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Unfortunately, I can not read Kannada in the original, so I have never read Girish Karnad or U.R. Ananthamurthy's work. After reading Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali, I realize how lost the translation is.
But my Bangladeshi husband was a big fan of Karnad, Ananthamurthy and filmmaker Pattabhi Rama Reddy. Pbadionate about theater, he had met them all and played an English version of Tughlaq . To the eminent critic and professor T.G. Vaidyanathan's Sunday sessions, I listened to detailed discussions about Samskara and its absolute brilliance. That's how I learned about the nuances and subtleties of the play and the movie and how deeply I was touched without even looking at it.
By reading the articles and tributes that have been reported with the announcement of the great man's disappearance, I am immensely moved by certain stories. Ramachandra Guha recounted that he was walking with oxygen and tubes in the rain of Bengaluru, a day near his 80th birthday, to show his solidarity with Muslim victims of hate crimes.
During the demonstration for the dreaded publisher Gauri Lankesh whose father, P. Lankesh was a friend of Karnad, pictures appear of him holding protest placards. He was a man who did not just write and act about injustice and oppression – although he did it with pbadion and brilliance – he was a man who spoke, sometimes at dangerous times, even fatal, to do any of these acts.
Karnad was walking with oxygen and tubes in the rain of Bengaluru, a day close to his 80th birthday, to show his solidarity with Muslim victims of hate crimes. Photo: The Wire staff
A thought crosses my mind. How can we honor such a man? Can we follow his example and set the tone? Can we make Samskara a topic of discussion in every home? Can we make caste a thing of the past? The promise of these would surely have pleased him more than the most eloquent eulogies, the most beautiful obituaries. They would pursue his mind and make sure that he never dies.
As a non-Bengali-Kolkata child, I did not know much about casteism or caste-related atrocities. We grew up in a pretty cosmopolitan culture. Being a Christian made me "twice distant", mainly when my grandparents broke the mold and went to the city from different southern states of India. It was only after moving south to Bengaluru that I discovered different but not alarming caste aspects. Bengali Brahmans, including a "Chatterjee's uncle", often ate chicken and mutton and ate fish every day.
One of the "TGVs", as we affectionately called it, was my first close encounter with a Tam-Brahm and I was suddenly face to face. with someone to eat flesh was heinous. "How?" He asked, "would not two equally sensitive and thoughtful people, like you and Stan (my husband, his pupil), be driven away from killing a living being to eat him?" . Such a barbaric practice, I can not understand how one eats a creature formerly alive and defenseless … "
We had whispered something about the" intellectual "belief in vegetarianism and the fact that old habits would die …
My education on serious caste problems, atrocities and injustice came later.
The caste in India spreads the idea that some people are born to clean excrement. Photo: Vishaka George / People's Archives of Rural India
In 1997, I visited Gujarat to write an article about safai karmacharis. Martin Macwan, Dalit leader, said that "his people are carrying human excrement on their heads on the eve of 50 years of independence." I could not believe it. Dressed in my journalist hat, I went to Gujarat. I documented it with a team of the Navsarjan Trust in all its horror. Frontline Magazine won it in 1997.
The disgusting, inhuman and dehumanizing spectacle of our people, our Indian compatriots carrying, sweeping and manipulating human excrement when we were talking about it. India's galloping economy that propels us into the 21st century century, was to be seen. We could dominate Silicon Valley, but we could not pull together to clean up our own waste in a civilized way. At the base of this is the fact that the caste spreads the idea that some people are born to clean excrement. Destined to do it always. They, their ancestors and the children of their children. This filthy feudal mentality must change.
I must point out and emphasize that most Indians, at one level or another, cling to their caste identity. Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, everywhere in India, safai karmacharis are those who have "reserves" for clean toilets. At the time of independence, Pakistan would have refused to let go " bhangi s because then, who would clean their toilets? " Bhangi is the pejorative, degrading, reprehensible and horrible word that the north uses for safai karmacharis. I also consider that "manual scavengers" are an offensive word, but will we ever learn?
My article from Frontline led to a book, Endless Filth . Bezwada Wilson, founder of Safai Karmachari Andolan, took me to most northern states of India to write about the state of his people. When I thought I had seen everything and the situation could not get worse, I met little children who were cleaning toilets near Jaipur in Rajasthan. The Hindus published this report.
Twenty years later, little has changed even though, according to Wilson, the Swachh Bharat project would have resulted in the setting up of poorly constructed toilets, with appalling infrastructure that do not do anything about it. other than blockages several men die drowned in liquid feces in the sewers of all India.
Bezwada Wilson, founder of Safai Karmachari Andolan, took the writer to most northern states of India in order to write about the state of his people. Photo: Sandeep Saxena
I discovered (out of ignorance) the shocking fact that many Catholics in Mangalorean and Goa accept arranged marriages or attempt, with higher castes, upward mobility. "Neb a Catholic Brahmin, preferably rich". Surprisingly, Christians also adhere to the roots of castes. A former Syrian Christian parent of my husband once told me with pride how his grandfather had broken and rebuilt the porch seat on which I was sitting because a person of a lower caste was sitting on it.
"Remember, was it Brahman and Nair when we converted? Now, things have changed, my child, "he lamented.
A beloved, beloved priest, said to me, while celebrating my wedding, that I could keep my head high like the family of my grandfather, the Soanes family of Balmata in Mangaluru, were converted Brahmans who spoke Kannada and who were "an upper caste anyway". I had a proud and glorious legacy, m? Ensured! If 2000 years of Christianity fails to distinguish Christians from its caste, it will be a daunting task for anyone.
Although the task is difficult, can those who venerate Girish Karnad bring Bengaluru to show the way? For his own good? In his memory?
This would be the most appropriate tribute, making caste a thing of the past. Or at least take a few steps forward to start a movement of all progressive people for this cause. Because, although Dalits have been fighting for their rights for decades, unless the dominant caste members create a movement to "name and shame" castes, unless we question Unjustice, unless we practice equality, giants like Girish Karnad and the writers of his generation will have written these pieces in vain.
Mari Marcel Thekaekara is an independent writer based in Gudalur, Tamil Nadu.
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