CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN INDIA (ISSN ): VOL. 5: ISSUE: 3

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1 THE PORTRAYAL OF DALITS CONDITION IN THE POST- INDEPENDENCE OF KARNATAKA IN DR. H. SIDDALINGAIAH S OORU KERI Dr. Ashok Hulibandi, Associate Professor, Department of English, Karnatak University, Dharwad Abstract: This paper justifies a social injustice, humiliation, political suffering, economical suffering, and exploitation of dalits in Prof. H. Siddalingaiah s Ooru Keri, it is a Dalit autobiography. Dr. Siddalingaiah is one of the best dalit writers in Karnataka. He was a founder and active member of Dalita Sangharsha Samiti, he has been in the forefront of several movements, protesting caste injustice and affirming dalit self-respect. A man must defend his manhood, but it is not so in the care of Dalits. Sometimes a person s life is not justified by his own kinsman and society. In such a care a person may demand justification of his life through his autobiography. Keywords: H. Siddalingaiah s Ooru Keri, Dalit autobiography, Dalita Sangharsha Samiti, exploitation of dalits. Literate is a mirror of life, it reflects truthful life of a man. Man is a social animal; man cannot live without a society. This paper justifies a social injustice, humiliation, political suffering, economical suffering, and exploitation of dalits in Prof. H. Siddalingaiah s Ooru Keri, it is a Dalit autobiography. Dr. Siddalingaiah is one of the best dalit writers in Karnataka. He was born in Magadi in the South Karnataka, he studied in village schools for higher studies he went to Bangalore, a capital city of Karnataka to acquire his M.A. and Ph.D degrees. He has published three collection of poetry, Hole Mdigara Hadu (1975), Savira Nadigalu (1979) and Kappa Kadalina Hadu (1982). He also published two play Panchama (1980) and Ekalavya (1983), two collections of essays: Avataragalu (1981) and Hakkinota (1991). He worked on a Village Goddess (Grama devategalu) for his Ph.D degree thesis. He was a founder and active member of Dalita Sangharsha Samiti, he has been in the forefront of several movements, protesting caste injustice and affirming dalit self-respect. He was nominated to the Karnataka Upper House in 1988, and has served as an independent legislator for two six- years terms. His autobiography Ooru Keri is originally written in Kannada in two parts. S.R. Ramakrishna has translated it into English. Dr. Siddalingaiah simple documents the poverty, violence, and cynicism; 56 stores involving inherent humor and erotica are also thus depicted. As an adult, Siddalingaiah retains his life of long naps, writings here that, If someone were to give me a choice in the morning between sleeping on and a lot of money, I would choose the first option (Bharatiraj 95). Dr. Siddalingaiah s Ooru Keri portrays his lifelong struggles with poverty, hunger, humiliation and exploitation in the village and a town Bangalre. The title Ooru Keri is very meaningful; Ooru means a village or a town. All non-dalit castes from the Brahman and the land-owning castes to the service castes like the barbers, washer man, talawar are lives in the Ooru and it contains the settlement s main temple. Keri is the word where the dalits live; it is geographically separate from the main body of the village. Therefore it reveals suffering, social inequalities, religious exportation atrocities reflected in Ooru Keri. Siddalingaiah expresses his own experiences in his autobiography; he depicts a social injustice, exploitation, suffering, political, economic suffering, assault, and humiliation of dlits. The Cambridge International Dictionary defines injustice as Unfairness and lack of justice (Procter731). The Social injustice means, there is no fair in the society, there is a bias, unequal in the society. Ooru Keri is a study of social injustice of Dalits. The second aspect

2 is Exploitation means exploitation of weaker section. The concept of exploitation is misuse of physical, economical, social, political and educational weaker sections. In the autobiography there are many types of exploitation, exploitation of illiterate, women, children and physically weaker. A Dalit autobiography reveals painful insights of social injustice, which has been haunting Dalits, Dalit prolific writers Omprakash Valmiki (Uttar Pradesh), K.A. Gunasekaran (Tamil Nadu), Ganpaly Debjan (Assam), Aravinda Malagatti (Karnataka), Laxman Gaikwad (Marathi) and Bama (Tamil Nadu), have been narrators of their truthful life without hesitation and fear. They were common men and women become very popular. The Post Independent India has a Constitution, it committed to ensure social justice to its citizen. But it is no longer lives to save this under privileged. This paper discusses various forms of social injustice and different types of exploitation. Ooru Keri begins with the description of his house. Dalits are outcast; they are living outside of the village. Ainoru are upper caste in the Indian society, they have a land, on the land they constructed a beautiful home with a huge well and a pumpset cabin. The water from the pumpset irrigated their lands. Ooru Kere reveals a social injustice, Our People trudged to a flower garden some distance away and fetched water from the well by its side. I never saw any one but the dalits fetch water from this well (Siddalingaiah 2). The upper cast people never allows draw a water from their well or pumpset, there was a separate well for dalits and upper caste people. In the early days, before the globalized, upper caste people exploit dalit. They treat dalits as a non-human being or like animals. Siddalingaiah narraties a painful non-human incidents, the Dalits children and women are watching a terrible incident, A man had fastened a yoke onto the shoulders of two others, and was ploughing Ainoru s fields. It was amusing to watch the two men trundle on like bullocks, while the third followed them swinging a whip and making them plough. A strange agony gripped me the moment. I 57 realized that of the men carrying the yoke was my father. Some women who came to where we were standing and sighted, What a plight has befallen poor Dyavanna! (Siddalingaiah 2). The dalits had a bit of land or some time landless, the Holeyas are totally neglected in the Indian society and he narrates the social condition of the dalits in his contemporary society. The dalits should collect food from the Brahmin and Ainoru s house that left over poori and chitranna(rice) and they collected Ainoru s old tattered shirts and pants that his son had discarded. Dalits are illiterates; they strongly believed in the Goddess, they have a Mari temple in their colony. Maramma and Jaldagere Amma was their goddess, women were worshiped a particular day every week. They dreamed a variety of dreams, Dead grandparents, parents and brothers and sisters hunted them in their dream. Other interesting incidents depicted in the autobiography, dalits strongly believed in others words, one day a holy man came to their village and predicted that a rain of fire and deluge would end the world in fourteen days. The next day they invite their gusts and relatives cooked their favorite dished and eat together. But he did not believe in that he said, I must say the people of our colony took good advantage of this situation (Siddalingaiah 5). The Holeyas are totally neglected in the Indian society. He narrates another painful incident that there was a drought everywhere, people struggles to get a food, some people offers ceremonial feasts to rain goes. The upper caste people believe that if they offer a ceremonial feasts rain would come, During such feasts, the Holeyas were made to sit in a corner. We were noticed only after people of the upper castes had been served (Siddalingaiah 7). Siddalingaiah was a minute observer of the Indian society; he narrates incidents without fear, not only Indian society but the Government also did injustice to Dalits. Government has provides facilities to only upper class people, they enjoys political and financially privileges, he narrates A tarmac road, laid by the government, divided the village and the Holeya

3 Colony. On that side were houses of caste people. Buses plied on the road (Siddalingaiah 9). The post-independent of Indian society is very cruel, Dalits don t have freedom to walk freely on the road, touching of upper caste is also considered as a big crime. He narrated one of the incidents in his autobiography. When he was a child, he was running on the street at a wild speed, he had brushed against the clothes of someone coming from the other direction, that men stopped in anger and scolded him like anything but luckily his grandmother saved him. Every dalits should wishes to the upper caste, Namaskar with two folded hands but they never wish or reply them. Teacher always exploits students, dalits students started chasing them out into the forest to collect firewood, and it was the job of dalit students to collect firewood to their master s house. He expresses his feelings, To me, roaming in the hot sun and gathering firewood seemed a hard task (Siddalingaiah 17). Dalits always exploited by the upper caste people. Dalits are great devotes and believes in the god and goddess, basically they scarifies sheep or buffalo. Siddalingaiah narrates very interring incident that how religious hypocrites exploits dalits in the name of god and religion. His matrimonial uncle proves that the religious leader always exploit dalits. In Manchanabale, a man used to be possessed by a goddess. People called him the sheep deity, when the goddess come over him, it would shouts, Sheep, sheep devotes would ask humbly which sheep mother said? The goddess says any sheep. One day the same man, the goddess possessed the priest. As usually the devotees grabbed a sheep and brought it, for some reason he says I don t want it, bring me another, everyone was begging her in a variety of ways to accept the sheep but he is not ready to accept it, later devotes realized whose sheep is it? It belongs to thought of that. Someone identified it and said, It belongs to the possessed priest. I d drowned on them that he was refusing it because it was his sheep (Siddalingaiah 20), then they realized the divine possession was just a ruse to eat mutton. 58 In the India history, dalit women always exploited by dalit men and the upper caste men. Women are like a machine to fill full a sexual desire of men and upper caste men. She does not have respect in a society. The upper caste man is waiting an opportunity to have sexual intercourse with them, if they oppose, they will try to rape or sometime they will kill and throw their dead body somewhere or accursed them that she forces to have sexual intercourse. Siddalingaiah narrates a painful nonhuman incident in his autobiography, a women who had no husband or children, she used to drink heavily, she was around forty but looked bewitching, she went to work as a laborer and returned home always tottering and dropped off to sleep, One summer night she lay on the street opposite her house. She was in deep sleep, and her clothes were disheveled. A rough passing by noticed this went up close and squeezed her. She did not protect, and his love sport continued. Two others saw this and followed his example; she moaned in her slumber but didn t resist them. Word got around and lots of men gathered, each waiting for his turn. But day break several from the age of fifteen to seventy, had enjoyed the free facility (Siddalingaiah 25). He narrates another way of exploitations of a woman by men of the same community. A man was married a beautiful girl, he always harasses his wife; he was not good looking, her charm filled him with a great pride, apprehension and suspicion. He had ordered her never to step out of the house. When he went out to work as a laborer, he would lock her inside the house. He handed over the key to the neighbors, who opened the door whenever she called out to go to the lavatory. People are waiting to see a delightful beautiful girl. A Socio-economic inequalities and exploitation had been a part of dalits in India. In Ooru Keri, Siddalingaiah narrates a painful incidents that, many dalits unable to repay of debits and heavy interest on it, some time they attempts to suicides. He narrates his own father incident, My father had become a huge debtor. Bringing loans was, to him, as easy as drinking water. But he found it very hard to

4 repay them. One day two toughs beat him on the street. He was wailing and trying to escape. The more he tried to escape the harder they beat him Terrified, we went closer. Some people managed to free him, and he escaped more blows. He was injured all over his body and his clothes were torn. The toughs were agents of the moneylender. They had assaulted my father because he hadn t repaid a lone in time (Sidalingaiah 37). He was unable to bear up humiliation, one day, he drank a poison but luckily he escapes and recovered from the death. Siddalingaiah narrates dalit s social and economical condition of his contemporary society in Ooru Kere. His family shifted from Manchanabele to Srirampura colony, Bangalore. His mother joined as a sweeper in R. Gopalaswamy Iyer hostel. Dr. Venkataiah was its warden. The whole family was depended on his mother s earning, she brought left over mudde, he would wait for arrival of his mother because noting was to eat at home. He took mudde and kept in his bag and attends a school. He joined to hostel, the condition of the hostel was very worst, Anywhere between ten and thirty slept in a room. Eczema was rampant (Siddalingaiah 43). The boys were strongly believes in supernatural element s like ghosts and witches; he heard many stories of ghosts. Another painful condition of the hostel was students were fighting for food; it was common in dalit hostels. The boys would rush with their plates for the mudde and saru, they have to hold the vessel high above their head to protect themselves, some time their shirts and shorts would turn a special colour, If there was any mudde left, the practice was to serve all those sitting in line. They used to call this extra. Very young boys refused it. Older boys would rush and reserve sets for younger boys. As soon as they saw young boys, they would feign friendliness and invite them to sit by their side (Siddalingaiah 47). The dalit boys in the hostel, they stole something from trunks. Siddalingaiah depicts the history of agitation in Ooru Kere. The rich, upper caste and intellectuals always tempts and escapes from agitation, the poor people, innocent people are the victims and they will 59 meets a tragic end. Siddalingaiah narrates a tragic incident of the Rail blockade agitations. In the incident a Tamil and minority fellow meets a tragic end. In Srirampura Kannadigas and Tamil were living together peacefully and happily but Kannada Paksha was very strong. Kannada writer would attend and delivered an inspired speeches. Pandit Shivamurthy Shastri and Vattal Nagaraj use to come frequently and speak emotionally. One day, Thousand gathered for the Rail blockade agitations. Their main demand was that the Mahajan report be implemented. The sea of people was enthusiastic. We will give our lives but not Belgaum, they were shouting in one voice. Five prominent leaders of the day s agitations walked up and lay down on the track. We heard the train approaching. People on either side of the track felt their hearts thumping. Slogans went the air. The train came into view every one run. Tension gripped the crowed. One of those laying on the tracks got up, gingerly came aside, and wiped his brow. Just when the train was upon them, there other got up and joined the crowd. Only one remained. He lay there shouting that the Mahajan report should be implemented. He was run over merciless train, the crowed wept. The man who died in the Rail blockade agitations was Govindraju, he was a Tamil. He had been working for a long time for the Kannada cause in Bangalore. The four others who had got up and run away were pure Kannadigas (Siddalingaiah 58). Siddalingaiah strongly believed in Dr. Ambedkar s thoughts. Shantaveri Gopala Gowda liked his speech. He was very active in school days; he has participates many debates and won many prizes. In the summer day, he worked in Dhondusa silk factory, later his job was clean the vessel and through garbage to outside. He exprees his inner feelings that, I carried the garbage to the pit. To avoid I would smear my face generously with grim before taking the bucket out. This would distort my face and render me unrecognizable (Siddalingaiah 69). Works were paid once a week; he brought a Dr. Ambdekar s book with little earned money. He spends more time in the graveyard, he did not

5 believed in the ghosts, he lost faith in the god and he was an atheist. One day he asked elderly men, Whether ghosts existed. He shook his head to say no I am a ghost myself (Siddalingaiah 71). Dalits always insulted and humiliated by illiterate upper caste and also literate even from the great teacher. There is a proverb in Sanskrit Guru Bhrama, Guru Vishnu, Guru Sakshat Parabharama Tasmai Shree Guruve namaha, Tacher is like a Bhrma, Vishnu, Shiva but it is not true to dalit s students. Teacher is like a God, they never do any kind of discriminations they are secular. But many teachers are communal; they never treat dalits students as students. They discriminate in allotment of marks, medals, ranks and guiding students especially in Higher education. Siddalingaiah narrates his own bitter experience with pain, A lecture used to feel thirsty in class. He would give me the key to his Godrej Almirah and ask me to fetch water. I would do as told. He was very orthodox. Why he still chose me to fetch water become a subject of discussion in class. He had mistakes me for a Lingayat. I was liberated from the task of fetching water after he came to know my caste (Siddalingaiah 75), he would stop to call him. He narrates both good and bad teachers, G.S. Siddalingaiah, S.S. Marulaiah, Lakshminarayana Bhatt and Hampa Nagarajaiah were really good teachers, some teachers are really encourages to compose a poems. He was a rationalist, D.R. Nagaraju encouraged him a lot and his friendship gave him a new turn to his life. He received many prizes those cups secured in debates but he sold all prizes because he was financially weaker, he said, I used the money to get clothes stitched. Thus the debates also become a means of livelihood to me (Siddalinaaiah 79). He appreciates Bangalore University, it had launched an earn while you learn scheme, that scheme really helps to students, I joined soap factory to work between five and nine every evening (Siddalingaiah 83). He contested the post of joint secretary of the Karnataka Sangha and won in the election. He was actively involved the progress of the society Siddalingaiah and his friends founded a society called Vicharavadi Parishat. He visited many 60 dalits hostels in Bangalore. He narrates the worst condition of dalits hostel, Dalit students suffered many hardships. They would not get proper food. Arrangements for bathing and hygienic were bad. A hundred to two hundred students had to make do with a single lavatory. Students contended with one another to use the lavatory in the morning. Lavatories did not have doors. A boy sitting inside had to stretch a hard out to indicate his presence sometimes fights broke out (Siddalingiah 88-89). Sidddalingaiah was great influenced by Periyar Ramaswamy Naiker, once he was invited by Periyar Reception Committee to Bangalore; he delivered a lecture at Town Hall. Periyar speaking style was very attractive; Periyar began his speech saying, There is no god, no god, no god at all. He who created goo is an idiot. He who propagates god is a fool. He who salutes god is a wild beast (Sidalingaiah 91), he was mocking the stories of puranas. His main intention was to destroy the caste system in India, he encouraged inter-caste marriages. Siddalingaiah narrates the political suffering of the dalits and dalit political leaders. The Boosa episode, it was a great literary movement in Karnataka. B. Basavalingappa was a controversial minister in the Devaraj Urs cabinet; he once said Gandhiji did not know the meaning of truth, it amazed many people. Another occasion, he said much of Kannada literature was boosa, meaning cattlefeed (Siddalingaiah 94). This statement is the case for the Boosa agitation. The Dalit students arranges really in support of Basavalingappa to show the strength of dalits. D.R.Nagaraj, Ki. Ram. Nagaraj Kalegowda, Nagawar were great supporter to him but the rally was not successful became upper caste people never supports the Boosa agitations. B. Basavalingappa had to resign from his ministerial position because of pressure from the traditionalist, his political rivals and the agitation. His resignation made him very popular among the dalit classes. After resignation of Basavalingappa some students forcibly smearing religious marks like the nama and vibhuti (Ash) on the forehead of passers, if they suspected that someone was can atheists, they sought

6 in writing from him that god existed. Siddalinga s Ooru Keri narrates a social injustice and exploitations of Dalits and women in the post-independent Karnataka. During J.H. Patil s Janata Dal government the same incident repeated but the government did not protect the dalit minister. The dalit minister B. Somashakar, a Higher Education Mister also resignation to his Minster post. The upper caste people simple file falls Malpractice case, when he was a studying LL.B. Siddalingaiah joined Kannada M.A. course; he got to be a direct disciple of Dr. G. Shivarudrappa, Dr. Murulasiddappa, who helped him a lot. He got a first class and won the D.L. Narasimhachar Gold medal. He applied a Research Assistant post. He was appointed as a Research Assistant in Kannada Department, Bangalore University, Bangalore. He led an unhappy and problematic life, but struggled for survival and acceptance by the society. A man must defend his manhood, but it is not so in the care of Dalits. Sometimes a person s life is not justified by his own kinsman and society. In such a care a person may demand justification of his life through his autobiography. Thus, self justifications may be considered as one of the objectives behind an autobiography. Works Cited 1. Siddlingaih. OOru Keri. New Delhi: Sahitya Akadami, Print 2. Bhajantri, S. A Study of Social Realism in the Select Indian Dalit Autobiographies. Annamalai: Annmalai University, Print 3. Procter, Paul. Cambridge International Dictionary of English. New Delhi: CUP Print 61