hit You: Or, The Portrait of the Writer As A Young Wife (2017) drew upon her own experience within an abusive marriage, to lift the veil on the silence that surrounds domestic violence and marital rape in modern India. It was selected as book of the year by The Guardian, The Observer, Daily Telegraph and Financial Times; and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018, among others. Her third novel, Exquisite Cadavers, a work of experimental fiction was published in November 2019, and like her other novels was longlisted for the Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize. She received a PEN Translates award for her translation of Salma’s Manamiyangal (Women, Dreaming; Titled Axis Press, Penguin-Randomhouse India, 2020). At present she is exploring her non-fiction writing through an Arts Council, Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant. This support enabled her to write two long-form essays exploring female militancy in the LTTE/ Eelam Tamil liberation struggle (The Orders Were to Rape You (The White Review) and The Poetry of Female Fighters (Guernica)). She holds a Ph.D in sociolinguistics from Anna University, Chennai (2010). Her work has appeared in eighteen languages. She lives in East London with her children and her partner. She is represented by David Godwin Literary Associates. 4.3 TEXT- MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.” —Albert Einstein 63 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Who? Who? Who? 64 Mahatma. Sorry no. Truth. Non-violence. Stop it. Enough taboo. That trash is long overdue. You need a thorough review. Your tax-free salt stimulated our wounds We gonna sue you, the Congress shoe. Gone half-cuckoo, you called us names, You dubbed us pariahs—”Harijans” goody-goody guys of a bigot god Ram Ram Hey Ram—boo. Don’t ever act like a holy saint. we can see through you, impure you. Remember, how you dealt with your poor wife. But, they wrote your books, they made your life. They stuffed you up, the imposter true. And sew you up—filled you with virtue and gave you all that glossy deeds enough reason we still lick you. You knew, you bloody well knew, Caste won’t go, they wouldn’t let it go. It haunts us now, the way you do with a spooky stick, a eerie laugh or two. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

But they killed you, the naked you, 65 your blood with mud was gooey goo. Sadist fool, you killed your body many times before this too. Bapu, bapu, you big fraud, we hate you. 4.4 TEXT- BECOMING A BRAHMIN Algorithm for converting a Shudra into a Brahmin Begin. Step 1: Take a beautiful Shudra girl. Step 2: Make her marry a Brahmin. Step 3: Let her give birth to his female child. Step 4: Let this child marry a Brahmin. Step 5: Repeat steps 3-4 six times. Step 6: Display the end product. It is a Brahmin. End. Algorithm advocated by Father of the Nation at Tirupur. Documented by Periyar on 20.09.1947. Algorithm for converting a Pariah into a Brahmin Awaiting another Father of the Nation to produce this algorithm. (Inconvenience caused due to inadvertent delay is sincerely regretted.) 4.5 TEXT- HOW THEY PROSTITUTE A POEM It is uniquely easy For some to sell Ideals because Business of absent CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Goods is essentially 66 A sacrosanct but mostly A flimsy transaction. Some learn, early on, To prostitute their verse. So, in all the waking hours They scavenge for a simple simile That matches requirements, fulfills needs. They barter reality And every romance To a blurred triplicate Carbon-copy World of Hard Cash and Price Tags and Brand Names. In this brothel Of stilled hope and Stagnated stories, poems Are born virgin and endowed With voluptuous figures of firm, Full breasts and wide hips where men Prefer to plant their pastime dreams, Or conceive their seed, Or merely spite themselves, Or dabble at domination. But, the poem, with this Bogus existence becomes An adept, untiring prostitute. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Taken 67 On a starry night, The poem opens (dry and drab and dreary: lacking love and life) like The paid-for parting Of the thighs. 4.6 TEXT- ANOTHER LOST PARADISE One sleepy summer afternoon, while helping myself to a glass of chilled water, I saw a snake lying curled under the fridge. It could have been a very poisonous cobra. Very quickly, I chose my mode of attack: Acid. Staggering, I reached for the glass bottle so that I could pour the yellow-green cheap acid on its slimy body, burning it to death. “Stop it”, the snake hissed in pure Tamil connecting with me in the language of my prayer and poetry. “I am an exile.” And I configured mental images of political refugees. It wriggled out and I saw that it was balding, almost Rushdie-like, perhaps with a death sentence too. Controversy was a crowd pulling catch-phrase, to which I dutifully succumbed. Acid bottle in hand, I heard the snake preach to me about living in detachment. “The perfection of life is when you do not know the difference between yielding and CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

resisting.”The scrawny being writhed further 68 and told me of rebirth and reincarnation. Being a writer I really wanted to take notes. Instead I began arguing. “Shut up”, the snake said to me, “Karma and the whole stuff that follows it is just bunkum. You, a crazed agnostic, disagree because of borrowed ideas.”Sharp movements of the red tongue terrified me. Almost sensing my fear, it said, “You could never challenge what you do not comprehend.”The snake spoke in circles, in patterns that could only resemble a snake swallowing its tail. Whatever. And then it occurred to me: Speech was the oldest trap, the charming deceiver, persuasion’s weapon and Satan’s first area of expertise. “Stop it”, this time I said the words. “Tell me just your story. Save the cant and rant for critical times.” My acidic tone gained me a menacing status and I continued, “You are a mean serpent. Instigator.Trouble-maker.Sly liar. Undulating temptation-provider. Unworthy reminder of the seduction of strength over matter.”It protested in a booming resonant voice, “No, I am not any of this. I am just an exile, from paradise. Because of your Catholic upbringing, you don’t even know about the paradise lost in Hinduism.”Who bothered for history or heritage, except shriveling snakes and failed writers? At least, we both had something in common. “Look here comrade, my credentials CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

are different. In heaven, I was an activist. An 69 avid dissenter. Before the accession to heaven, longlong ago, I was a mighty monarch on earth, feared and respected. I was Nahusa the Great. My subjects were happy, the kingdom prosperous. And I ruled for twelve thousand years, until the day when I decided that I could take leave of life. In heaven too, I was venerated. But one question had plagued me all the years of my long life, and it still tormented me in heaven. I wanted to know why caste was there, why people suffered because of their karmas. I questioned the Gods, and the learned sages there. I asked them what would happen if an high-born did manual work just like the low-born. I worried about the division of labor, this disparity in dreams and destinies. You could say I was a rebel pleading for liberty-equality-fraternity. I had a riotous history of revolution. The Gods plotted against me, decided that I was trouble. I was cursed to turn into a vile snake. I was banished from paradise. For sixty million years, I shall roam the earth, and then I may return.”This was a different case of the paradise lost. In this tale, there was no forbidden fruit, no second fickle-minded woman. Tradition triumphed over reason and the good were cast away. I let the serpent go, happy that he had given my hungry mind a story, or perhaps, a poem to be written on unfair days. I began to respect snakes — the challengers of hierarchy. While I gave him the freedom of safe passage I vowed never to kill serpents. Much later CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

I realized brutally that this was just another occupational hazard for choosing a life where I was to be showing solidarity with activists and dissenters. 4.7 ANALYSIS- MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND Meena Kandaswamy’s poem “Mohandas Karamchand”embodies her devastating criticism of the Father of the Nation, Gandhi, and his philosophy and ethics. She completely denies the prestigious “Mahatma”given to him in South Africa and his recognition of the ideals of nonviolence and “Satyagraha”. After that, the categories of layered societies collapse. As Communism wins, the nation “declines”as an organ of oppression and no longer exists. Kandaswamy is a Marxist who can be released from the patriarchal and caste clutches through something radical like a rebellion. Their dissatisfaction with the homogenization of nation-building and nationalism, and their vicious criticism of Gandhi as the nationalist, and thus the Father of the Nation, lead Meena Kandasamy to “harijan”Gandhi from the underclass and the underprivileged of society. It culminates when you accuse it of calling it, according to Gandhi, meaning the children of God. However, in line with Dalit intellectuals, the term “harijan”can be a derogatory term, and its ontology is often that senior castes and elites of society visit prostitutes and “ravages”themselves. It goes back to before the colonial era. Later, they went against all their responsibilities of getting the prostitute pregnant. The fatherless children of these prostitutes were formerly known as “Harijans.”This tradition has been going on for centuries. Therefore, later Dalit intellectuals and other critics used the excuse that Gandhi called them children of God to hurt them and to “scratch people from the privileged sections of lower caste and society. They claim that they secretly intended to consolidate their stigma by considering them as “Harijan”, so that they never overcome the division and domination of the caste, and the heterogeneity of their identity and culture. The relentless suffering of disadvantaged people is also subtly illustrated by the explanation of their health illness due to the consumption of tax-exempt salt produced in their own country under the supervision of Gandhi. But the elites of society have enough wealth and power to avoid this hostile situation, even though they are the ones who direct and enjoy nationalism and the resulting privileges. 70 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

This unequal social order and the transformation of people from disadvantaged lower castes into eternal scapegoats persuaded Kanda Sammy to challenge and satirize the economic and nationalist ideals of the village of Gandhi. Therefore, Meena Kandaswamy’s hostility to Gandhi and her tendency to expose his hypocrisy under the façade of holiness and concerns of his suspicion of the underprivileged in India. This unequal social order and the transformation of people from disadvantaged lower castes into eternal scapegoats make Kandaswamy question and ridicule the ideals of Gandhi’s village economy and nationalism. Persuade. Therefore, the poetess’hostility to Gandhi and his tendency to expose his hypocrisy lies under the façade of sacredness and concern for the underprivileged in India. 4.8 ANALYSIS- BECOMINGABRAHMIN One of Kandaswamy’s other poems entitled “Becoming a Brahmin”depicts another type of exploitation that can be called idealistic exploitation. The poem describes the chronological steps to transform the Dalit into a Brahmin allegedly promoted by nationalist leaders and promoted by Gandhi through the marriage system. This poem is a truly supportive document written by one of the Dalit intellectuals, Periyar, about Gandhi’s speech in Tirupur on September 20, 1947. So he said that if a Shudra girl married Brahmin and gave birth to a girl, and also if the girl married Brahmin in the future and this step was repeated three or four more times, then he would only produce Brahmin. The poetess has questioned and blamed the predominant social forces and the tendency of upper caste and other nationalist idealisms to obliterate the heterogeneity of the opposing ideologies of the lower castes. This attempt by nationalist stories and other common socio- political ideologies within society to endanger the heterogeneous identities of other ethnic groups was formulated by Louis Althusser, one of the greatest critics of Marxism. It is similar to the second of the two types of ideological propagation. He explained that the dissemination of this second type of ideology works through institutions such as marriage, education, family and religion, and other mainstream historical and cultural stories, which convince them of the correctness of this situation and convince them to simply accept the norms and values of society. This in turn suppresses the voice, identity, and cultural heterogeneity of demoted people, thus prioritizing general ideology over marginalized people. This is often possible because these marginalized troops do not have the power to defend them and assert their own identities. The 71 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

second mode of this ideological dissemination is ideology. Known as the dissemination consent mode, in contrast to the coercion mode, power circulates in an insidious way. The second stage marks the beginning of the indigenous elite turning to a form of people and popular culture in order to gain both public support and identity brought about by the local culture. But the most important and important stage is the third stage, where the fusion of Western models and popular elements is projected by the elite as indigenous nationalism. So what is clearly shown is exactly this country and the process of nationality formation. A way in which socially descending classes and tribes are consciously pushed by the elite and their own voices are always ignored in documented stories. An anti-colonial force mobilizing her project to build a nation-state, she was always skeptical of the consequences of upset policies among peasants. While limiting their participation to the typical bourgeois politics in which the peasants are considered part of the nation, Meena Kandasami, who is far from the state institutions, is these nationalist and different only in the caste sector. It not only criticizes other historical and cultural stories, but also shapes it over the years. Their plan to satirize the actual projects of nationalism and the nationalist movement is to “become a Brahmin.”It is clearly reflected in the line of poetry. She persuades women to express their desires, dreams, and independent views and encourage them to represent themselves, rather than being constantly spoken by patriarchal societies and their male counterparts. This urge by Kanda Sammy to develop an alternative tradition of feminist poetry to emphasize the independent voice of women has an affinity for the third stage of “women’s criticism,” Meena Kandasamy’s poems are truly based on Dalit community, since she is a Dalit. She was repeatedly humiliated for 26 years which makes her to fight back, through her social activism and her inflammatory writing in poetry. In most of her poems, she addresses issues of caste and untouchability, something which stems from her being a Dalit, considered the lowest and most oppressed of India’s castes, formerly known “untouchables”. In this poem, “Becoming a Brahmin”the pitiable position of “untouchables”or “the Dalit”who are marginalised in many is described by the poet.It mainly deals with how “Brahmins of upper caste community, usually dominates the Dalits or the untouchables. The poem starts with the lines, ‘Take a beautiful Shudra girl/ Make her marry a Brahmin”. The word Shudra is derived from a Sanskrit word, which means the people who are oppressed or the people who are marginalised or the people who are allowed only to work as 72 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

the servants or slaves to the Brahmins or the upper caste. Meena portrays a Dalit girl in this line. She describes her as a beautiful girl, Usually Dalit girls are considered ugly due to the dark complexion which they possess and upper caste people thinks that only their community girls are beautiful. So Meena portrays that even Dalit girls can also be beautiful. Dalit girls are marginalized in this society. In the following lines, Meena wants women of her community to come out of their customs on break the history by asking a Dalit girl to marry a Brahmin boy and by this step, a Dalit girl can become a Brahmin which is significant to the title of poem. The poem can be analysed in many ways. The poet indirectly mentions the fact that, a male shudra or a Dalit men is always a Dalit women until this death, but a when a Dalit women goes out to marry a Brahmin boy, she automatically becomes а girl of Brahmin community, so their generation also comes out as Brahmin: “Let her give birth to his female child. Let this child marry a Brahmin.” The next step which poet says in this poem, is that, she asks that particular Shudra girl or that Dalit girl to give birth to a “female child”, because she knew that when a male child is born in their Brahmin community he is not allowed to marry Shudra girl. So, the poet asks the Dalit girl who marries the Brahmin boy to deliver a Baby girl, when she grows up can marry another Brahmin boy and this is how the Brahmin generation develop in this society, Now, the whole Dalit generation will be transformed into Brahmin. This poem is actually a satirical one, in which, the poet wants the people of her community to get all the rights to freedom, respect which Brahminical community usually gets in this society. The only way in which a Dalit can become a Brahmin is marriage, so the poet criticizes the upper carte Brahminical dominance with these lines. This poem is not the original poem, that is a speech of Periyar, who is a Dalit intellectual. He gave a speech on 20thSeptember1947 about Gandhiji. There along with that speech he mentions these ideas which Meena uses in her poem “Becoming a Brahmin”. Finally Meena satirises by addressing that she is waiting eagerly for another Father of Nation to reproduce this steps which she prefers to as algorithm. 4.9 ANALYSIS- HOW THEY PROSTITUTE A POEM Meena Kandasamy’s poem “How They Prostitute a Poem”shows her plans to clarify subculture resistance to the process of literary normalization. Here, she resolutely opposes the mainstream literary agenda, from the silent section of society, and most of the 73 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

underprivileged section of society that needs to receive the unhindered voice of women and deal with constant suffering. Their lives, which inevitably become part of their lives, unlike mainstream literature, which seeks to propose and defend alternative literary traditions from women. Therefore, Meena Kandasamy refuses to recognize the modality and agenda of the composition of absolute historical truth and resists opening up the possibilities of other extraordinary stories. 4.10 ANALYSIS- ANOTHER LOST PARADISE In thispoem, two paradiseare compared. That is John Milton’s biblical story “Paradise Lost”, Satan is against God. But in this paradise Lost by MeenaKandasamy, Dalit men is against men. MeenaKandasamy chooses snake as an object in this poem. But there are commoness in both the poet and the snake.Hindu mythology says that snakes are “Shudra creature which belongs to Lower class community. Thus, here the poet Kandasamy is also from Dalit which is a lower community. In the first stanza, the poet talks about a summer afternoon. As the poet feels sleepy and thirst, she decides to drink chill water from the fridge where she finds a poisonous Cobrasnake lying under the fridge and she was shocked to see the snake. This situation can be compared to the thirst of every dalit people. Whenever, they wanted to feel relaxed. and pacify their thirst (by drinking water), they always have hurdles which prevents them or stops them to feel relaxed [snake]. In the second stanza of the poem, even in the very beginning of the poem, we can understand that the poem is in first person narration. Now, in the second stanza, she wants to defend the snake even though it did not harm her. It is very natural among human beings to kill an organism that too like snake because they know that it will harm them. So she decides to kill it by pouring acid on it. MeenaKandasamy is very keen in describing each and everyevent that happened those days which proves that she is much realistic poet in Indian poetry.Now, the snake replied in pure Tamil language to stop the act of pouring acid on its body, by hiring out saying,“stop it”. The poet is also a Tamil writer and the prays in Tamil language. Now the poet thinks that the snake is her innervoice, because the snake says that it is exile. This makes the reader or the poet to remember the poet’s suffering of how they get marginalized and banished from the patriarchal society. The poet also prays not to be separated from the society and to come away from sufferings. She feels that the snake too is payingsuccumbled (agreeing the defeat) when the snake startedpreaching about detachment stating the perfection of life is when you do not know the difference between yielding and resisting. The snake is speaking about the perfection of life and she is comparing the snake with a preacher by presenting the reality of the Dalit in this marginalized society. She also says that 74 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

snake continued preaching aboutrebirth and which is usually preached by preachers, and she is using pun by saying that she really wanted to take notes as she is a poet but she argues with the snake and the snake stops her and continues. The snake further continues to speak about karma which it criticises as a meaningless one. The poet is afraid of the red tongue of the snake which moved very sharply. It emphasises more on the criticism of karma.Now the snake mentions about how the speech of Satan influenced eve in making mistake by eating the forbidden fruit. Now, the poet is somewhat angry because she knew the story of Adam, and Eve and asks the snake to carry on with his own story. With the same anger in her heart she continues to scold the snake; as a liar, troublemaker and was so mean and was so mean and she further adds that the snake was a temptation provider too. But the snake exclaims that it was none of there. But In the final two stanzas, the snake gave an eye-opening speech.( This speech is can also be taken in the view of MeenaKandasamy)that is her own speech too. The snake confesses that it was just an exile from paradise, and it had great history. It says since the writer as a catholic, she might be unaware of the Paradise Lost in Hinduism. Paradise Lost in Hinduism is very tough and complicated, only snakes and failed writers can understand the Paradise Lost in Hinduism. Now the snake calls the poet as comrade, a friend who had some similarities like him. This is what themain theme of the poem. The poet wanted the poet to convey her own feelings and emotionsand indirectly she uses the speech of the snake as her own voice and inner voice. The snake exclaims that he was an activist in heaven. Before coming to the heaven, the snake was in earth, and he lived in a largemonarch on earth. The snake was called as Nahusa, the great and the snake ruled for 12 thousand yearswhere he was very happy and was respected in that particular kingdom. But when he went to heaven, he started asking questions about gods and the inner of life in the society along with Karmas and also about haves and have not along with his pleading for liberty and equality in heaven. Now the God cannot answer to the question of snake and because God had the superior power and do not want to answer to the question of the snake, and so he threw away the snake from heaven. GOD -UPPER CASTE PEOPLE SNAKE -DALIT COMMUNITY ASKING FOR EQUALITY IN HEAVEN- ASKING FOR EQUALITY IN SOCIETY. HEAVEN - INDIAN SOCIETY The snake further says this was the very different kind of Paradise lost which no one knows. The snake wanted toknow why there was caste and why there was divisionamong organisms in heaven and why people of low born are not appreciated for their risky and high works which they do, but high-borns are always appreciated for even they dolow risky works. 75 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The story of the snake, registered in the mind of the poet and she got clear idea and got answersfor all her questionswhich she wishes to ask to the upper caste men. She then began to have respect snakes whom she considers as the challengers of hierarchy. She took vow of not killing snakes after hearing the traditional stories of snajes. At last, she later realizesthat she is a currently risky earth where she is forced in mingling with all the dissenters. The burden of the snake is more than or equal to the burden of the Dalit men. Dalit men ask for their own rights and liberty in the society, but the dominical uppercaste just threw away Dalit as of how God threw waysnake. The traditional practice did not change and so the fate of the Dalit is also not changed till now that leads them to be marginalizedin this upper-caste Brahminical Society. 4.11 SUMMARY Mohandas Karamchand  The relentless suffering of disadvantaged people is also subtly illustrated by the explanation of their health illness.  It is due to the consumption of tax-exempt salt produced in their own country under the supervision of Gandhi.  But this is because the elites of society, despite being those who direct and indulge in nationalism  Its consequent privileges, have sufficient wealth and power to avoid this hostile situation. Becoming a Brahmin  Meena Kandasamy’s work is both feminist and anti-caste. She persuades women to express their desires, dreams, and independent views  It encourages them to represent themselves, rather than being constantly spoken by patriarchal societies and their male counterparts.  This urge by Kandaswamy to develop an alternative tradition of feminist poetry  It emphasizes the independent voice of women has an affinity for the third stage of “ women’s criticism”  It also deals with marginalized women in developing countries. How they prostitute a poem  A new history of reading, at the same time, traces of the myriad of suffering and discourses in the lives of the unruly and women 76 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 It has come from the underprivileged layers of society, which are overshadowed by the obvious most days.  Efforts to rediscover popular empathy is showing socio-political discourse to others.  Therefore, Meena Kandasamy wants to question history and the absolutism of historical stories. This includes a veiled cycle of force. Another Lost Paradise  The poet questions against God and so in this Paradise Lost in Hinduism God turned him to be a vile snake, and banished the snake  It is with the punishment of 60 million years in earth and then only the snake could return to heaven.  This is a different case in paradise Lost, where there are no forbidden fruit, and no girl like Eve, only the tradition on the culture won and no good was appreciated.  It was just rejected. This is what prevailing even now. Now, the poet changed the mindset about of the snake and let it go. 4.12 KEY WORDS  Skeptical - Not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations.  Hostility – Hostile behaviour; unfriendliness or opposition.  Anti-caste- Anti-Brahminism or Non-Brahminism is a movement in opposition to caste based discrimination and hierarchical social order which places Brahmins at its highest position.  Clutch- To grasp or hold with or as if with the hand or claws usually strongly, tightly, or suddenly He clutched his chest and appeared to be in pain.  Radical- Radical is something that is at the root of something, or something that changes, addresses or affects the major essence of something. An example of radical is a basic solution to a complex problem. An example of radical is the change that allowed women to vote  Rebellion- open, armed, and usually unsuccessful defiance of or resistance to an established government  Underprivileged- Having less money, education, etc., than the other people in a society having fewer advantages, privileges, and opportunities than most people  Derogatory - Tending to lessen the merit or reputation of a person or thing  Propagation- The action of widely spreading and promoting an idea, theory, etc.  Dissemination- The action or fact of spreading something, especially information, widely. 77 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

4.13 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Define nationalism. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. State the relentless suffering of disadvantaged people. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 4.14 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Define Untouchables. 2. Explain Meena Kandasamy’s inflammatory writing in poetry. 3. Describe briefly how Meena Kandasamy addresses the issues of caste and untouchability. 4. Justify the pitiable position of “untouchables”in Meena Kandasamy’s “Becoming a Brahmin”. 5. Find out how Meena portrays that even Dalit girls can also be beautiful. Long Questions 1. Interpret how Brahmins of upper caste community, usually dominates the Dalits or the untouchables. 2. Describe how the Brahmin generation develop in this society. 3. Classify how the poet wants the people of her community to get all the rights to freedom and respect. 4. Describe how Meena satirises by addressing that she is waiting eagerly for another Father of Nation to reproduce this steps which she prefers to as algorithm. 5. Explain how Dalit men and women is always aDalit until their death. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Meena Kandaswamy’s poem “Mohandas Karamchand”embodies her devastating ________ of the Father of the Nation. a. Criticism b. Marxism c. Feminism d. Fiction 78 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

2. The elites of society have enough wealth and power to avoid this hostile situation, even though they are the ones who direct and enjoy ___________and the resulting privileges. a. Spirituality b. Entertainment c. Nationalism d. Freedom 3. The relentless suffering of ___________people is also subtly illustrated by Meena Kandasamy. a. Unwise b. Wise c. Advantaged d. Disadvantaged 4. Meena Kandasamy has questioned and blamed the predominant social forces and the tendency of____________. a. Lower Class b. Upper caste c. Upper Middle Class d. Lower Middle class 5. Meena Kandasamy was always _____________of the consequences of upset policies among peasants. a. Happy b. Skeptical c. Doubtful d. Bother Answers 1-a, 2-c, 3-d, 4-b, 5-b 4.15 REFERENCES References book  Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation, Thol. Thirumaavalavan, Samya (Kolkata) 2003.  Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers, Thol. Thirumaavalavan, Samya (Kolkata), 2004. 79 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Why Women Were Enslaved, Thanthai Periyar E.V.Ramasamy, The Periyar Self- Respect Propaganda Institution (Chennai), 2007? Textbook references  Waking is Another Dream: Poems on the Genocide in Tamil Eelam, D.Ravikumar (editor), Ravishanker (co-translator) Navayana (New Delhi), 2010.  (editor/translator): Desires Become Demons: Poems of Four Tamil Woman Poets: Malathi Maithri, Salma, Kutti Revathi, Sukirtharani, Tilted Axis Press (Sheffield), 2018.  Women Dreaming (novel), Salma, Tilted Axis Press (UK)/ Penguin Random House (India), October 2020. Websites  https://meenakandasamy.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/mohandas- karamchand/#comment-58  https://meenakandasamy.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/becoming-a-brahmin/  https://meenakandasamy.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/how-they-prostitute-a-poem/  https://meenakandasamy.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/another-paradise- lost/#comment-56 80 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT – 5:NAMDEO DHASAL: “KAMATIPURA,”“CRUELITY,”“DEDICATION” STRUCTURE 5.0 Learning Objectives 5.1 Introduction 5.2 About the Author 5.3 Text-Kamatipura 5.4 Text-Cruelity 5.5 Text-Dedication 5.6Analysis- Kamatipura 5.7 Analysis-Cruelity 5.8 Analysis-Dedication 5.9Summary 5.10Key Words 5.11Learning Activity 5.12Unit End Questions 5.13 References 5.0LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Describe theDalit literary movement.  Identify how Namdeo’s poems describe the pain and suffering of Dalit life.  State how Namdeo’s work captures freedom, democracy, and modernity.  List the artistic vision and extraordinary contributions of Namdeo Dhasal. 5.1 INTRODUCTION Dalit literature has emerged as a distinct domain of knowledge production in modern India. It will also discuss how Dalit writing as a distinct style of writing creates an understanding of the various historical and modern societies and how it challenges dominant literary conventions. It will also introduce students to some important debates in Dalit criticism. Dalit 81 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

literature was allegedly in Hindi literature in the early 1990s. He was greeted with great denial and rejected by the literary institution of the higher order. These rejections are based on arguments like immaturity of forms, lack of literary technology and abusive use of language. 5.2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Namdeo Laxman Dhasal is a Marathi poet, writer and Human Rights activist from Maharashtra, India.Dhasal was born on February 15, 1949, in a village near Pune, India. A member of the previously called Mahar class, he grew up in dire poverty. He spent his childhood in Golpitha, a red light district in Mumbai, where his father worked for a butcher. Following the example of the American Black Panther movement, he founded the Dalit Panther with friends in 1972. This militant organization supported its radical political activism with provocative pamphlets. Dhasal was one of the famous and outspoken members of this group. In 1973, he published his first volume of poetry, Golpitha. More poetry collections followed: Moorkh Mhataryane (By a Foolish Old Man) --inspired by Maoist thoughts-Tujhi Iyatta Kanchi? (How Educated Are You?); erotic Khel; and Priya Darshini (about the former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi). Dhasal wrote two novels, and also published pamphlets such as Andhale Shatak (Century of Blindness) and Ambedkari Chalwal (Ambedkarite Movement), which was a reflection on the socialist and communist concepts of Dalit movement founder Babasaheb Ambedkar. Recently, Dhasal has been writing columns for the Marathi daily Saamana. Earlier, he worked as an editor for the weekly Satyata. Activist In 1982, cracks began to appear in the Panther movement. Ideological disputes gained the upper hand and eclipsed the common goal. Dhasal wanted to engender a mass movement and widen the term Dalit to include all oppressed people, but the majority of his comrades insisted on maintaining the exclusivity of their organization. Serious illness and alcohol addiction of Dhasal overshadowed the following years, during which he wrote very little. In the 1990s, he once again became politically more active. Dhasal currently holds a national office in the Indian Republican Party, which was formed by the merger of all Dalit parties. In 2006, he publicly joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s call for “Hindu brotherhood”. Literary Style The Dalit literature tradition is old, though the term “Dalit literature”was introduced only in 1958. Dhasal was greatly inspired by the work of Baburao Bagul, who employed 82 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

photographic realism to draw attention to the circumstances which those deprived of their rights from birth have to endure. Dhasal’s poems broke away from stylistic conventions. He included in his poetry many words and expressions which only the Dalits normally used. Thus, in Golpitha he adapted his language to that of the red light milieu, which shocked middle class readers. The establishment’s assessment of Dhasal’s political, as opposed to his artistic achievements may differ drastically, but for the writer they are inextricably linked. In an interview in 1982 he said that if the aim of social struggles was the removal of unhappiness, then poetry was necessary because it expressed that happiness vividly and powerfully. 5.3 TEXT- KAMATIPURA The nocturnal porcupine reclines here Like an alluring grey bouquet Wearing the syphilitic sores of centuries Pushing the calendar away Forever lost in its own dreams Man’s lost his speech His god’s a shitting skeleton Will this void ever find a voice, become a voice? If you wish, keep an iron eye on it to watch If there’s a tear in it, freeze it and save it too Just looking at its alluring form, one goes berserk The porcupine wakes up with a start Attacks you with its sharp aroused bristles Wounds you all over, through and through As the night gets ready for its bridegroom, wounds begin to blossom Unending oceans of flowers roll out Peacocks continually dance and mate This is hell This is a swirling vortex This is an ugly agony This is pain wearing a dancer’s anklets 83 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Shed your skin, shed your skin from its very roots 84 Skin yourself Let these poisoned everlasting wombs become disembodied. Let not this numbed ball of flesh sprout limbs Taste this Potassium cyanide! As you die at the infinitesimal fraction of a second, Write down the small ‘s’ that’s being forever lowered. Here queue up they who want to taste Poison’s sweet or salt flavour Death gathers here, as do words, In just a minute, it will start pouring here. O Kamatipura, Tucking all seasons under your armpit You squat in the mud here I go beyond all the pleasures and pains of whoring and wait For your lotus to bloom. — A lotus in the mud. 5.4 TEXT- CRUELITY I am a venereal sore in the private part of language. The living spirit looking out of hundreds of thousands of sad, pitiful eyes Has shaken me. I am broken by the revolt exploding inside me. There’s no moonlight anywhere; There’s no water anywhere. A rabid fox is tearing off my flesh with its teeth; And a terrible venom-like cruelty CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Spreads out from my monkey-bone. 85 Release me from my infernal identity. Let me fall in love with these stars. A flowering violet has begun to crawl towards horizons. An oasis is welling up on a cracked face. A cyclone is swirling in irreducible vulvas. A cat has commenced combing the hairs of agony. The night has created space for my rage. A stray dog has started dancing in the window’s eye. The beak of an ostrich has begun to break open junk. An Egyptian carrot is starting to savour physical reality. A poem is arousing a corpse from its grave. The doors of the self are being swiftly slammed shut. There’s a current of blood flowing through all pronouns now. My day is rising beyond the wall of grammar. God’s shit falls on the bed of creation. Pain and roti are being roasted in the same tandoor’s fire. The flame of the clothless dwells in mythologies and folklore. The rock of whoring is meeting live roots; A sigh is standing up on lame legs; Satan has started drumming the long hollowness. A young green leaf is beginning to swing at the door of desire. Frustration’s corpse is being sewn up. A psychopathic muse is giving a shove to the statue of eternity. Dust begins to peel armour. The turban of darkness is coming off. You, open your eyes: all these are old words. The creek is getting filled with a rising tide; Breakers are touching the shoreline. Yet, a venom-like cruelty spreads out from my monkey-bone. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

It’s clear and limpid: like the waters of the Narmada river. 86 5.5 TEXT- DEDICATION Earth will not share the rafter’s envy; dung floors Break, not the gecko’s slight skin, but its fall Taste this soil for death and plumb her deep for life As this yam, wholly earthed, yet a living tuber To the warmth of waters, earthed as springs As roots of baobab, as the hearth. The air will not deny you. Like a top Spin you on the navel of the storm, for the hoe That roots the forests plows a path for squirrels. Be ageless as dark peat, but only that rain’s Fingers, not the feet of men, may wash you over. Long wear the sun’s shadow; run naked to the night. Peppers green and red—child—your tongue arch To scorpion tail, spit straight return to danger’s threats Yet coo with the brown pigeon, tendril dew between your lips. Shield you like the flesh of palms, skyward held Cuspids in thorn nesting, insealed as the heart of kernel— A woman’s flesh is oil—child, palm oil on your tongue Is suppleness to life, and wine of this gourd From self-same timeless run of runnels as refill Your podlings, child, weaned from yours we embrace Earth’s honeyed milk, wine of the only rib. Now roll your tongue in honey till your cheeks are Swarming honeycombs—your world needs sweetening, child. Camwood round the heart, chalk for flight Of blemish—see? it dawns!—antimony beneath CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Armpits like a goddess, and leave this taste Long on your lips, of salt, that you may seek None from tears. This, rain-water, is the gift Of gods—drink of its purity, bear fruits in season. Fruits then to your lips: haste to repay The debt of birth. Yield man-tides like the sea And ebbing, leave a meaning of the fossilled sands. 5.6 ANALYSIS- KAMATIPURA Namdeo Dhasal is a poet, activist, born unruly himself, and often silent in his life’s work to fight for the rights of those who lived with him. Namdeo also created the Dalit Panther Movement, following the example of the “Black Panther Movement”at the time. The Dalit Panthers were activists who sought to change the unfair treatment of Dalits. Namdeo has become a pioneer of theDalit literary movement, known for its deep interest in the underprivileged. His work broke away from poetic norms, often using words and words that only Dalits themselves used, talking about prostitutes, street scums, and the dead scattered on the floor was not used for vulgarity and directness Namdeo Dhasal is arguably one of the most important Indian poets of the second half of the 20th century. Not only does his work capture what freedom, democracy, and modernity meant to the average Indian in the decades after independence, but it is arguably full of contradictions. It also shows great poetic innovation. This essay puts Dhasal in the Marathi poetry tradition and seeks to appreciate its artistic vision and extraordinary contributions. Development of Marathi Poetry In order to understand the development of Marathi poetry, it is important to go beyond the restrictive understanding of literature as a written or printed object, which is an integral part of the colonial ideas of literature. Indian poetry always includes performance, music, retailing, improvisation, and verbal communication. It consists of intensive intermediate media, interlingual and cross-cultural communication, or translation activities. In most cases, translation is considered a process that occurs between languages. However, as Juri Lotman (1990) points out, translation can also be done across various symbolic systems within the “Semiosphere” or the entire symbolic system. Therefore, the conversion from one sign system to another is relatively incompatible across borders and asymmetries and works 87 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

due to tensions between these sign systems. It is the underlying mechanism of creative innovation. From this point of view, the works of Marathi poets such as Mukteshwar, Dnyaneshwar, the Varkaris and Mahanubhava poets, of the illiterate masses about the classic Sanskrit stories of the late Middle Ages (13th-18th centuries). There is a verbal re-story and commentary. Access to Sanskrit cannot be understood as a translation into an asymmetric, hierarchical language, and as a creative innovation. The translated Marathi language of these manuscripts mainly uses folk, verbal, and performance meters and styles, making these elite texts available to the general public. Since the 14th century, Persian and Arabic words and idioms have entered the language of Marathi poetry during the Sultan’s reign, changing the nature of the Marathi semiosphere. Then, in the 18th century, Sanskrit poetics was revived under the rule of Brahmin Peshwa. During this period, Brahmanism, the “core”of Marathi literature and culture, was strengthened. The modern Marathi poetry and literary language was born in the late 19th century with the advent of colonial education and printing capitalism. As a result, texts from English literature (e.g., Palgrave’s Golden Treasury) have become the language of self-description in many major modern Marathi languages. Writers and their self-descriptions are often nationalistic, romantic, and upper-class. It was based on the glory of the class’s past orientalism. In the mid-1940s, a poem by BS Mardhekar (1909-1956) exploded a modernist idiom in the Marathi scene. This idiom was influenced by European-American avant-garde languages such as Surrealism and Imagism. It challenged the nationalistic and romantic self-description of Marathi poetry, with a depiction of the dark world of urban misery, apparent sexuality and despair. Importantly, it challenged the lyrical sentiment of the “core”poetics of Marathi culture, which has dominated modern Marathi poetry. In a space opened by Mardhekar’s radical poetics, non-national, urban, sexually explicit and politically condemned writing practices of a small magazine movement, including Dalit literature, could develop from 1955 to 1975. There is sex. However, this intervention was an elitist, savarna (upper caste), and masculineist, as was the pre-modern poetry of the 19th century. For a long time in the Marathi semiosphere, like the other semiospheres of India, the core was dominated by the elite minority, its savarna, upper and middle classes, patriarchal and heteronormativity languages, idealized. What culture the cultural space has defined is “who are we?” Core also created the hegemonic idea of “what is reality” or“view of the world.” Dalit literature in general, especially Dalit poetry, embodies this core and surrounding asymmetry, namely “us” and “them”, “us” and “your”, with the Marathi worldview. It casts doubt on the nature of the surroundings. Dalit gets off. Dasal’s poetry also brings to the normative literary practices defined at its core by writing in the “wrong” way about the 88 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

“poor” world inhabited by the conflicting realities of everyday life and oppressed people. According to Lotman and Uspensky, when the term culture means “non-genetic memory of the community, memory expressed by a system of constraints and regulations”, its basic task is created and “structurally”. The world around humans, and Dalit literature in general, especially Dalit poetry, cast doubt on the reality of this cultural memory, attacking the oppression, monopoly, and cruelty of the overall structure. They questioned and attempted to correct the “semiotic cultural map meta- level” generated by Core, and others in the “cognitive reconstruction” of Marathi’s cultural identity, memory, and reality. Both modern 19th-century Marathi poetry and modernist poetry initiated by Mardecal belonged to the core minority, or what Dhasal called the “35percent of the population” culture. In this modernist avant-garde idiom, Dasal Bambaiya introduced Hindi and Urdu, as well as the languages of the miserable world of Kamathipura-used in the sense of Cristeva. He also permeated and parodyed Sanskrit, creating ambiguity and weakening not only the elitism of modern Marathi poetry, but also the elitism of modernist idioms. The impact on later generations of Dalit and non- Dalit Marathi poets is immeasurable. Dasal’s avant-garde, heterogeneous, playful, alliteration, Unpredictability in Namdeodhasal’s Language In an interview with prominent Marathi writers and activists Satish Kalsekar and Pradnya Daya Pawar in a special edition of Anushtubh Magazine on Namdeo Dhasal in 1998 (reissued in a later issue of Golpitha), Dhasalholds his artistic and political vision. Reading Dhasal’s poems and thinking about his politics can find all sorts of complications and pains. The importance of Namdeo as a poet, thinker and politician can best be understood by understanding his vision of advocating Dalit ideas. Open their own borders and expand their caste location to the global phenomenon of proletarians. The Buddhism could be “opium of the masses.”but this tension between two seemingly different ideologies could have led to Dalit’s alienation in the field of Dalit politics, which gave his poetry an explosive creative dimension. His poetry became a harsh criticism of our culture and did not tend to beautify or romanticize the stories often found in Savarna’s portrayals. Dhasal’s enthusiastic revision and doubts about the history of the ancient civilization of the Indian subcontinent are powerful aspects of his poetic vision. Namdeo Dhasal uses poetry as a weapon to combat Savarna’s expression in literature by turning the subject and language upside down. Dalit’s enthusiastic revisions and doubts about mainstream history represent not only Dalits, but almost all of the oppressed communities that remain in the dark ditch. The Hijra community, prostitutes who sell their bodies to fill their stomachs, strings, thugs, beggars, etc. have appeared in Dhasal’s poems. Initially 89 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

unacceptable, the suffering and pain of those around them was read by the reader, allowing Dhasal to pay attention to the social issues of society. Namdeo Dhasal’s first collection of poetry, Golpitha, dominated the Marathi literary world and broke all the rules of traditional Marathi literature in 1972. Dhasal emphasizes such marginalized groups in all his pain and intensity in his remaining poems. Kamathipura is one of the most popular and most criticized poems by Namdeo Dhasal. It is the largest and oldest known region for prostitution throughout Asia. Dhasal spent his childhood near Kamathipura and experienced extreme poverty and hardship. The metaphorical expression of a prostitute as a porcupine can be interpreted as resembling a socially constructed porcupine body, but it is not attractive at all. Centuries of syphilis- wounded phrases represent the extreme levels of physical distress of ancient times in nature. Mainstream societies consider places like Kamatipura to be syphilis in cultural societies. At the same time, women get serious sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis due to prostitution. The brilliant use of such painful words underscores the intensity of suffering. The utterances of his death gather here ‖ reveals the dangerous situation in which a woman lives. A clear representation of the injured Kamathipura, Dasal reminds the cultural community of his exact color. Dhasal’s avant-garde technique can also be read as his attempt to bring about an “explosive” process of cultural change. Dhasal’s poetry brings unpredictability to the Marathi “semiosphere” and redefines the Marathi hackney language. As a poet, this openness made him a creative resource for international avant-garde and established Marathi poetry, as well as resources available to Marathi Dalit poets, such as folk and performance traditions was able to access it. This fundamental openness is reflected in the extraordinary range of unreconcilable and contradictory languages in his poetry, from Sanskrit (used both ironically and destructively) to Kamathipura’s slang. From folk, oral and performative means to Western avant-garde techniques, from sewage, sex workers, venereal myths (in the sense of Baltes) to the lofty words of Buddhist philosophy, from rhetoric in political speeches to records of tenderness and erotic love.From Bambaiya Hindi to English or Urdu. From references to Bollywood to reminiscent of myths and legends from ancient civilizations. From Bhakti’s register to contemporary Western avant-garde art. From Marxist myths to Ambedkar’s Eulogy rom odes to Gandu Bagicha (‘Arsefuckers’ Park’), and also from St. Folkland Road to the sublime Bible odes to Indira Gandhi. What sets Dalit apart from other Dalit writers is its radically innovative language and the use of semiotic registers that other Dalit poets could not. This complex use of what Chitre calls a “bastard language”makes Dhasal’s poetry “complex, inaccessible to the average Dalit listener and highly educated readers. His sudden but intentional arousal of images and the flow of his poetry, and the expansion or orchestration of various contexts of experience, amazes both beginners and writers among his audience. Dalit poetry Is opaque and opaque to many of his 90 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

readers, and the implicit reader is probably someone like Dasal himself, not just familiar with the local language. Dhasal’s poetic linguistic heterogeneity is not only clearly linguistic, formal, or linguistic, as it extends beyond printed pages to areas of visual culture, performance, art, and everyday life. It is also semiotic. An analysis of Dhasal’s language, composed of semiotic records or signs, provides us with insights into how the cultural context in which his poems were created, disseminated and read. Explosiveness of Gandu Bagicha Kamathipura was just one street from Doll Chawl, where Namdeo grew up. Along one of the alleys of Kamashipra, also known as Duncan Road, there is a park called DurgadeviUdyaan. The Hijra and transgender communities frequently performed rituals such as nirvana and castration to become eunuch officials in the park. Therefore, the alley was often called Hijuragari. The park was also the place where Hijra and gay men engaged in sexual activity. As a result, Durgadevi became UdyaanGanduBagicha or Arsefuckers’ Park. And even though the government is trying to renovate and disinfect the park, people still call it GanduBagicha. GanduBagicha was first mentioned in Golpitha’sDhasal poem entitled “RandkiPanav”. The narrator describes the eunuch’s dance during the festival by RandkiPanav. Here he is a more objective observer, but in Dasal’s poetry collection GanduBagicha since 1986, the park space has become a full-fledged metaphor of destructive and pathetic counter space. 5.7 ANALYSIS-CRUELITY Describes his pain: The poet says he was afflicted with a (sexual) illness in a private part of the language, injured in the core where he could not express himself because it was intolerable abuse. He was shocked to see hundreds and thousands of sad and pathetic eyes. He experienced a serious emotional struggle, the poet said again that he was destroyed by the rebellion he burned on him. He emphasizes that there is no moonlight or water that represents a loss of freedom. The poet’s feelings are compared to a fox tearing flesh with his teeth. And again, a terrifying poison that spreads from his monkey bones. Longing to free him: He suffers himself and asks to get rid of his hellish identity. He pitifully declares his desire to fall in love with the stars. That is, he wants to have love or to associate like any other person. He wants the spiritual and sacred of this oasis (fertile) land in the desert, and he also longs for the happiness of his cracked face. 91 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Suffering begins like a cat and he wants to be treated the same because the pain is not certain. He looks for his voice and says he has created a space to express his feelings at night. He conveys all the possibilities to release his inner identity. He wants to enjoy freedom like a stray dog. The ostrich’s beak does something common to everyone. The taste of Egyptian carrots should be the same as the original. Poets say that poetry raises corpses from its tombs. Germination voice for silence: Young leaves sway at the door of hope. Pain, frustration and desire can all be glued together. The psychopathic god supports the eternal image. People without voice were oppressed by others. He wants to change the evil darkness. He says that the dominant people should open their eyes, the dominant system (Dalit people) should be filled with rising tides, and they get their voice through small streams. All this poison, this cruelty spreads from his monkey bones, but it is clear and crystal clear. It is as clear as the water of the Narmada River. 5.8 ANALYSIS-DEDICATION The poet, in the midst of country's independence, contemplates many events in his life such as his daughter's daughter and the first opening of the Nigerian National Park. The poet writes through various lenses in order to be able to read a poem, a nourishing sound for his daughter and a protection for the earth and her wealth. The daughter and daughter of the earth can be seen as symbols of the earth. The poet advises his daughter in countless images and metaphors about the earth and how it plays. He said, \"My boy, your tongue bends toward the tail of a scorpion, spitting out a straight line and returning to dangerous threats, but a brown dove, a tendril between your lips.\" By this example, the poets say that their daughter is sharp and dangerous as a scorpion, but nourishing, gentle and kind as a dove. It clearly shows the paternal endowments he gives to his daughter, just as he tells the people of Nigeria that the new park needs to be protected. The poem is connected with thoughts, since we struggle so hard on earth, it is imperative that we lean on earth. Let’s give the land back as we have it. Baobab is an endemic tree in Africa and is known as the tree of life. In this stanza, the poet describes how yam, a truffle vegetable buried deep in the ground, is associated with the idea of the roots of the baobab and the image of the hearth. By putting these images together, it develops the feeling that all life comes from the roots of the earth and that our true home is in our home, reminding us that we are part of the earth and are not separate from it. \"Like you in the middle of a whirlwind, with a rake, at the foot of the forest a squirrel is plowing the way!\" 92 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The poet's lines are referred to here as a metaphorical comparison between the summit and the natural storm. The top is a direct comparison with an incoming storm like a tornado or a tornado. Hurricanes and hurricanes completely uproot the earth and by doing this repair during the storm it creates new habitats for animals. Sometimes what is dangerous to our minds, like storms, can benefit the earth. \"Be ageless as dark peat, but only that rain's/fingers, not the feet of men, may wash you over.\" It is the same with the poet who shares his daughter's tutelage. He describes how he shouldn't let people walk over him the way people walk through the national park \"Children, curl your tongue towards the tail of a scorpion, spitting straight lines against dangerous threats, but with a brown pigeon the dew tends to your lips.\" He warns his daughter not to be poisoned like a scorpion, both harsh and harsh. But he tells his daughter to be gentle and kind as a dove. This father's advice is that his daughter be zealous and dangerous, but she should also have the qualities of kindness, courtesy, and lukewarmness to make a versatile man. From these it can be seen that when the poet writes: \"The shield of the palms is for you, it refers to the way in which the earth is always our protector.\" Similarly, the earth will protect its people from violence by which a parent will keep their child from harm in all ways. The poet writes: \"A woman's flesh is oil, palm oil on the tongue.\" The Christmas poet is one of the largest palm oil producers. By the words \"woman's flesh is oil\" it is subject to her life. Caesura is placed in the last sentence of this stanza in such a way that the poet makes him appear directly to another speaker. When the poet writes, \"Honest tongues roll up to the cheeks / beehive combs - the world needs candy, boy,\" he is using the sweetest and most comforting expression to convey his message. This delightful phrase can be used as a glimmer of hope for Nigeria, where the life of blacks was expanded to include \"sweetness\" after the long struggle for freedom. Her father's expression of hope and happiness could also apply to her daughter, where she only hopes for sweetness and honey for her daughter. One could say when the poet writes: \"You are long, salt, so that you do not seek anything from tears. That sounds like a gift from rainwater / the gods\". the reader. He claims that men shouldn't taste the salt of tears because there is no place for sadness, joy and idleness. But people should embrace the natural beauties that are created on earth, but they should be careful not to use the wealth that has been provided for us as it \"bears fruit in time\". \"Fruits then to your lips: haste to repay/ the debt of birth\" When a person takes fruit from the earth, it takes a very long time to grow and fill the earth with stolen powers. The “birth owed” is the birth of man and the tribute that a single birth takes on the wealth of the earth. 93 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

In a similar way to overlaying the earth's resources, we have delivered all of the natural beauty that was before us. With the hope of industrialization, we have tainted the earth's natural materials and objects so that there are so few natural ones now. All things are made of people. They are \"hot men\" because of the toll global warming (partly human) has taken on the world. Fossil sand is added because even sand, made from one of the most natural forces in broken shells, has been made from man-made materials and replaced with human waste. 5.9SUMMARY Kamathipura  Namdeo’s poems describe the pain and suffering of Dalit life through his words, and through the very real and live depiction of Dalit life experiencing the suffering and poverty of those born in such a destiny.  Kamathipura in central Mumbai was once the largest entertainment district on the subcontinent.  Lotman’s theoretical framework has the potential to break the limiting notions of literature as static printed matter and bring visual, musical and executive expression of culture to the field.  This is of great value in analyzing common Indian cultural customs, especially Dhasal poetry.  This vision was reflected in the Dalit Panthers manifesto, which eventually led Dalit Panther colleagues to blame him for Marxism and expel him from the organization.  Ambedkarism and Marxism are often perceived by many Dalit thinkers and politicians as idealistically incompatible.  Many believe that the caste category cannot be reduced to classes, and Ambedkarites does not accept the concept. Cruelty  The poet says that poverty is just knocking on the door.  Only one shot of blood needs to flow through all pronouns (people).  His day begins behind a grammatical wall that shows rules and restrictions.  He says dust and dirt don’t have to be in a particular group, but the cruelty must be the same. Pain and roti, sadness and happiness can all be burned on the same fire.  Let’s make everyone’s clothes like they used to. Let the prostitutes take root.  The sigh stands lame, and Satan hits the drum in the depression. Dedication  In the poem the poet shows the sound of hope and direction.  He proclaims that with their new independence, Nigerians must hope for the future of their country as well as the future of their new country. 94 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 The literal image of a broken lizard falling from the dung pavement but not made of leather teaches us to protect the earth there, not to harm it, and it means that we should protect the earth in return.  In addition, the poem enables the poet to read through the lens of his late daughter to her paternal daughter, while the poet also provides a glimpse of the future of Nigeria as he gazes at the bright times.  He should come to his daughter and exhort her to think about life on earth. 5.10KEY WORDS  Democracy-Democracy is a system of government where the citizens of a state exercise power to rule the state, either directly or through electing representatives.  Modernity-Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissance in the “Age of Reason” of 17th- century thought and the 18th-century “Enlightenment”  Semiosphere-Semiosphere falls under biosemiotics and is an abstract, epiphenomenal, dialogic membrane of semiosis, in which sign processes operate under the set of all interconnected.  Capitalism-Capitalism is often thought of as an economic system in which private actors own and control property in accord with their interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society. It is this rational self-interest that can lead to economic prosperity.  Orientalism-Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between 'the Orient' and 'the Occident' in which an essentialized image of a typical Oriental is represented as culturally and, ultimately, biologically inferior.  Avant-garde-It is French term. Avant-garde describes experimental or innovative art or design, or the group of people who make them and push the envelope in their field.  Surrealism- Surrealism was focused on tapping into the unconscious mind to release creativity. Surrealistic art is characterized by dream-like visuals, the use of symbolism, and collage images. Several prominent artists came from this movement, including Magritte, Dali, and Ernst.  Imagism-Imagist poetry is defined by directness, economy of language, avoidance of generalities, and a hierarchy of precise phrasing over adherence to poetic meter.  Kamathipura- Kamathipura is also spelled Kamthipura and is Mumbai’s oldest and Asia’s second largest red-light district. It was first settled after 1795 with the construction of causeways that connected the erstwhile seven islands of Bombay.  Elitism - The belief that a society or system should be led by elite. 95 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

5.11 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Define Black Panther Movement. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. State the unfair treatment of Dalits. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 5.12 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Define the term Kamathipura. 2. Explain how Dalit Panthers were activists who sought to change the unfair treatment of Dalits. 3. Describe briefly theDalit literary movement. 4. What do you understand by depiction of Dalit life experiencing the suffering and poverty of those born in such a destiny? 5. Infer about the modern Marathi poetry and literary language. Long Questions 1. Expand the unpredictability in NamdeoDhasal’s language. 2. Describe the explosiveness of Gandu Bagicha. 3. Identify the poet’s painful experience. 4. Describe how the poet longs to free himself. 5. Explain the germination voice for silence. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. The poet himself unexpressed of his experience because it was intolerable________. a. Attempt b. Action c. Abuse d. Move 2. NamdeoDhasal emphasizes that there is no __________represents a loss of freedom. a. Moonlight 96 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

b. Sunlight c. Shadow d. Figure 3. The poet’s feelings are compared to a _________tearing flesh with his teeth. a. Deer b. Fox c. Camel d. Dog 4. NamdeoDhasal suffers himself and asks to get rid of his ________ identity. a. Typical b. Real c. Unique d. Hellish 5. NamdeoDhasalsays that ________is just knocking on the door. a. Poverty b. Fortune c. Adversity d. Wonder Answers 1-c, 2-a, 3-b, 4-d, 5-a 5.13 REFERENCES References book  Barthes, Roland. 1972. Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers. London: Paladin.  Chitre, Dilip. 1982. ‘The Architecture Of Anger: On NamdeoDhasal’sGolpitha,’ Journal of South Asian Literature, 17.1: 93–95.  Dhasal, Namdeo. 1976. AmchyaItihaasaatilEkApariharyaPaatra: Priyadarshini. Mumbai: PrabhatPrakashan. Textbook references 97 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Kristeva, Julia. 1982. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.  Lotman, Juri. 1990. Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.  Lotman, Juri. 2004. Culture and Explosion, ed. Marina Grishakova, trans. Wilma Clark. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Website  https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/kamatipura/ 98 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT - 6:MULKRAJANAND: UNTOUCHABLE STRUCTURE 6.0 Learning Objectives 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Major Themes 6.3Narrative Technique 6.4 About the Author 6.5 Character Sketch 6.6Analysis 6.7 Summary 6.8Keywords 6.9Learning Activity 6.10Unit End Questions 6.11References 6.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Describe an important aspect of the novel.  Identify the broad framework of the plot, and the narrative technique of the stream-of- consciousness and the flashback.  State Mulk Raj Anand’s art of characterisation.  Infer the major themes of the novel. 6.1 INTRODUCTION The novel ‘Untouchable’ is written by Muk Raj Anand and published in 1935. The story focuses onthe day of a young man named Bakha. Bakha is a member of Untouchables' designation for men.They are also considered far below the lowest caste of the Indiana society and outside the system. His workis the cleaning of streets and outhouses of the upper caste that are forbidden to clean or touchperdition. Because he was born inviolable, this will be Bakha’s job for his entire life, unless there are reforms in India.The whole novel takes place on the day of life in Bakha, the day of his endurancefor the mistreatment endured by the lower castes begins to erode. 99 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

6.2 MAJOR THEMES You are what you wear Anand uses character clothing to mean everything from religion to caste level. At the beginning of a day, clothing is used to distinguish many men who use the toilet. Hindus are naked except for loincloth. Muslims differ from Hindus in that they wear long white cotton tunics and loose trousers. In addition, when crowds gather to hear the story of Mahatma, they aredivided into their various castes and religions. “Hindu Lallas”or the famous Hindu woman “smartly dressed in silk”, while the exiled colony members are covered in rags. Clothing as a symbol of religion and caste is just one aspect of the topic “you are what you wear.”Through the eyes, clothing becomes a metaphor for superiority and enlightenment. He is amazed at the “clear cuts of European clothing”and considers those who wear them “Sahib”or good people. He believes that wearing these robes will cause him to lose his inviolable status and become a sahib. For this purpose, he asks Tommy for their extra clothes, no matter how loosely they fit him. At first glance it may seem superficial, but there is a real air in the Bakha’s idea of clothing that reflects the inner person. His own rise, though unfit, is supposed to get him out of the eyes of the viewer “beyond the world of his scent”while he is cleaning the toilet. The audience is surprised that someone dressed as an Bakha is from an inviolable caste. This is a clear example of the theme “You are what you are wearing”. Rejection of Indian roots Rejecting Indian customs and social customs is the core idea of untouchables. Bakha is the best embodiment of this theme in the novel. His aversion to certain Indian customs is first introduced to us when he sees Hindus washing them in the morning. Anand writes that the Bakha was ashamed of the “Indian way”of cooking after working in England. Other Indian customs that Bakhas despise are how some Hindu men and women relax themselves outdoors on the streets, the Indian tendency to wear “glamorous decorations”, and even How to drink Indian tea. The disapproval that Bakhas feel about these various habits stems from British sentiment towards them. These words are, in Bakha’s opinion, blame and shameful. His rejection of the Indian lifestyle is directly related to the adoption of the British lifestyle. If there is something that British Sahib doesn’t like, they must be correct and he must emulate them in all things. The rejection of Indian roots is closely linked to the British colonization of India and extends far beyond Bakhas throughout Indian society. Bakha people are not the only Indians fascinated by British culture. The existence of the Salvation Army in Brasha is evidence of this. It shows that some Indians are interested in Christianity, the colonial religion. 100 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)