Name - Himanshi Parmar
Semester - 3 (Three)
Roll Number - 8
Email. Id. - himanshiparmar3004@gmail.com
Enrollment number - 4069206420210025
Paper number - 202
Paper name - Indian English Literature – Post -Independence
Subject Code - 22407
Introduction
Untouchability is one of the regid problems not only in India but around the world. In India we have caste based distinction. We have four distinctions: 1- Bramhins, 2- Kshatriya, 3- Veshya and 4- Kshudra. Brahmins are considered as a Superior then Kshatriya, then Veshya and at last Kshudra were considered as the inferior among all. Among them we have castes based sub distinctions like SC/ST/OBC etc. Since ancient times, lower caste people have been suffering from various problems like marginalization,lack of opportunities, and untouchability by upper caste people. The roots of it go so deep that they don't even think to raise their voice. Meena Kandasamy in her poem tries to raise voice against the problem of untouchability. But before that it is important to understand what untouchability means.
Definition and meaning of Untouchability.
According to Prof. Satyavrata, “Untouchability is that system of society on account of which one individual cannot touch another individual and one society cannot touch another society on the basis of convention and if so touches, becomes profane and in order to remove that profanity has to perform penance.”
According to Kailash Nath Sharma, “Untouchable castes are those whose touch makes a person profane and has to perform certain atonement.”
Dr. D. N. Majumdar said that, “The untouchable castes are those who suffer from various social and political disabilities, many of which are traditionally prescribed and socially enforced by higher castes.”
In the ancient Hindu literature, the untouchables are referred to by such terms like the ‘Antyaja’, the ‘Panchame’, the ‘Chandala’ etc. Till recently, they were known as the ‘depressed castes’ and the ‘exterior’ castes.Gandhiji called them ‘Harijans’, the people of God.The term is most commonly associated with treatment of the Dalit communities in the Indian subcontinent who were considered "polluting". The term has also been used to refer to other groups, including the Burakumin of Japan, the Baekjeong of Korea, and the Ragyabpa of Tibet, as well as the Romani people and Cagot in Europe, and the Al-Akhdam in Yemen.
About Meena Kandasamy
Full name of Meena Kandasamy is Ilavenil Meena Kandasamy. She was born on 12 October 1984, and is 38 year old now. She is a well known Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and activist.She represented India at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program and was a Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom. Until now she has published her two collections of poetry, 1) Touch (2006) and Ms. Militancy (2010). She has also received many awards like Hermann Kesten Prize (2022) by PEN Centre Germany. Her poems are mainly on caste annihilation, feminism and linguistic identity.Meena works closely with issues of caste and gender and how society puts people into stereotypical roles on the basis of these categories. She also many times get attacked verbally for raising her voice against injustice with Dalit and other lower castes, though she never give up and continue writing, speaking, raising herself. Here is one quote of her that shows her fearless self of her.
“I am the woman who is willing to display her scars and put them within exhibition frames. I am the madwoman of moon days. I am the breast-beating woman who howls. I am the woman who wills the skies to weep in my place.”
-Meena Kandasmy
Untouchability in 'One Eyed'
Poem -
The poem One Eyed is the most prominent poem of Meena Kandasamy.Meena Kandasamy always sketches the weakness and struggle of the Dalits in her poems. In her poem, "One-Eyed", she delineates the continued existence of oppressive structures of caste, class, race and gender domination within Indian society. "One-Eyed” was published in Ms.Militancy.The poem is about a little girl named Dhanam, who was belonging form Dalit caste. The poem talks about how Dhanam was treated by her own teacher at school for touching an untouchable pot and drinking water from that pot. The very beginning lines are showing how Dhanam was thirsty and so that she break rule and drank a glass of water from the place where she was denied to touch because she is Dalit.
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 lines are showing that even the pot, glass and water kind of nonliving things feel pity for her but not her teacher. Later the poem has a lines like,
the doctor sees a case of medical emergency
the school sees a potential embarrassment
the press sees a headline and a photofeature.
These lines show treatment with Dhanam after touching the pot and drinking water. The lines showing cruelty and greediness of society. Everyone is aware about what happened with Dhanam but no one really cares for her. They are seeing Dhanam, not as tortured girl but like a object. For example doctor seeing her as a new case of medical emergency, school thinking about potential embarrassment, and press seeing headline and photofeature. No one here thinking about Rights of Dalit, and injustice, harassment happening to them in society. Just because they are from lower caste, they are subalterns they got no attention. Water is a natural resource and it never gulps but sacrifices itself to all creatures in the world. But some human beings divide water for the upper caste and water for the lower caste. It is very nonsensical to think deeply about the classification and caste system which still prevails in some places.
Last few lines saying what was the condition of Dhanam after getting slapped by her teacher.
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.
The children of the low castes were denied the right to drink water with the other; Dhanam was slapped severely when she drank. The price for tasting that untouchable water is nothing but a slap and because of that her one-eye is damaged. She sees the torn world but not a complete one. In her eyes, the world seems to be a partial one and it shows partiality to a particular group or between upper caste and lower caste. Meena Kandasamy raised voice for Dalit as specially.Human beings are born equal in dignity and rights. But basic rights such as right to live, right to protest, right to express oneself, right to live safely from violence and torture, and so on are being denied to the marginalized communities.
Present time relevance
It is not just this poem or other poems of Meena Kandasamy which showing Dalit problems and untouchability as a worst. It is not just an imagination of course. We find many examples of this harassment in real life also. Here are some newspapers proving the point,
Here is the same incident like Dhanam happened in Rajasthan, published by India Today Newspaper. A nine year old Dalit boy forced to death after drinking water from an untouchable pot in private school. He allegedly beaten by a teacher. The incident happened in private school of Jalore district in Rajasthan. Just because he is dalit he got beaten up for drinking water. And still he get limited to highlights, emergency case and photofeature in society, why so? Because he was from lower caste. It is not just one incident but there are many examples of rape, harassment, death etc we find in society. There is one another example here,
A 19 year old Dalit woman in India's northern State of Uttar Pradesh became victim of Gang rape and died mercifully. She was raped by four upper caste men. After fighting for her life for two weeks she died in a hospital in New Delhi.
Conclusion
Against all this injustice, Meena Kandasamy's poems raising voice and favouring Dalit. Making people aware about their suffering and pain. But we still didn't find remarkable changes in the situation. People are time and again starting understand and becoming aware about problems of dalit but still we need many changes. And for that dalit and other subalterns has to speak. One has to protest their own rights by themselves. Here, concluding my point with a quote of Challapalli Swaroopa Rani,
"Dalit women poets feel strongly that dalit women issues had not been adequately represented in the mainstream.Condemned of centuries to a life of bondage, basic needs and questions of survival are still central for dalit women".
References
Lone, Javed Ahmad."Meena Kandasamy: The Angry Dalit Voice", Meena Kandasamy: " The Angry Dalit Voice", 2012,p. 10. Research gatehttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/260285097_Meena_Kandasamy_The_Angry_Dalit_Voice
Kandasamy, Meena. “One-Eyed”. Ms. Militancy. New Delhi: Narayana Publishing House, 2016. Print.
Rathi, V P. “Savage Treatment of Untouchables in Meena Kandasamy's ‘One-Eyed.’” Savage Treatment of Untouchables in Meena Kandasamy's "One-Eyed", V. P. Rathi, June 2020, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342466334_Savage_Treatment_of_Untouchables_in_Meena_Kandasamy's_One-Eyed.
