admin SAVARI
An excerpt from Joopaka Subhadra’s article ‘Hatred in the belly ‘ in which the poet eloquently addressed the question, ‘but why can’t we write on dalits?’
Further, she asks, why should we not write? Amma write, Ayya write. Tell the whole world about the caste system in this country. Write about caste discrimination, tell the whole world, but, engage with the pain, empathize with it and then talk about it. Talk about the intensity of the pain. Instead, the pain is trivialized, humiliated and conveyed sarcastically. This is not the way it has to be conveyed, this is not the way the world should know about our pain. This is for us to articulate. [..]
She further says, about Gandhi, can we say, only Gujarati banias ‘ write about Gandhi? Gandhi has to be owned by everyone, right? She claims, the Hindu society in India doesn’t know how Gandhi suppressed Ambedkar, I am revealing that, as no one else has done it. She says this very proudly. Who does not know this? Everyone knows how Gandhi suppressed Ambedkar.
If we look at the introduction, talking of annihilation of caste, she doesn’t speak of what should the country do, what should the Dalits do, what should all these castes do? She says low is privileged as compared with the lower. Meaning everyone is benefiting from the caste system, no one wants the system to go. But for us, it has to go.
We are thrilled to share that Hatred in the belly has been reprinted and made available on Amazon.in
You can buy your copy here: Hatred in the belly
