Without seeing and knowing
Without reading or thinking
Without understanding
You attacked like stupid.
O brother so innocent,
Like this, would communism come?
Water in place of land
Land where there is water
Pit where there is hill
And mountain where there is valley
Only by making such drastic changes
Will there be revolution/?
It is none of your business to be a comrade
You are so sentimental
Leave alone Marx and Mao,
Had you played with a tribal boy in Nuxalbari school
You would do some good.
You are becoming anarchist uncontrolled and
Burn dry and wet indiscriminately.
You devour good along with bad,
In a sentiment if you break everything
Will it make Nav Nirman?
May be you can make every thing a level,
You cannot make every thing equal.
Yes, you chose an auspicious day,
26th January,
the republic day of the nation.
The innocent children of Anjar were
Unfurling the fake flags of freedom, equality and fraternity
And like an anarchist you attacked them at random.
You were so mad with rage that you could not even find a correct epicenter.
Kutch is a land of saints and donors,
There may be rare outlaws like Jeasal too
O good brother,
For you Delhi or Gandhinagar were not so far.
Yes, you are right.
The time is such that you burn with rage
You may wish to break to pieces the God
Who had promised to reincarnate himself
but has hidden himself
Instead in the idols.
Without seeing and knowing
Without reading or thinking
Without understanding
Some hang around for a drop of water
Some have highjacked the lakes and lakes to their terraces
Some crave for a ray of moonlight
While some have hidden entire sun behind their skyscraper.
Some have dried riverbed springs
And some have controlled Narmda and brought to their village.
Eager we too are
Doing all the bonded labor since centuries.
We made them netizens from citizens
And in return we wander exiled
But we are humane:
Our one eye weeps the other is red with rage
We do not wish to make this culture mohenjodaro.
we do not believe like mad Parsuram in the bloody revolution,
We are the followers of compassionate Buddha.
Come, see the effects of your aftershocks.
And repent like the King of Kalinga.
No one appeared when the cyclone blew on Orissa.
With their NRI connections
The series of overseas flights arrives
And white dogs identify the stench of their corpses earlier.
Rescue relief rehabilitation everything occurs here as per
The hierarchy of varnasham dharma
Government theirs, swaymsewakas theirs
For them at the maternal uncle’s place mother serves the food
And we are the helpless ones!
The rich Swiss tents were taken away by the leaders and officers
Pyjamas from Pakistan were taken away by the chaddi-banian- dharis.
We hardly had a share of a piece of tin or tarpaulin
Their vastushastris said
‘as per their caste, allot them the plots.
We were given the wastelands of the village ponds.
Come, get early salvation by drowning in the ponds!
O kind brother earthquake,
Your operation equality is a failure.
Even if you strike at a Richter scale
of whatever magnitude
You will not be able to remove
India’s social nature and environment.
You may have limitless kindness
And yet you will not be able to realize
Baba’s dream written in
the preface of Indian constitution.
Of course, they will remember
The nights lighted by the stars
though under the shadow of fear.
Hence please do not strike again
Without seeing and knowing
Without reading or thinking
Without understanding anything.
G K Vankar's translation of Neerav Patel's Gujarati poem "Operation equality". On 26 January 2001 Kutch, Gujarat was affected by a massive earthquake. Nav Nirman refers to a Youth agitation against corruption.
Neerav Patel holds a Ph.D. in English literature, born 2 December,1950. He is a well-known Dalit poet and editor. He edits Swaman, a journal of dalit writings, notably pieces of autobiographical prose. Along with Dalpat Chauhan and Praveen Gadhavi, he initiated Gujarati dalit literature with publication of Dalit Panthers’ 'Kalo Suraj' (The Black Sun). A bi-lingual writer, his collections of poetry are 'Baghishkrut Phulo '(2006), 'Burning from both the ends' (1980, in English), and 'What did I do to be black and blue' (1987 in English). He served as a Bank Officer, after his retirement he devotes his entire time to Dalit literature and activity.