Nobel Prize for Namdeo Dhasal
“Nobel Prize for Namdeo Dhasal”
Namdeo Dhasal is in the news because of the translation of his poems into English by Dilip Chitre. What is curious is, after the mandatory 2-3 lines about his poetry, the reviews target Dhasal for betraying the secular, progressive cause. Dhasal, as all of us know, has joined hands with the “communal and corrupt” Shiv Sena. This charge is made by fence sitters; or poets and intellectuals who prefer hob-nobbing with the “corrupt and communal” Congress.
And in this way, the classical conundrum of caste politics, unfolds. The Brahmin rules are different from the rules for Dalits!
In COTTON 56 POLYESTER 84, singer-actor Nagesh Bhosale descided to render Eknath’s couplet “I am the bastard Mahar, son of the Lord”. I thought it was a fine piece of theatre. Until one day, I get a call. I’m told the couplet is objectionable. I ask, why? I’m informed that couplet is moving to another Brahmin but not to a Mahar. And that I won’t understand this since I am one of “them” as opposed to “one of us”.
Its true, the questions are never consistent.
Eknath & Chokamela
That night I re-read the Bhakti Poets and speak to a few friends about Eknath, a Brahmin saint, who wrote Bharuds. Interestingly, even though, 47 of these Bharuds emerged from the mouth of a Mang, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar believed, Eknath never challenged the concept of living (in non religious matters) according to caste.
Other than Eknath, the name of Chokamela is discussed. An uppercaste lady with superior aesthetics informs me, Neela Bhagwat renders Chokamela, beautifully. A friend from the Yuvak Kranti movement, disagrees. She sends me jottings on Chokamela by Ambedkar. In 1929, an atheist and rationalist, Ambedkar presided over a meeting at Trymbak, a pilgrim centre. There was talk of building a memorial in the name of Chokamela. Ambedkar was not enamoured by Chokamela. The reason being Ambedkar found Chokamela to be an “Uncle Tom-type Mahar” who was willing to accept the status quo.
For Ambedkar rejecting Chokamela was important since according to him the Bhakti movement (with the exception of Sant Gadge Maharaj) was without any social protest or social reform content. For e.g. Chokamela had accepted his place in the village hierarchy; and Ambedkar rejected this rationale.
Ambedkar & Pandharpur
Here it is very interesting to note, Ambedkar’s family were followers of the Kabir and Ramananda Bhakti and Yalkot sects. Ambedkar’s wife wanted to make a pilgrimage to some of these places. Ambedkar did not allow her to because he knew she would not be allowed into the temple. He consoled his wife and family members, by saying:
“The appearance of Tulsi leaves around your neck will not relieve you from the clutches of the money lenders. Because you sing songs of Lord Rama, you will not get a concession in rent from your landlords. You will not get salaries at the end of the month because you make pilgrimages every year to Pandharpur.”
Dhasal’s poetry sustains the Ambedkar argument. He does it with angst, with panache. Not for Dhasal the goody goody world of Bhakti nor Sufi. In fact Dhasal goes out of his way, and rejects the status quo. His poems do not glorify poverty. Instead of preaching lofty forgiveness towards his oppressors, Dhasal’s words mock them. The loathing is top-heavy. Dhasal provokes, he reinvents. If there was an award for “the best inter-cut” in poetry, it would go to Dhasal for his juxtaposition of the pilgrims of Pandharpur with the regulars at Golpitha.
And that’s the thing, the zing about Dhasal’s poetry. We tend to forget, that in spite of Dhasal’s compromise with power, his poetry is potent. We can’t ignore that. That would be injustice to our literary legacy.
Dilip Chitre says, “Dhasal’s poetry deserves a Nobel Prize for Literature!” I agree.
(This appeared in the Hindustan Times on 19th June)
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Ramu sir, Could we have a sample of Mr. Dhasal’s poetry.
Interestingly one of the most purest of the saints was Namdev, belonging to a lower caste.
hi ramu,
Though I totally agree with Dhasal’s genius as a poet, unfortunately his political decisions took him away from his his main mission, the dalit movement… which is sad as he d have really been a great thinker to provide and channelize the backward community…
Dhasal, Raja Dhale the dalit intellectuals were never ever able to actually go and reach out as they were actually capable of. The infighting and differences of opinion as to whose word should prevail ruined the entire movement…
Though the rise and fall of Dalit Panther movement is a great subject to study which Mr. Dhasal was also a part of once…
Though Ramdas Athavale managed to eat the cake and keep it too… winkkkkk…
And a great post… I forgot to mention it before..
And i wonder why there are so few coments Ramu???
Few guesses Surendra:
(1)people might have read above article already in Hindustan times
(2) people mostly visit this portal to read about cinema
(3) many might not have read poetry of Namdeo Ghosal so in that scenario what one can write in a comment except that its a great news about his nomination for Nobel Prize.
hmmmm…
RK… point hain boss… freakin we need a film on Namdeo Dhasal too… maybe i will few years down the line… there are many likes him about whom people dont know anything about…
Dalit Panther “Namdeo Dhasal” Zindabad
Dear Ramu,
You always surprise me with your Marathi reading – right from Chokha Mela to Namdeo Dhasal.
- Mukund Taksale
r u REALLY “MUKUND TAKSALE ” ?????????????
Namadev Dhasal desrves Nobel prize for his very great poetry.After Babasaheb, he is the most intelligent poet and writer& social reformer.
Indian society needs & wishes that he should not compromise with the values of social democracy, as per Babasahed India needs social democracy than any thing else.
Dear Namadevji, I