8/11/2019 A Milestone in Dalit Writing

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COMMENTARY

Economic & Political Weekly EPW june 7, 2014 vol xlIX no 23 21

A Milestone in Dalit Writing

Uttara Bisht

Omprakash Valmiki, whocontributed so much to Hindiliterature, and especially to dalitliterature, was a contemporaryof another great dalit poet,Namdeo Dhasal, who wrotein Marathi. Even their deaths

were separated by just a month.However, Valmikis writings anddeath, unlike that of Dhasal were

largely unnoticed by the Englishmedia. Valmikis account of dalitlife in his autobiography Joothan is unsurpassed in its portrayalof the pain and humiliation thatcasteism inicts on its victims.

Omprakash Valmiki may not be a

widely known name on theIndian literary scene outside of

Hindi literature. His contribution to dalit writing, however, is denitely not lessthan that of writers like Namdeo Dhasaland Kancha Ilaiah. It is not too wellknown either that Valmiki translatedIlaiahs book Why I Am Not a Hindu

which is considered to be one of the big-gest contributions to dalit literature byany writer in Hindi. Valmiki made amajor contribution to dalit literaturethrough stories, poetry and his auto-biography and right up to the last days ofhis life was actively involved in it; he

was a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study ( IIAS ), Shimla in 2013.

In 1989, Valmiki published his rstcollection of poems under the title Sadiyon

Ka Santaap (centuries of suffering). His writing is a mirror to the suffering thatthe dalits had to undergo due to caste dis-crimination. It was mainly through his

efforts that dalit writing found its placein several seminal Hindi magazines, oneof them being Hans edited by the laterenowned Hindi writer Rajendra Yadav.Not only did he help give dalit writing itsdeserved place in Hindi literature butalso provided it with the best autobiog-raphy that one can possibly nd in Hinditill date.

Leftovers Valmikis autobiography Joothan pub-lished in 1997 is the best known of his

works that talks about caste exploitationand the struggle of the writer to rise aboveit. What makes Joothan such an impor-tant dalit autobiography? Why is it so im-portant for any reader to read it in orderto understand dalit literature? And, whatis its contribution towards the creation ofdalit history or identity? The title itself issuggestive in so many ways. Joothan

which can be translated as left overs is

symbolic of the sheer exploitation of thedalits at the hands of the Hindus on thebasis of the varna system that places

them at the bottom of the hierarchy andtherefore subjects them to incessanttorture and humiliation. Hinduism, whichis as much a social system as a religion,uses the caste system as its frameworkto push the notion that ones duty (dhar-ma) is calibrated to ones particular class.

And this centuries-old notion gives it theright to perpetuate caste discriminationthat is still a r eality in modern India andof which the khap panchayats can beseen as examples. The joothan in theform of leftover food from weddingparties also became on several occasionsthe only form of sustenance for his family.

Joothan is not only a powerful narrativeabout caste oppression but also about

Valmikis struggle to rise above the hu-miliation and denigration that he hadfaced since childhood.

In the preface, Valmiki writes,

Dalit-jeevan ki peedayein asahneeya auranubhav-dagdh hain. Aise anubhav jo sahityikabhivyaktiyon mein sthaan nahi pa sakte. Ekaisi samaj-vyavastha mein hamne saans leehai, jo behad crur aur amaanviya hai. Dalitonke prati asamvedansheel hai. (The sufferingsof dalit-life are intolerable and heart-

wrenching. These are experiences that can-not nd a place in any form of literary ex-pression. I have breathed in a social-systemthat is not only extremely cruel and inhuman

but also, insensitive towards dalits.)

Scars and Stench Joothan is a remarkable personal narra-tive. Valmiki describes his village Barlaat the beginning of the autobiography.Its location, separated by a pond fromthe village of the Tyagi community, isitself a site segregated from the rest andsubjected to discrimination. It is a sitelled with lth and garbage chosen bythe Tyagi women to defecate. The stenchfrom the lth is something that the dalitscould not escape and became a reality oftheir daily life. The stench was just oneaspect of the multifaceted discrimina-tions that lled all the corners of the

village and thus their lives. From doingunpaid labour to disposing of carcassesof dead animals to literally eating theleftovers from the patals (plates), Valmikihad been a close witness to it all. Hischildhood memories were scarred by inci-

dents that exposed him to hatred and hu-miliation that lived with him all his life.Particularly disturbing is the incident

Uttara Bisht ( uttara159@gmail.com ) is aPhD scholar, at the Department of English,Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

8/11/2019 A Milestone in Dalit Writing

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june 7, 2014 vol xlIX no 23 EPW Economic & Political Weekly22

when he was asked to skin a deadanimal. He recalls,

Chhuri pakadte huye mere haath kaap rahethe. Ajeeb-se sankat mein phas gaya thaUsroj mere bhitar bahut kuch tha jo toot raha tha. (My hands were shaking as I held the knife inmy hands. I was caught in a weird situationThat day I realised that a lot of things inside

me were breaking down.)Born to an extremely poor family in

Barla, Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on30 June 1950, Valmiki recalls how the familysurvived most days on starch w ater forthey could barely manage two meals aday. In such circumstances, education wasa distant reality but the only dream that hisparents lived for was to educate their sonso that he could improve his s ocial position.

Post-Independence India promised asociety that would be free of any socialdiscrimination based on caste or class. Butthe land of Jyotirao Phule and MahatmaGandhi soon disillusioned Valmiki who

was quick to realise that even the bound-aries of the school had been inltrated bysocial inequalities. He narrates howschool itself became the site for discrimi-nation against the lower castes not onlyby his classmates but also the teachers.The incident where the headmaster ofthe school asks him to sweep the oor of

the school b ecause he belongs to the low-er caste is one such example. It was quitecommon for him to be addressed not byhis name but by his caste.

Life at the university level was no better,though the severe forms of injustice hadnow given way to discriminatory remarksor comments targeting his caste. Valmiki

was often reminded of his fathers wordsabout improving his caste through edu-cation which he realised could only im-prove through birth as he writes in theauto biography,

Kehete the, padh-likhkar apni jaat i sudharo.Unhe pataa nahi tha, padh-likhkar jaatiyannahi sudharti. Veh sudharti hain janam se. (He (father) used to say improve your castethrough education. He did not know thatcastes do not improve through education.They improve through birth.)

And later he adds,

Lekin jaati se mrityuperyanta peechha nahichutataa, iss tathya se vah anth tak aparichit

rahe. (He remained unaware until the endthat one cannot get rid of ones caste evenafter death.)

These statements can be read as sharpcomments on not just the education sys-tem but also on its role in widening thecaste differences.

Liberating Force Amidst all the hatred and suffer ing thathad become a part of his life, literaturebecame the only liberating force. He recallshow his friend Hemlal introduced him tothe writings of B R Ambedkar during hiscollege days. These writings did not justll him with strength and a sense of self-respect but also gave him a direction.During the 1970 s, Valmiki took to writingand theatre (he founded the MeghdootTheatre Group in 1974) in order to voicehis opinion about the situation of dalits.He was part of many organisations that

worked for the upliftment of the oppressedcaste. In his writings, however, Valmikifails to touch upon the subject of religionand its role in perpetuating caste differ-ences and steers clear of any polemicaldebate. He exposes his discomfort at show-ing allegiance to either Hindu gods orlocal d eities but does not question therole of religion in creating particularidentities. He writes,

main Hindu bhi toh nahi huan. Yadi Hindu

hota toh Hindu mujhse itni ghrina, itna bhed-bhaav kyon karte? Baat baat par jaatiya-bodhki heenta se mujhe kyon bharte?... Hindu kicrurtaa bachpan se dekhi hain, sahan ki hain. (I am not a Hindu either. If I were a Hinduthen why would the Hindus hate me or dis-criminate against me? Why would they, timeand again, ll my heart with the inferiorityof caste difference? ... I have witnessed thecruelty of the Hindus and have tolerated itsince childhood).

He explains how it is difcult for anindividual to create his identity withoutfollowing a particular religion. Howcould one follow a religion that is intol-erant of people belonging to the lowercastes was what Valmiki found so baf-ing. He admits how these questionsabout his religious identity botheredhim but he could never gather enoughcourage to discuss or question this aspect.

Passive Protester An autobiography is a piece of writingthat mainly discusses the life and times of

its author. Valmiki perfected the formthrough his attempt to give a realistic ac-count of the suffering and the turmoil in

his life. However, there are some prob-lematic aspects. His work is mainly abouta man who faced social inequality at thehands of a predominantly Hindu society.Though this strengthens the narrative, it,at the same time, limits it to the extentthat it becomes an attempt towards self-aggrandisement. It becomes a celebra-tion of ones pain and suffering ratherthan a weapon to ght oppression. It cansometimes also be read as an attempt toassimilate oneself into the mainstream inorder to be accepted. Valmiki himself ad-mits that his approach has been that of apassive protester. He believed that in a so-ciety where caste is so deeply entren chedand is the only yardstick to measure anindividuals capability, change cannotcome overnight. Other than some eetingreferences to discrimination that hisfriends faced, there are no incidents thatdescribe the plight of other dalits. N ow-here does he discuss the problem of the

women in his community who are doublyoppressed because of their caste and gen-der. Any form of dalit writing is to a cer-tain extent, autobiographical, but it can-not be centred on one person and is aboutall those who have suffered the samekind of atrocities and hatred and shared

the same fate. It is a narrative that aims to weave together the stories of all for it isessentially a narrative of protest.

Though his writing does not use thekind of passionate anger and aggressionthat Dhasal did to express his pain, thereason for writing was the same: to give

voice to dalit suffering. Not many peopleare aware that Valmiki and Dhasal werecontemporaries (Dhasal was born on15 February 1949). It is rather unfortunatethat Valmiki could never get the kind ofrecognition that Dhasal got even after hisdeath. Dhasal was given the Padma Shri in1999 and the Sahitya Akademis GoldenLife Time Achievement award in 2004.Whether the English language press wascompletely oblivious of Valmikis writingsand his death (17 Nov ember 2013, exactlyone month and two days before Dhasal) orthey deliberately chose to ignore it is notclear. But dalit literature can neither beenvisioned nor understood, neither envis-

aged in its t otality nor even partiallyimbibed, without a reading of Valmikisaccount of dalit life.