[Reader-list] [Announcements] Kancha Ilaiah's children's book: A Review

Sat Jun 16 09:43:06 IST 2007

*THE WORK OF OUR HANDS*

*Vatsala Kaul has high praise for Kancha Ilaiah's book for children on the
values of 'simple' work*

* <http://www.tehelka.com/story_main31.asp?filename=op230607the_one.asp>
Tehelka<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main31.asp?filename=hub230607the_work.asp>,
Jun 23 , 2007*

The cavernous divide between those who 'labour' and those who 'work' in
India has always inhabited the shaky bedrock of our social system. Labour is
work that leads to no accumulation of wealth, though it often perpetuates
its own impoverished struggles. Its devaluation, as scripted in Hindu
religious texts and fostered by years of selfish conditioning, has only
worsened, aggravating the disengagement between the historically privileged
and those banished to the fringes as 'lower castes', 'Backward Classes',
'Scheduled Tribes' and 'untouchables'. Flung into such compartments without
escape, millions of Indians — adivasis, potters, weavers, dhobis, farmers,
cobblers and domestic workers — are regarded as a lobotomised, unskilled
mass, providing 'services' it seems they have no choice but to perform. As
Ilaiah points out, the modern education system — in continuance of an
ideology that considers physical labour undignified — anoints mental
endeavour but is derisive and disparaging of physical work. Basic productive
services are neither valued nor well-paid. It is to this work and to those
who perform it that Ilaiah seeks to restore a core of long deserved respect.

The book is presented as a possible course book for children of classes
7-10, their teachers and parents. Of the book's 11 'lessons', eight deal
with the scientific temper, artistic abilities, knowledge pool and many
skills of adivasis, cattle-rearers, farmers, weavers and barbers. There is
enough to grip the imagination — how the adivasis discovered and
standardised most of the foods we eat; how leather workers used the tangedu
plant for eco-friendly tannin; how tillers use traditional knowledge in
planning their harvests; how potters improve their clay with smooth ash and
charcoal; how dhobis use fuller's earth to remove stains and kill germs; how
dais — largely the women of the barber community — are able to turn breach
babies in the womb without ultrasounds or other costly techniques. There are
interesting asides, and inventive exercises readers are encouraged to try —
they work as well for adults as for kids. What do you know about CK Janu?
Ever tried composting? Or protesting against manual scavenging? How much
does a farmer earn on a crop?

Grownups who fret over whether to let their domestic help use the ac are
advised to resolve their own conflicts before handing this book to their
children. The book was sparked off by Ilaiah's shock at students from the
iits and iims protesting against reservations by going out to sweep roads
and polish shoes, clearly demonstrating what little dignity they associated
with such labour. Through lucid, logical text, Ilaiah places this work in
socio-historical perspective, impressing upon the reader how entire
categories of usually marginalised people have learnt, invented, discovered
and created products we use but take for granted, and how they are as
capable as others — often more so — of becoming teachers, software
engineers, doctors, nuclear physicists or anything else.

Ilaiah's well-intentioned narrative can become simplistic in places, such as
in the chapter on 'Labour and Religion,' where he denounces Hinduism and its
caste system. It's an impractical approach — one can not imagine the
relatively privileged suddenly converting to Ilaiah's point of view if they
are not already attuned to caste's heinous unfairness. By contrast, medieval
Europe is described as a blissfully classless society — an assertion that is
simply not true. Admittedly, however, while almost every religion has had
cliques that arrogated to themselves powers and privileges, neither class
nor slavery were sanctified by religion in the way Hinduism sanctified
caste. Even if the word 'caste' were now to disappear, a vicious complex of
reasons helps its long-entrenched effects to survive in this country and
seep even into the lives of converts to more egalitarian religions.

Although one understands that Ilaiah's case rests on presenting 'labouring'
people as informed, skilled and creative, it is a little disappointing that
he doesn't touch upon the fundamental, intrinsic equality of all people,
skilled or not, learned or not, labouring or not. We may owe weavers a
'historical debt, so they must be given preference in education and
employment,' but that should not mean that those whom we do not owe any such
debt should not get, or be enabled to get, the same opportunities. Ilaiah
excludes those who may not be 'skilled' or 'inventive', and new migrants to
the 'labouring' classes who may or may not have traditional wisdom and
learning.

While most of the writing in the book is blissfully straightforward and not
without humour (Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo are 'cobblers', for instance),
academic jargon does creep in. But then, it's always hard labour to build up
debate and easy work to nitpick.

The cause is worthy, and the last chapter on gender issues more than
welcome. This wonderfully designed book is a much-needed resource for both
parents and teachers and anyone else who wants to educate themselves —
teeming with interesting information, yet spacious and uncrowded. It is also
beautifully embellished — one can't use so neutral a term as 'illustrated' —
by Durgabai Vyam of Bhopal, whose Gond-style black-and-white drawings are
feisty works of art.

In times when children think cows eat garbage and not grass, and that flower
pots grow one on top of the other on roadsides, Turning the Pot, Tilling the
Land will prove vital in empowering our children to respect all kinds of
peoples and their work, and to understand, and hopefully work against, the
atrocious machinations of the caste system. Class 7 is too late to start,
though; it would be best to share the contents of this book as soon as kids
are old enough to understand the words 'play' — and 'work'.

 *Jun 23 , 2007*
BOOK details

*Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times*

By Kancha Ilaiah.

Illustrations: Durgabai Vyam.

9x9 inches, paperback, 108 pages

Rs 150

ISBN 81-89059-09-6

Who discovered the first detergent soap in India?

*Who created scripts as they crafted pots? *

Who selected and standardised most of the food items we eat today?

*How did cotton come to be spun into cloth? *

Who originated the science of making leather out of animal skin?

In this book, Kancha Ilaiah throws light on the science, art and skill of
adivasis, cattle-rearers, leatherworkers, potters, farmers, weavers, dhobis
and barbers. The book documents the contributions to the betterment of human
life by castes and communities despised as 'lowly' and 'backward'.

Recently, students opposed to reservation in educational institutions
expressed protest by polishing shoes, sweeping the roads and selling
vegetables. Why such resentment against labour? Could these students make
shoes or till the land? Could they make a pot? This book –  with stunning
illustrations by Durgabai Vyam – is the first ever attempt to inculcate a
sense of dignity of labour among India's children.

=========
For copies and bulk orders write to navayana at gmail.com; to buy the book
visit any good bookstore, or visit www.navayana.org for details

-- 
S.Anand
Publisher
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