LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Balbir Madhopuri's Changiya Rukh -
A Critique of Dalit Identity and Politics

Ravi Bhushan, Ph.D.

Abstract

The notion that caste is not on par with race appears to be untenable. In fact 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.

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.

A Story of Deprivation

Changiya Rukh is the story of a Dalit's angst of deprivation, social exclusion and humiliation, as wel as of resistance, achievement and hope. Born in 1955 in the Ad Dharmi caste, a category of the Chamar caste of ex-untouchables, Balbir Madhopuri is a Panjabi poet with two collections of poems, Maroothal the Birkh (Tree of the Desert, 1998) and Bhakhda Pataal (The Smouldering Netherworlds, 1992).

B.R. Ambedkar pointed out to M. K. Gandhi that the most serious evil in Hinduism was not the practice of caste hierarchy and exclusion as such, but the upholding of the caste system as a religious idea. Madhopuri objects to the obsession with religion and spiritualism among Dalits as an escapist distraction from the larger project of social democracy. Contrary to the Ambedkar's idea of political solidarity of Dalits, they are oriented towards distinct caste-based religious identity.

Changiya Rukh is a powerful commentary on the intimate otherness of India's subaltern sections of population. Its translation into English has added beauty to Balbir Madhopuri's superb literary creation.

A Tree Lobbed from the Top

Chhaangya Rukh (Against the Night) as the title of Balbir Madhopuri's autobiography is significant. It means a tree lopped from the top, slashed and dwarfed. Madhopuri uses it as a metaphor for the Dalit or an 'untouchable' Indian, whose potential for growth has been 'robbed by the Hindu social order'. Significantly, the lopped tree also denotes its inherent and defiant resilience by its persistent act to bring forth fresh branches and leaves!

Tracing the Social History of the Dalit Community in Punjab

Set in the village of Madhopur in Punjab, Changiya Rukh traces the social history of the Dalit community in Punjab and brings out the caste relations constructed on prejudice and inequality. Madhopuri recounts the bleakness of life, despite all constitutional and legislative measures. The Book poses the question; how a man conducts himself among people who either do not understand him or would like to see him in the slush where they think he belongs. A saga of triumph, this real life story relates a Dalit's angst of deprivation, social exclusion, and humiliation, as well as of resistance, achievement, and hope.

Discrimination

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. In theory, it is possible to escape caste (unlike race) by changing one's religion but in practice, we know, caste follows us into whichever religion we convert to. And, by Hindu belief, it could be part of us even after death.

At first sight, Balbir Madhopuri's Changiya Rukh is a Dalit autobiography like many others with all the ingredients that shock and shame non-Dalit Indians, or ought to. The unimaginable, horrific struggle for the barest minimum of survival and the daily brutalization of human instincts are etched as is the incomprehensible capacity of people to survive, escape the tentacles of caste repression and become people of consequence.

In the words of Madopuri himself, "Many a time, I'm dwarfed like a tree, cut at the top over whom passes the power line, I get pruned out of season when in passing someone is curious to know what my caste is". (Bhakhda Pataal, The Inferno, 1998)

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