[Reader-list] THE DALITS ARE COMING

[Hartman de Souza]

Thanks you for posting this! While many know the earlier work of a Dalit
poet like Namdeo Dasal, not too many know the more contemporary work of Dr.
Siddalingaiah. It would be nice if his other poems translated by Prof.
Sumateendra Nadig, were also posted...especially 'Thousands of Rivers' and
'They are Still There'...


On 23 August 2013 15:06, Asit Das <asit1917 at gmail.com> wrote:

> *THE DALITS ARE COMING*
>
> *SIDDALINGAIAH*
>
> * *
>
> The dalits are coming, step aside-
>
> hand over the reins, let them rule.
>
>
>
> Minds burning with countless dreams,
>
> slogans like thunder and lightning,
>
> in the language of earthquakes,
>
> here comes the dalit procession,
>
> writing [history] with their feet.
>
>
>
> Into the dump go gods and gurus,
>
> down the drain go the lawmakers.
>
>
>
> On a path they struck for themselves
>
> March the dalits in procession,
>
> burning torches in their hands,
>
> sparks of revolution in their eyes
>
> exploding like balls of fire.
>
>
>
> For the thorn bushes of caste and religion,
>
> they were as thorns in the side.
>
> They became the sky that looked down at
>
> the seven seas that swallowed them.
>
>
>
> Since Rama’s time and Krishna’s time
>
> unto the time of the Gandhis,
>
> they had bowed low with folded hands.
>
> Now they have risen in struggle.
>
>
>
> It grows, it breaks out of its shell
>
> the  endless dalit procession.
>
> Bullet for bullet, blood for blood,
>
> shoulder to shoulder, lives bound together.
>
>
>
> Under the flag of dalit India
>
> stood the farmers and workers.
>
> Flowers bloom in every forest,
>
> Thousands of birds take flight,
>
> the eastern sky turned red,
>
> morning broke for the poor.
>
>
>
> The dalits are coming, step aside!
>
> The dalits have come, give it up!
>
> * *
>
> *Translated from Kannada by M. Madhava Prasad*
>
>
>
> *SIDDALINGAIAH*
>
>
>
> *Siddalingaiah (1954-), a leading Kannada poet and public intellectual, is
> one of the founders of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti and played a significant
> role in the dalit movement in Karnataka in the 1970s and 1980s.
> Siddalingaiah participated in the boosa agitation of the mid-70s. lyrics
> from his first collection, *Holemaadigara Haadu *(Songs of the Holeya and
> Madiga, 1975), often sung at public meetings and demonstrations by the
> famous Janaradhan (Jenni), were heralded as path-breaking. He has since
> published several other collections of poetry and an autobiography, *Ooru
> Keri,* in two part*s (rendered in *English as* A Work With You, World: The
> Autobiography of a Poet, 2013). *He has been the head of Department of
> Kannada at Bangalore University and a member of the Legislative Council. He
> is currently chairman, Kannada Book Authority.*
>
> * *
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