Assignment 2 : Dalit Voice in Praveen Gadhvi and Meena Kandasamy’s Poems : 22407 Paper 202 : Indian English Literature - Post-Independence

• Name : Nirav Lalitbhai Amreliya

• Batch : M.A. Sem. 3 (2021-2023)

• Enrollment N/o. : 4069206420210002

• Roll N/o. : 18

• Subject Code & Paper N/o. : 22407 – Paper 202 : Indian English Literature – Post-Independence

• Email Address : niramreliyaunofficial@gmail.com

• Submitted to : Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English – Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University – Bhavnagar – 364001

• Date of Submission : 7th November, 2022

Dalit Voice in Praveen Gadhvi and Meena Kandasamy’s Poems

Introduction : In this assignment, I am dealing with the topic of critical treatment in the poems of Post-Independent Indian poets and writers such as Praveen Gadhvi whose poem ‘Laughing Buddha’ and Meena Kandasamy’s ‘Eklavyam’ and ‘One-Eyed’ will be best attempted to be justified respectively.

Introduction to Praveen Gadhvi : Pravin Gadhvi is one of the most prolific poets in Gujarati Dalit literature. He made poetry a vehicle of propaganda against the hypocritical Hindu value system. He considered Manusmriti as the root of all social and cultural humiliation and sufferings of Dalits. (Mangukiya)

The Poem : Laughing Buddha – Buddha Purnima :

(Full Moon day of Buddha's birthday)

There was an

Underground atomic blast on

Buddha's birthday-a day of

Full Moon

Buddha laughed!

What a proper time!

What an auspicious day!

Buddha laughed!

At whom ?

There was a laughter on his

Lips and tears in his

Eyes

He was dumb that day.

See,

Buddha laughed!

Irony in ‘Laughing Buddha’ : The poem seems to be containing the historical reference of Operation Smiling Buddha which was conducted on 18th May, 1974 under the supervision of many Indian generals in Pokhran Test Range, Rajasthan, India. It is also well-observed that it is the first successful nuclear test of India and when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of India. The new government of India passed the Atomic Energy Act, on 15 April 1948, leading to the establishment of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) not quite one year after independence. George Perkovich in his ‘India’s Nuclear Bomb : The Impact on Global Proliferation’ shares good observation of the time when the first prime minister of India was Pandit Jawaharlal who declared:

“We must develop this atomic energy quite apart from war - indeed I think we must develop it for the purpose of using it for peaceful purposes. ... Of course, if we are compelled as a nation to use it for other purposes, possibly no pious sentiments of any of us will stop the nation from using it that way.”

The irony of the poem lies into it thoroughly as the title ‘Laughing Buddha’ has the word ‘laughing’ which makes an ironical critique of Buddha’s laughter aroused from sadness but from happiness. The irony begins with the lines which tell the day on which Buddha got self-realization and propounded peace in the world, on that very day the nuclear test was held which causes unrest and war, it is quite opposite to peace. In the next lines which tell that it was proper time and an auspicious day with pain-tempered interjection mark are ironical in nature as the very day should not be selected for such a horrible test and have been given the name of such an opposite nature in every way to the deeds and conduct of Gautama Buddha. Buddha laughed at whom is a rhetoric question, the question having answer that his smile of agony at the politicians and scientists who made such a destructive bomb which causes only harm and cannot bring prosperity to humans. And then the second part tells us clearly that there was laughter on his face and tears in his eyes which means that the poet has used personification in second line as the very shrine of Bamyan Buddha seems to be smiling whereas here in this poem it cries with a sad feeling of looking at terrible scene of war. And finally the reiteration of the phrase that is Buddha laughed gives the sad picture of the reason behind his laughter that was this violence and its propagation especially in his name.

Introduction to Meena Kandasamy : Meena Kandasamy (b. 1984) is an anti-caste activist, poet, novelist and translator. Her writing aims to deconstruct trauma and violence, while spotlighting the militant resistance against caste, gender, and ethnic oppressions. She explores this in her poetry and prose, most notably in her books of poems such as Touch (2006) and Ms. Militancy (2010), as well as her three novels, The Gypsy Goddess (2014), When I Hit You (2017), and Exquisite Cadavers (2019). Her latest work is a collection of essays, The Orders Were to Rape You: Tamil Tigresses in the Eelam Struggle (2021). Her novels have been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Jhalak Prize and the Hindu Lit Prize. (Kandasamy)

The Poem : Eklavyam

This note comes as a consolation:

You can do a lot of things

With your left hand.

Besides, fascist Dronacharyas warrant

Left-handed treatment.

Also,

You don’t need your right thumb,

To pull a trigger or hurl a bomb.

Irony & Satire in ‘Eklavyam’ : In this epigrammatic poem, the poet has resurfaced the unjust practices happening from long back to Vaidik Culture in India and linked it with present day terrorism and its assumed causes especially the belief that people of low-strata or here contextually Dalit are villains and terrorists, thus they are ‘Other’ from the controlling strata of any given elitist society.

In this poem, the poet in fine use of Verbal Irony satirizes the consolatory voice of elite class given to poor or oppressed after having done harm to them. This highlights the fake tears of rich shed for the agony of poor as the very fact is that no rich is rich unless poor are in existence. That is why questioning people in power is as crucial as air for breathing and that is where the elite and people in power would strike in order to keep the poor masses in delusion that they (elite) very much care for them and they should be servile and obedient to their masters is what makes the rich who they are and what makes poor who they are. The poet strikes on mytho-culture of India and picks up the part of Indian epic ‘Mahabharata’ which occurs between Dronacharya and Eklavya, here Dronacharya is the representation of people in power who has all production means and Eklavya is the representation of oppressed and downtrodden class especially Dalit class of ancient and modern India. Dronacharya and people in modern time sharing same ideology are called fascist because they want to control people and thus are not egalitarian ones. They just villainize the oppressed and lower-class people in order to uphold their supremacy and grip over their freedom. And that is why Derrida emphasis on reading “absence over presence” especially while reading mainstream narratives.

Another reference of terrorism is also correlated to the ‘power-play’ idea given by sir Michel Foucault wherein he emphasizes to understand the power structure of society and culture as well as all that confluence into culture of everyplace.

The Poem : ‘One-Eyed’ :

The pot sees just another noisy child,

The glass sees an eager and clumsy hand,

The water sees a parched throat slaking thirst,

But the teacher sees a girl breaking the rule,

The doctor sees a case of medical emergency,

The school sees a potential embarrassment,

The press sees a headline and a photofeature,

Dhanam sees a world torn in half.

Her left eye, lid open but light slapped away,

The price for a taste of that touchable water.

Social Insularities & Oppression of Dalit in the Poem : The poem is one of the best poem written in cannon of Dalit Literature as its direct dealings with the oppressive ideologies employed against Dalit and low-caste people in India culture is its prime feature. The poem has contemporaneous relevance as the case of a nine-year-old Dalit boy named Indra Meghwal was beaten to death by his teacher Chhail Singh for drinking water from the pot placed for teachers in the private school ‘Saraswati Vidya Mandir’ which is run by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Community) in Jalore district of Rajasthan in India on 13th August, 2022.

The pot being the part of nature is equal for all humans as it sees one of all children that come to drink water. Even ‘noisy child’ can also be referred to the teacher who bit Dhanam for drinking water as the teacher has ideology of belonging to higher caste is nothing but the reflection of lack of mature thinking in the teacher. The glass just sees a thirsty and child-like hand. The water as one of the five fundamental natural forces is totally indifferent to all in the world and sees justa parched throat by slacking thirst as it does not differentiate between castes and classes formed by societies, but humans do. The teacher whose mind is prejudiced by hierarchal binaries sees a Dalit girl breaking the rule of Untouchabilty. Now the privatisation of health facility which concerns for capital above human health is ironically highlighted here in the line where the doctor sees just a case of medical emergency as though the doctor would be looking for the money received in exchange of remedying the emergency but not for the person who is injured, and thus the humanity is questioned in the poem. In the following lines, the privatisation of education facility is highlighted as the school is more concerned about its image and less or no concerned about the quality and trustworthiness of education being imparted in the school, because more popularity of the school will bring more children into it due to their parents’s wish for having their children getting high-paid salary jobs, and so more children means more money to the staff and the school owners. No doubt that press or media is the revolutionary tool for the world and by its help especially the culprits can be easily identified, but here the privatisation of media is pointed out by the poet as it just sees a sensational news in order to increase its Television Rating Point and provides no solution to the problem they display as sensational. At last, the girl Dhanam sees the world torn in half as her eye is harmed by the beating of the teacher as the punishment from drinking ‘touchable’ water, the water ironically is referred to as ‘touchable’ whereas the human who is also a part of nature is ‘untouchable’, how is this even possible for a thinking person remains the unanswered question by the people throughout the cultures living in binary oppositions.

Conclusion : In summing up the discussion, we find that how profound the gust of injustice may be which prompted authors to write to mend it. The successful attempts of voicing oppressed as well as suppressed sentiments of downtrodden people – here in context of India cultural class-bifurcation – in the poems discussed above through the brilliant use of poetic devices and figures of speech is what sets apart both of the poets from the rest of the ones who just babble ingratiating panegyrics in order to please tyrant rulers empowered by purposefully constructed discourses narrating the rulers as great and divine as it is seen in the Judeo-Christian idea of ‘The Great Chain of Being’ completely overlooking the voice and agony of poor, indentured, and downtrodden people in one’s surroundings.

Thank you!

Works Cited :

 Kandasamy, Meena. “Bio.” Meenakandasamy, https://www.kandasamy.co.uk/about.

 Mangukiya, Vijay D. Protest against Religious Discourse as Expressed in the Select Gujarati ... https://oaji.net/articles/2017/1201-1509100026.pdf.

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