Bruised, but not Broken (poems)
-Challapalli Swarooparani
28. The Pyre of Khairlanji
Oh, Babasaheb Ambedkar,
To whom but you
Can I relate this sad episode?
This minimal nation turned into
A male organ
Frightens me!
Look at this incestuous
Generation of vipers!
Was there ever a brother
On the face of the globe
So heinous as to touch his own sister?
What blasphemy have I committed?
To be born in
This wretched nation?
Baba, this monstrous
Casteist discrimination is
A bull that chases me.
We snatched no one’s crown
Only we became lettered
Held our heads high.
Cruel casteism that prompts
One to ravish one’s own mother!
Baba, this village transforms itself
Into naked steel
And ruptures our limbs
We shook off the dung dumped
On our heads, by their gods
And embraced a noble religion of quality
Of equality!
His orthodoxy ordained us
To wash his lavatories
But we went on to discover
New domains.
Casting off
The age-old thorny yoke is
No doubt
A crime, treachery.
Baba, how miserable
That you laid down your life
For these devils!
See how these women, those who own land
Relished as they witnessed
How we were ravaged, broken.
Baba, the way these women looked
Their looks are knives that
Molest us.
The police meant for protection
Turns hostile
Demands we prove our hurt
Checks our bruised bodies.
Baba, the police lathi
A male stick that agitates me.
If I ascend the steps of a court
Seeking justice
Shamelessly they hand out a judgment
That a caste Hindu would not resort
To polluting himself by
Going after an outcaste woman!
Baba, the court of law hurts
My conscience.
Is there another race
In the whole world
Held to ransom
For demanding
A fistful of humanity?
This is Priyanka* speaking
I swear by my brothers who were
Done to death
On the hacked bodies
Of my mother and myself
The family of Bhothmange
May perish and vanish but
Let that lustful arrogant Khairlanji
Continue to smoulder
Let the flames of our agony
Torch that town
As if laid out on a pyre
Let the family story of Bhayyalal be
A telling prelude
To the history of this nation!
*Priyanka was the daughter of the Dalit family, martyred in the massacre of Khairlanji. Bhothmange was their family name. Bhayyalal was her father.
(Telugu: “Khairlanji Kaastam” translated by N.R.Tapaswi and published on the Face Book Timeline of the author.)
*****
(To be continued-)
Challapalli Swaroopa Rani hails from a village, Pyaparru, Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh. She is one of the five daughters of Mariyamma and Mantraiah. Went to Govt school in her place, completed her college at Guntur, the District head quarters. Then shifted to Hyderabad Central University and involved in student politics as a founder member of Ambedkar Student’s Association. She had her master’s in History & Archaeology, M.Phil in Medieval History and Ph. D in Regional Studies. Swaroopa has obtained Gold Medal in her Masters Examinations. She has got her first recruitment as Asst. Professor in History at Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Srisailam and got selected as Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies in Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur. She lives in Vijayawada. Presently she is a Professor of Buddhist Studies and Director, Center for Women’s Studies in the same University. She is specialized in studies on Buddhism, Caste, Religion, Gender, Tribal Studies, People’s Culture and Literature.