Dnyanesh
Before you read the poem, let us discuss the context in which this poem lies. It unravels the journey of a human mind that grows up from childhood to its adult age. In this poem, the mind has a distinct journey to tell because it has been nurtured in socialization where caste has been a fundamental factor in shaping the person’s personality, especially if the person belongs to an Antyaja caste.
The poem has an intro followed by three sections that narrate the story of the evolution, devolution, and revolution of the mind.
~
The Story of Mind in the Caste Society
[Intro]
I was unaware of the word “mind”
Until the day, I was epistemologically muted, injured, slaved, killed, and buried;
Along with a long line of ancestors for millennia now.
Neither do I claim today that
I know about the “mind” reasonably enough.
But I have a story to tell you,
The story of “my mind and its evolution, devolution, and revolution.”
[1]
I could collect some of the glimpses of me.
As once upon a time; being a child;
I was curious to find out;
What makes me moving? What keeps me driving?
Is it me who wakes up in the morning and sleeps every day?
Is it me who walks upon the floor,
climbs trees, runs into farms, swims in the river?
Is it me who speaks, sings, and who thinks?
Or is it all done by someone or something else?
Where does everything come from?
How do things move in a way in which I like them to move and not to move?
Why do things go in a way where I want them to go and not to go?
It was all the childhood, though,
The best time to articulate all silly, rather most intellectual questions,
But sadly, nobody was there to answer
[2]
I was kept confused, muted;
Moreover, my curious mind gradually stopped asking those questions
Because parallelly, as I was growing up in a social system,
Just the body was growing; with a more puzzled mind
I had been convinced to understand and accept a narrative that
I belong to a commune; which is impure, filthy, untouchable and unfit even to think or ask
Well, the name of this commune was “***”
An antyaja caste, according to Manusmurti of Purusha-Sukta in Rig-Veda
Is Not supposed to learn or teach
A class, according to the depressed and downtrodden norms,
Not allowed to accumulate wealth or capital and meant only to serve the unclean jobs
It was being imposed on the mind, and half believed;
That my clan is not a human clan, unlike others
Where dignity; the very principle of axiological aesthetics of me being part of a living species;
In a society where non-living stones are prayed and worshiped
And the ontological existence of me being a human seemed far away and unreal
[3]
As I grew up and learned to read, comprehend to relate, and self-taught to unlearn,
The mind slowly began to unfold the buried consciousness
As if it has found its own beauty in functioning, and aesthetics of its own creation
I could see and understand the differences, ironies, inequalities, and injustices
The intersections of “self” with the ideas, concepts, and theories of humankind
Have opened me new ways to undermine all the orthodoxically constructed forms
The decoding of these combat junctures like “self”, “mind”, and “caste”;
Initiated to unravel the layers of imposed narratives
And it began to reconstruct the liberation of me and the commune
To reclaim the taken dignity, freedom, and most importantly, “the mind”
It is now on the verge of getting free
And I believe it will always remain free
~ Dnyanesh
Tuesday, 10th August 2021.
You can see the video of the youth conclave here.
*** signifies the denial of the former caste nomenclature; instead the name has been transformed into nav-buddhist in contemporary anti-caste politics.
~~~
Dnyanesh is an MPhil student at the School Of Education at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. The poem was presented at Global Forum for CDWD Youth Conclave, organized by the Stakeholder Group of Communities Discriminated Based on Work and Descent.
