SFI expresses deep condolences on the demise of noted Hindi
writer Omprakash Valmiki, whose works paved way for a movement of Dalit
assertion in Hindi Literature and its power centres of upper caste domination.
In his demise Hindi literature has lost a powerful champion of the assertion of
the voices of the unheard and hence also one of the most important figures in
the democratisation of a space which still continues to be largely
undemocratic.
Omprakash Valmiki was born in Western Uttar
Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district and had a rough and deprived childhood, which
formed the material basis of him questioning the very basis of the society
based on the foundations of caste discrimination. Jabalpur’s Marxist study
groups brought him in contact with the rich realism of Gorky and Chekhov; while
Bombay gave him the fire of the poetry of Namdeo Dhasal, Daya Pawar and the
Dalit Panther’s politics of resistance. It was Chandapur though where he became
totally absorbed in the Dalit movement. He says: “It was in this part of the country that I came across the marvellous
glow of Dalit consciousness. The self-fulfilment that I experienced in
connecting with the Dalit movement was a truly unique experience for me.”
He emerged on the horizon
of Hindi literature as a comet which was not to vanish into flames; rather it
sparked a thousand other comets. Modern Hindi literature had been a citadel of
upper caste dominance right since the days of the Nagari Pracharini Sabha and
the control of the mathadhish-s over the Hindi departments, publishing houses and magazines across
North India still remains more or less intact. Unlike in Marathi or Telugu
Literature, Dalits were largely underrepresented in Hindi literature until the
late 1980s, when a spurt of works by Dalit writers were published and new
magazines and literary groups with focus on Dalit literature started coming up.
This period coincided with publication of Valmiki’s autobiographical work Joothan, which announced the arrival of Dalit
literature onto the stage of Hindi literature. The genre of autobiography has
since then emerged as a powerful means of the assertion of Dalit subjectivity
that translates victimhood into a weapon of resistance. Casteism and
untouchability were something which Valmiki saw everywhere from his village in
Western UP to the cosmopolitan Bombay, and throughout Joothan, there is a definite urge in extending
the individual experience to the ongoing movements and towards the creation of
a Dalit identity. The publication of Joothan and Valmiki’s surname itself created ripples in the literary circles of
Hindi. He says: “This surname is now an indispensable
part of my name. Omprakash has no identity without it. ‘Identity ‘and
‘recognition’, the two words say a lot by themselves. Dr. Ambedkar was born in
a Dalit family. But Ambedkar signifies a Brahmin caste name; it was a pseudonym
given by a Brahmin teacher of his. When joined with ‘Bhimrao’ however it
becomes his identity, completely changing its meaning in the process. Today
‘Bhimrao’ has no meaning without ‘Ambedkar’.”
The emergence of Dalit literature has been a step forward
in the larger task of the democratisation of Indian Society. While remembering
Omprakash Valmiki, it is important to underscore the fact that true
democratisation and concrete advances towards the goal of his entire life – the
annihilation of caste – can be made only when “annihilate caste” becomes the
slogan of all democratic sections of the country. The coming together of
progressive forces is absolutely necessary to take the fight against casteism
and Brahmanism to its logical conclusion. Today when our Universities and
public life continue to be engulfed by the fangs of caste, when huge dropout
rates of students belonging to deprived backgrounds is not merely a statistic
but a naked display of caste discrimination, the urgency of this task cannot be
overemphasised. It is in rising up to the urgency of our times that we will be
able to do justice to the memory of Omprakash Valmiki.
