A moving novel of caste discrimination and isolation in Punjab: my review of Anirudh Kala's novel, "Two and a Half Rivers" (original) (raw)
Related papers
Introduction:-We are very much aware of various kinds of discriminations ubiquitous in our society. Discriminations on the base of caste-class-race-gender-religion and language have run down through ages and are very much incorporated into our blood. Historical events such as Independence and Partition also falls short in impact in front of these prejudices. Even in the post-partition era, when people were struggling to resettle their lives and when wounds of political tyranny and territorial displacements were ripe and sore, these prejudiced notions were still being considered of utmost significance. Even today, our very psyche is morphed and recreated in such a way that when we judge the person next to us, our immediate tendency is to draw conclusions by judging him/her on the basis of caste-class-race-gender-religion and language etc and not considering the talents or merits he/she acquires. We talk of going global, decreasing borders amongst us, acknowledging different cultures, religions and communities and forming a 'human race' on the global platform. Numerous television shows, reality programs, friendly matches are being organized but still the terms Caste, Class, Race, Religion, Language and Gender do matter a lot. We are still stuck in that judgmental loop. Partition memoirs talks about the horrors of uprootedness, of suddenly being made a refugee-the unfamiliar in the familiar society, of alienation and lot of this has been discussed, but, my point of interest while dealing partition memoirs is highlighting the abundant presence of caste-religion-gendered discriminations even in the atermath of Partition and how these concepts never faced any 'displacement' from our minds no matter what. Through this paper I would like to draw upon a discussion regarding these very prominent tendencies of discrimination by a detailed study of the memoir Dayamoyeer Kotha by Sunanda Sikdar and also try to show how this continues even today, how, when globalization is at its fullest exuberance, we are still caught in that limbo of discrimination.
IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews , 2019
This paper examines the literature of two marginalized groups, Immigrants in Canada and Dalits in India. The present study demonstrates how two dissimilar societies, Canada and India, are constituted by similar hegemonic socioeconomic-cultural and political structures of oppression that define and delimit the identities in the respective societies. The structures of race in Canada and caste in India tell, distort, and complicate the people of the marginalized along lines of gender, class, and family structure. Efficiently, sorts of domestic colonialism, exercised by the national politician, quiet and abuses the Dalit women and weaken the men. This repression from above disturbs the respective structures of relation in the societies, causing serious emotional problems to the children, and confuses the relationships between all the members of the families. While Indo-Canadian women, children, and men bargain their national identities in Canada, Dalits, the Untouchables, effort to understand their national identities guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. While successful confrontation to repression informs the literature written by these historically marginalized peoples, thereby giving voice to the silent and marginalized, this paper argues that it is evenly vital to be considerate to the simultaneous silencing that has not ended. This paper represents the irony, pain, and affliction of the groups which are human still not identified as a human by the society or surroundings but merely dirt, not belong to this world or land and nomad. This study incorporates the comparison of pathetic life and hardship of two characters from a totally different place. This paper excavates meaning of misery of marginalized voices by portraying and comparing the wretched life of Bakha-a bhangi, a toilette cleaner, living in a remote corner of India and depth of the hardships of immigrants in Canada, Tara Singh-immigrants.
Book Review: Untouchability in Rural India,
Rural Society, 2020
During my PhD field work in November and December 2020, I discovered there is one village in the Jaipur district of Rajasthan, India, named Titriya, where barbers do not cut the hair of “Nat” community people. Nat refers to a “de-notified” community who come under the “Schedule Caste” in the state. When I spoke to the barber about such practices, he replied that if he served Nat people as customers, then the other castes would not come into his shop. The Nat community hold their level because of their women’s involvement in sex work. The day-to-day discrimination in civic, public, and private space is quite commonly practiced against them by other dominant and upper caste individuals. This book review does not detail the Nat community, but, rather, explains the issue through reviewing the book Untouchability in Rural India.
Book review: Suraj Yengde, Caste Matters
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 2022
Caste Matters is an outcome and depiction of the author's worldview. The youngest author has highlighted how caste location matters imperatively for Dalits at every juncture of their lives across the globe. The Book analysed how a Dalit encountered discriminatory practices. The piece documented the lived experiences of a Dalit guy as he progressed from local to global platforms. The commentary is an analytical presentation and unravelling the discourse by emphasising his caste experiences minutely. It provides a detailed account of Brahmins how involvement in the anti-caste struggle is in contrast to their private affairs. This Book is drafted like semi-autobiographical non-fiction however, according to the author; it is "an ethnography of the sociality of caste" (19). Thus, it invites some methodological critics. The book comprises six chapters. In the first chapter on 'Being a Dalit', the author described 'Dalit love', by reporting the incidents of his childhood where his granny was practising Dalit love. It does not provide any ontological explanation of where Dalit love comes from. I think that 'love' and 'compassion' may come from the Buddha's teachings. Thus, Dalit love which the author is mentioning, may restrict to Dalit-Buddhists. Yengde further illustrates that 'Dalit love' may observe while "inviting fellow one for dinner" (48). Even he believes that in India, "arranged marriages culture is due to the fear of Dalit love" (50). It perhaps convinces since, in Hindu caste society, marriage is an institution where arranged marriage prefers over love marriage. Similarly, 'Dalit humour' (55), 'Dalit universalism' (61), and several other classes coined by the author to convey 'Dalitness' (63); however, long-drawn-out explanations miscarry the appropriate meaning. For Dalits, it does not yield new insights, as more or less every first-generation learner's experience is similar. It appears like an attempt to categorize each incident of his life under different groups. Seldom freshness and obscure codifications have been apparent while distributing 'Dalit' into multiple interpretations. Even the Book does not define 'Dalit', whether it means Scheduled Caste or ex-untouchable or confined to Mahar caste only. The second chapter discusses 'Neo-Dalit Rising', only the last paragraph stresses how Rohith Vemula's suicide generated energy among students across the country, where they asserted and echoed the dissent. At the same time, the rest of the part is a little incomprehensible to navigate how and which neo-Dalits are rising. According to the author, Ambedkar's all-encompassing work has been underestimated by reducing him to only a 'maker of the Indian Constitution'. Similarly, his fundamental critics of Hindu culture, right based initiatives, and radical religious contribution have been weakened due to the reductionist understanding of academia. Here Yengde talks about 'Dalit Nationalism' where dignity and justice are featured as the crux, whereas 'Dalit power' is designed 'to evince self-help method with an idea of universal liberation of oppressed Dalit' (88). It may infer that arguments lack ground in using connotations like 'Dalit nationalism' (84), 'Dalit power' (88), and 'Dalit patriotism' (91) that show
Casteism and its role in Bama and Sivakamys Novels20200713 79113 pq1way
Aegaum Journal, 2020
"Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person, whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One, whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence", B.R.Ambedkar, Writings and Speeches. The distribution of power within a society and the endorsement of power reflects the inherit inequality between low and higher caste people. They tried to break down the fixity of the dividing lines between domination and subordination and try to overpower the mutants by creating fear. Few character search for identity and thus they get weakened internally through loss and the confusion self, thereby tries to overpower the people of their community and at home. When individual fails to empower themselves in their community he opens up new and unforeseen spaces of subaltern resistance to the dominant power. They try to readdress the power and empower by incorporating dominant nature to regain their authority. The article focuses on caste and its role played in the novels of Bama, Sivakamy, Urmila Pawar and Perumal Murugan. Marginalized The central character in The Taming of Women is Periyannan who is similar to a spider in web, even if he tries to gain power over varied things and people, someone or the other would cut the webs, he was put down purely because of caste yet he tried his best to gain power inside and outside the family. 'Periyannan gifted the Iyer flowers, bananas, coconuts, two baskets of paddy, a vessel full of tamarind, a
Review Crossing the Lines of Caste by Adheesh Sathaye H-Net March 2019
H-Net Online, 2019
This book is an example of how well cultural history can be written along with a critical analysis of textual sources. This book explores the various facets of the Hindu Brahmin identity and its relevance in the present. This book is a great resource for scholars of Sanskrit, Hinduism, mythology, social stratification, folklore, performance, translation, cultural studies, and Indian studies in general, and for scholars of Viśvāmitra in particular.