Harijan - Gopinath Mohanty

 The book was first published in 1948 and was translated into English by Bikram Das. It is the story of a basti of untouchables, or mehentranis, people whose god given job was to carry shit in wicker baskets after collecting it from the houses of people in the city. Of course they had no tools or machinery so it had to be done by hand. Perks given to them were not to be seen, not to be heard, and not to pollute the community else...severe punishments were prescribed. Gopinath Mohanty wrote the story in all its simplicity and one can read it and wonder - hey that was another time and it is not possible that such things happen now - in fact the person who wrote the foreword said something like that - that one cannot conceive of such things. One can conceive of worse things imply because they are facts that are alive even today. 

Anyway the story is about Puni, daughter of a mehentrani, whose job along with all others in the basti is to collect shit and transport it out of town. Puni's mother hopes to keep her daughter out of the profession and doe snot let her join. But when she falls sick Puni is forced to join - and the whole thing sickens and stains her. Her first day cleaning latrines with her hands, the way they drown that pain and stench in alcohol and other things that intoxicate and numb them, the way she cannot eat after going home wondering which hand to use. 

Next to the basti is the house of a wealthy man - and his idealistic son who doe snot agree with his father's greedy plans and is actually some sort of a Gandhian but with no teeth, a daughter who is all for a good life. Turns out that Puni is the daughter of the seth - the rich men seem to use the women for their needs - at which time they do not seem to be polluted or infectious. There is a character telling the youth to rebel and fight and even steal and there is Sania, one who transports the shit on his cart, but who is madly in love with Puni and wants to marry her. Of course the rich man wants the land on which the basti stands, sets it on fire and watches as the poor people go away further, without a protest, to build their new dwellings. Simply told.

I liked the title 'Harijan' because it is very easy for someone to think that this is some unfortunate caste that got stuck with this job in the days of the old - someone had to do it after all. But no, these are exactly the untouchable class, the Harijans, dalits, the ones who are not part of the four varnas but still somehow become Hindus. These are the people who were treated like shit based on the varnas and their interpretations and everyone was fine with it until they started converting to other religions and then they were invited to an 'equal' society. Then they were given a vote and then told who to vote for. But till date, they have been given sops to keep quiet, but no political power. Ambedkar's argument was that unless there is economic and political  power, they can never be equal. Economically they are getting better, but politically they are far away from seeing any real power. A fact that is highlighted when we see that not a single Dalit leader can be seen or named who has some national presence.

I was struck by the title, the boldness of it, and picked it up from a bookstore. If Mulkraj Anand's 'Untouchable' was my first introduction to the life of the untouchables, this one is another stark portrayal of a reality we want to hide. A reality Hindus do not want to remember. The book is not pleasant because it deals with carriers of shit, but to get a sense of their lives, its a great piece of work.