MADIBA to MARLEY via NAMDEV DHASAL

 The week of 23^rd to 30^th January this year and every year comes with special promise. It is a promise of courage, democracy and dedication of truth. It is a promise of bravery, constitution and truth. It is a promise of global vision, virtues of unity and power of dedication to self-criticism. Yes, in India this is a special week.

23^rd January is a birthday of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, founder of Indian National Army. He united patriotic soldiers from Indian subcontinent through coalition with Germany and Japan to overthrow British imperialism. Though, he failed to do so—because British were successful in stopping advancing Japanese forces (ally of Bose) at the north-east borders of India and also subsequently his tragic death in air-crash later in August 1945. The day of 26^th January is historically very special to India. On this day in 1929 at Lahore Congress Convention, India as a nation resolved to make this day as symbol of Free India. On this day in 1950 India became republic via adoption of Constitution on 26^th November 1949. The day of 30^th January 1948 holds unique position in Indian history as it is dedicated to tribute for sacrifice Mahatma Gandhi made. He was assassinated on this day in New Delhi`s Birla House.  

In many senses, the spirit of these three days is epitomized in one persona i.e. Nelson Mandela. Mandela, popularly known as Madiba; who lived life as revolutionary, true humble democratic leader, a pioneer of non-violent transfer of power without bloody armed struggle and a great humanist who stood for human rights of not only ‘blacks’ in South Africa and African sub-continent but also across the world.

In the 1960s, Mandela joined left wing revolutionary movement well after he completed is legal education and practiced for a while. Because of his consistent involvement in revolutionary struggles he was soon imprisoned and due to consistent denial for compromise in combat against apartheid, he was forced to suffer in prison for 27 long years. Imagine, that can be anybody`s half life time. Like radioactivity, where half life period of any element can be hundred and thousand years; Madiba represented millions and millions lives across the world in his prison life; reflecting in a sense a true torch-bearer of struggle against exploitation, segregation and butchering done by imperialists in African, American, European, Asian subcontinents. His education in English, anthropology, politics, native administration, and Roman Dutch law is testimony to how he viewed humanity and world at large. His interest in dancing and drama reflect how deeply he was in a position to understand the liberal passions of life.

One can be surprised with multiple-diverse and intrinsically opposite traits of same personality leading in different ideological processes. But Mandela was no ordinary leader.

At the same time, when world was mourning passing away of Madiba, India was also witnessing passing of an era represented by Literary Twister named Namev Dhasal. His last poem - on Nelson Madela - was published on January 11. A underground poet, a rebellious political leader, a social revolutionist against power, caste and religion, doyen of subversive language in contemporary India and philosopher of understated marginalized classes in regions beyond centers of wealth. Born to outcaste family, in his younger days he drove taxi for livelihood. His movement started from foundation of ‘Dalit Panther’ inspired from American Black Panther Movement.

He was largely responsible for creating consciousness in regional language literature in India about nee to break all norms, project life upside down, reverse aesthetics of appreciation of writings and thus day to day happenings and imagine possibility of making evaluation of expression more democratic, respecting plurality and authentic. He was the only person to be awarded by Lifetime Achievement Award by India`s highest Literary Body ‘Sahitya Acadamy’. In 2001 he made presentation to International Literature Festival in Berlin.

If Mandela mobilized people on the basis of urge of self-respect, fight for justice and struggle for rights; Dhasal marshaled weapons of words to destroy the citadels of prejudice, stigma of outcastes and vaccume of socio-political alliances. Manela-Dhasal may be separated by continents but they spoke same language through different ways in parallel times—times of transition, times of retrospectively realizing that coloniasm is yet to finish, times when 90% of the world was yet to taste the fruits of modernity in true sense, times of experiencing endless agony for asking for own dignity. If language was the custodian of indigenous culture of communities, Dhasal proudly navigated through powerful corridors of established literature carrying this native culture which has it own beauty—like dark side of the moon. 

Mandela—empowered courage of people who had no way of knowing how to express their silent protests through gentle conversations on the streets, schools and social gatherings.

Mandela`s realization of inhuman conditions in Robben Island prison (where he was for 27 years), made him more sensitive person before by each passing day. Dhasal`s experiences of humiliation, atrocities and exclusion made his poetry more angry, firebrand and penetrating. Together they showed power of expression and conversation, determination and pursuit of righteousness, leadership across spectrums of social life and engineered new alliances, ability to connect to every subaltern group around, contextualizing the fight as per the times they lived in and living to their own ideals of life without getting unnecessarily influenced by idols of those times, in a sense retaining their originality. When another great Indian writer Dilip Chitre says, that mere word Criticism fails when we reflect on Dhasal`s writing. This irony was also felt about Mandela when US Government honored him with President`s Medal for Freedom while at the same time, his name was there in terrorists list. Dhasal`s style decorated by surrealistic expressionism which was ignorant to average outcaste reader and even distant for upper-middle class educated people. Manela`s tactics were totally new for imperial forces as they were not ready to deal with phenomena which does not get wither away by 27 years of displacement from daily lives in the harshest conditions of prison. It was as if Mandela lived on another plant just like outcasts in India did for centuries to which Dhasal gave first socio-cultural shock after founder of India`s constitution Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. This is not just an effort to eulogize Dhasal, but putting his personality in correct historical context. At the time when established legal-political system and institutional forces were continuously failing to acknowledge, let alone address, the plight of outcastes, Dhasal—through his sheer creativity with realistic arrangements of words—bulldozed agenda of cultural-political bias against community to which he born to.

These were also the times when by blending of words and music, Bob Marley travelled around the world by singing for freedom, justice, and equality. His tracks in 1979 titled ‘Zimbabwe’, ‘Africa Unite’, ‘Wake Up and Live’, ‘Survival’ were highly popular in a sense—they changed the moods of the youths across the continents creating a moral pressure buffer in the media, democratic movements and literary-music circles. I wish to close the tribute to seamless relationship in legacy of ‘Madiba-Dhasal’. Let us listen to these lines of Marley to at least start understanding for what Mandela-Dhasal stood for, lived for and died for !!!

“…Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them can stop the time…

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever had
Redemption songs

All I ever had
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom
Songs of freedom…” 

 

 ===================================================