LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:6 June 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Goddess English: Language of Protest and Empowerment

Farhana Sayeed, M.A.

Abstract

A few Dalit activists call English the Dalit Goddess as the language of resistance, protest and empowerment. The growth and significance of a socio-cultural revolution is achieved through English translation of Dalit writings. Balbir Madhopuri’s Changiya Rukh (Against the Night) is one such Dalit autobiography to appear in English translation.

Madhopuri argues that caste based discrimination is one of the worst forms of racism because it is practiced against one’s own countrymen. Like race, it is determined by birth and does not end with death but passes from generation to generation. Theoretically it is possible to escape caste (unlike race) by changing one’s religion but practically caste follows us into whichever religion we convert to.

Key Words: Dalit Empowerment, English, Translation

First Punjabi Dalit Autobiography

Balbir Madhopuri’s Changiya Rukh is the first Punjabi Dalit autobiography translated into English. Changiya Rukh means “a tree lopped from the top, slashed and dwarfed”. The writer has used it as a metaphor for the Dalit Indian whose potential for growth has been marred by the Hindu social order. Its English translation titled Against the Night conveys the hopelessness and pain the author endured and the resistance he in turn put up against the forces of night that tried to suppress him. Significantly, the lopped tree denotes its inherent and defiant resilience that brings forth fresh shoots of branches and leaves. Changiya Rukh is the story of a Dalit’s angst of deprivation, social exclusion and humiliation, as well as of resistance, achievement and hope.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ms. Farhana Sayeed, Ph.D. Research Scholar in English
Department of English
Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya
Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat
Haryana 131305
India
sayeed_farhana87@yahoo.com
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