By Sakoon Singh
When it comes to the question of caste, Punjab is a unique case. While the caste hierarchy prevalent in other parts of India does not exist in toto in Punjab, it is not to say that caste does not have a hold here. A theoretical understanding of Sikhism at the level of doctrine would lead to the assumption that Punjab under its pervasive influence is largely immune from the scourge of caste. However, caste within the fold of Sikhism continues to thrive, albeit in modified forms, and continues to be one of the most fundamental identity markers.
Ranjha, despite being Muslim, in the beloved medieval qissa of Heer, carries the fundamental marker of identity as a Jatt. Hence, Jatt identity as a phenomenon sometimes even transcends religion, and is tied fundamentally to the agrarian impulse.
Over time, however, this identity has acquired connotations of pride, enmeshed with the size of land holdings and political power. So, while pan-India, the question of caste arguably rests on the belief of Brahminical superiority, in Punjab it is the community of Jatts who enjoy superiority over the non-agrarian classes and landless Dalit peasantry.
The anthology consists of 12 short stories written on the Dalit themes by Punjabi writers. These are co-translated by Akshaya Kumar and Navdeep Singh. Akshaya Kumar is a leading academic with a long career devoted to study of progressive ideals in literature, whereas Navdeep Singh teaches English at Government College, Fazilka. The selection of short stories brings together old and new strains of the complex caste matrix.
The first anthology of Punjabi Dalit fiction, Maaskhore, published in 1972, was edited by Attarjit, whose two stories feature in the seminal Bathloo Chamiar and the eponymous Gangrene. Bathloo Chamiar takes after its protagonist, a nave Dalit man who sets out to do excruciating labour to fill a pit for a paltry wage. As exploitation is the order of the day, his honesty, courage and corporal service are not enough to fill the quicksand pit, much like the stomachs of those who pick on his flesh for their greed. The pace of the narrative mimics the painfully slow progress Bathloo makes at filling the pit, which eventually is bottomless.
Gangrene takes on the theme of inter-caste love and marriage, which continues to remain an anathema. Love is also perceived as threatening because it is that subversive territory where the rigid lines of caste can come undone.
Subverting the Sacred
A very dark depiction of complexity in this regard is the story Doomsday by Sarup Sialvi. While Gangrene is about the struggles of inter-caste relationships when young people are pitted against the old hierarchical structures, Doomsday is about the deeper conditioning that fills even the young with a toxic hatred for the low caste.
In this dark visceral story, a young woman comes face to face with her own mother’s deep hatred for her because she discovers herself to be the progeny of a Shudra father. As an odious aside, the mother has preserved the foetus of a child she had earlier aborted when the caste of the father had become clear to her in rather treacherous circumstances. In an eerie end, the narrator runs away with that heavy glass jar which holds the remains of her aborted half-brother. It is a kind of story that jolts the reader while exposing the levels of loathing for the Dalit as unclean against a vile landscape. For the mother, to be thus polluted by a Dalit in the most intimate acts is an intolerable violation.
Cancer by Nachhatar, on the other hand, deals a much softer blow to a Dalit lover but then it is true that the lover abounds only in the realm of dreams and innocent teenage love. A young woman afflicted with cancer loves him and daydreams about him. They cannot unite but he becomes her saviour when he ends up as a surgeon in a prestigious hospital in the new dispensation. Yet the disparity continues in strange quarters, just like the part-real, part-fantasy landscape of the story.
Stigma and Success
Cobbler’s Son by Mohan Lal Philauria underlines the shame inherent in a low-caste identity, especially for someone who progresses and is yet the outcaste. In an ironic way, he then alienates his own by becoming relatively superior, and paradoxically, his shame about his caste identity deepens as he climbs the social hierarchy. He loses even the kinship of the old system that his father had nurtured.
Aatu Khoji by Gurmeet Kariyalvi highlights the identity of the erstwhile criminal tribes (enlisted by the British) who continue to negotiate the stigma while trapesing through today’s challenges. Iron Boned by Makhan Maan brings together an inter-dependence, and yet violence, inherent in the relationships of man and beast, man and woman in a gritty tale. Roots by Bhagwant Rasulpuri explores the internal conflict of a man who, being raised in a well-knit Ravidassia sect, embraces Buddhism despite the strife it causes in his community, only to be undone by his own subconscious mind that veers towards the faith of his innocent childhood.
Cactus is a complex take on the hypocrisy of the educated when it comes to inter-caste marriage and love. The landless seeri Lakha in Cry of the Sky by Bhura Singh Kaler is reminiscent of the tongue-tied Jagseer in the now iconic Marhi da Deeva.
The peculiar powerlessness of a Dalit that abjures speech and solidifies the disadvantage of the fixity and the sheer determinism of caste is underlined. My story, Everybody’s Story by Prem Gorkhy takes on the issue of mindless violence against the low caste who have come to expect it as a part of their lot. The last story in the collection, Gaurjan by Ajmer Singh Sidhu, is the self-loathing of a Dalit who, despite climbing the rungs of social hierarchy, is kept at the level of a Dalit and how he is singed by it.
The book comes with a thoroughly written introduction outlining the history as well as the evolving flashpoints of Dalit writing in Punjabi, focusing on the genre of short story. It makes for a valuable reference for both lay readers as well as researchers working in the area. The anthology could benefit from brief author bios with the stories, even though the introduction touches upon it. Plus, a mention of the dates of the short stories could have been included in parenthesis with the title.
That would give the reader a ready timeline to situate the authors and understand the thematic evolution of the Dalit short story.
Punjabi writing has remained somewhat out of bounds for English readers due to paucity of fine translations. This volume decidedly fills that space and, more importantly, in the area of Dalit writing, which, in the first place, is beset with many more challenges. The selection of short stories ably demonstrates a range of heterogenous experiences that reflect the myriad direct, indirect, diffused and layered ways in which caste operates in Punjab.
Sakoon Singh is a novelist and academic based in Chandigarh
Gangrene: Punjabi Dalit Short Stories
Translated by Akshaya Kumar and Navdeep Singh
Penguin Random House
Pp 208, Rs 499