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The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Vol. II, Issue IV I ISSN : 2395 4817

Social Exclusion of Dukhi: A critical study of the ‘’ (DELIVERANCE) by Prem Chand

Sameer N. Solanki

Assistant Professor AS & H Department SVIT, Vasad Anand, Gujarat, .

Abstract

We all are aware of the socio-economic exclusion of subaltern community. This paper attempts to explore the ways of caste driven socio-economical exclusion which challenge their lives. At the same time, the ideology of caste is hegemonic in the Indian society and they face different forms of social exclusions. Thus, they are caught in between social and economic exclusion. This paper traces a struggling for in the midst of the reactionary ideology of caste through the character of Dukhi-Chammar both in the short story and the short film. This paper depicts how Dukhi-the tanner lost his life by the socio economical exclusion of his category. The following paper is based on social exclusion of the character Dukhi of Prem Chand’s great short story ‘Sadgati’ as well as of Readers of ’s filmic adaptation of this story for in 1981. It is said to have been the first tele-film produced by Doordarshan, with , and in lead roles.

Keywords : Exclusion, Dalit, Subaltern, Hegemonic, Tanner

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

INTRODUCTION:

The terms like ‘dalit’ or ‘harijan’ or ‘chammar’ mean not only deprived or outcast or untouchables, but it also signifies the status to which a definite part of the individuals have been reduced through methodical sacred process and they are forced to be alive in that orthodox dark corner. They are pariah and poor, because they, according to the creators of this traditional arrangement, were not fit to be included in the fourfold graded caste formation of our social caste order. On the basis of this grade, they were made to tolerate the tremendous kind of violence in the form of tyranny for so many decays, which made them almost lose their humanity and finally they reached the condition of being a 'no-one'.

The term “Social Exclusion” widely employs in the field of thinkers and strategy planners all over the world to identify the errors for the development of the mistreated individuals. It is very difficult to find out the cause of social exclusion of such people as it varies from person to person; society to society; culture to culture and country to country. The Geography and the history of that particular region can also influence the social exclusion. Such social exclusion also paves the way to various issues like increase in rate of , health, and others. Universally, one can mainly find social exclusion of the person in terms of the identity of gender, caste, religion, ethnicity, colour, race, nationality, and others. In simple words one can define social exclusion as a restriction of social rights and opportunities which is only applicable for the upper caste of the people and a day dream for the lower caste. Subsequently it denies the involvement of such outcaste people in basic political, economic and social functioning of the society. Such situation plays the role of catalyst for poverty and deprivation among them. The paper wants to discuss about the of India through the character of Dukhi in this given frame work of social exclusion.

Social exclusion of Dukhi in ‘Sadgati’ by Prem Chand: In the eye opening story 'Sadgati' personifies the dilemma of untouchables through the character of Dukhi. Before going to meet Pandit, Dukhi, a tanner by profession, gathers pure and pious things to offer as a feast to him so that he can fix an auspicious date for the marriage of his daughter. Dukhi Chamar was sweeping the door front, and his wife, Jhuria, was plastering the floor with cow dung. After they were done with their everyday jobs, the Chamarin said, ‘Go now and speak to Pandit Baba, in case he should go somewhere else.’ Still Dukhi was worried about the seating arrangement for Pandit. Dukhi said, ‘Yes, I’m going, but think where we should seat him.’ As he is already aware of the nature of the Pandit and he is feared that if there is any mistake done by him then he would have to face

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

the anger of Pandit in form of curse. But somehow Jhuria arranged as she said, ‘We’ll borrow a cot from someone. Get it from the Thakurs.’ But this makes Dukhi hyper as he said that ‘Sometimes you say things that make my blood boil. How can we? They don’t lend us even fire for lighting, and you expect them to lend us a cot! If I ask for water at the house of Kaisthas, I won’t get it. No question of getting a cot. It’s not like our cow-dung cakes, straw and wood; which anyone one can come and pinch. You better wash your own cot. Being summer, it’ll dry up before he comes.’ After these lines confirms how the chamar family lives with such exclusion which is as horrible as the hell. He is not ready to offer Pandit as he thinks ‘Why’d he sit on our cot? Don’t you know how strict he is in his observances?’ At last Dukhi agrees to make a fresh seating made of natural material which would acceptable to the Pandit as well as make a leaf-plate from Mahua leaves:’all big people eat in those plates. These are clean and taintless. Give me the stick; I’ll get some leaves from the tree.’

Dukhi then started making plates out of natural Mahuva leaves but still a question goes around in his mind about what to offer and how much to the Ghasiram the pandit. With this dilemma he orders his wife to bring such groceries which they can offer to the pandit. But he also make one thing very clear to Jhuria that she must not touch anyone of these things which she is going to bring from the market. Jhuria wanted to put all the offerings into Thali which is the best way to offer something to such a holy person. But again Dukhi reminds her that from which caste and category they belong and advised her to drop her idea of putting all stuffs in thali instead of putting all in plate made of Mahuva leaves as he is afraid of the pandit that he will refuse to take offerings and throw thali away in anger. As he says ‘Don’t be mad. We shall lose the offerings and the thali too. Baba will throw away the thali. He gets wild in no time. When angry, he doesn’t spare even Panditayan. He thrashed his son so badly that he still has a broken hand. Put the offerings on a leaf-plate. And, don’t you touch anything.’ Still Dukhi did not want to take any risk as he told his wife to take someone not belonged their caste;’ Take the Gond’s daughter with you and buy the offerings from the grocer. They should be plentiful. One seer flour, half a seer rice, a quarter of lentils, ghee, salt, turmeric. And put a four-anna coin in one corner of the leaf-plate. And if the Gond’s daughter is not around, request Bhujin. You don’t touch anything, or all will be lost.’ This shows the very ugly side of a society which treats the socially out casted in very weird way. Dukhi who is coming from a very very low class going to offer such above said offerings to the pandit as per the custom set by the so called upper class society. For the upper class people these offering may cost very nominal but for the person like Dukhi it costs as valuable as things for which his family requires a month. Dukhi is going to spend all his saving after buying these stuffs but he has no other options as he cannot go and invite the pandit without any offerings. With all these he also planned to take some grass

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

for the cow of Pandit as he cannot go to invite him empty handed. Repeating all instruction to Jhuria once again, ‘Dukhi picked up his stick and a big bundle of grass, and started on his way to Panditji’s. How could he go empty-handed? But he had nothing else for a gift. If Baba saw him empty-handed, he would drive him away from a distance.

When the Pandit comes back from the sacred place to his house he sees Dukhi sitting there with a bundle of grass a feast according to him. The sight of the poor dalit makes Pandit annoyed, he intones, "what brings you here today, little Dukhi?" Such implication shows how the figure of dalit is so irritating for the upper caste people as they cannot even tolerate the glimpse of their faces. Here the reader comes to know about the social exclusion of such people who belong to this category of caste. A category which is based on the caste system for humans but whosoever lies in this category can never be treated as humans but animals. Still ignoring this indirect insult done by Pandit, Dukhi bowing his head, requests him by offering whatever he brought with him to fix the date of marriage for her daughter. Pandit knows that Dukhi can never afford the charge to fix the date of his daughter’s marriage. Thus greedy and arrogant Pandit tries to pay no attention to his request first as he has nothing precious offering to offer. But Pandit find a new torturous way to get his required charge as Dukhi is asked to sweep clean in front of the door, plaster the floor of the sitting room with cow-dung, and split the wood before the consultation of almanac. As per the Hindu mythology you cannot get your work done without offerings if it is related with Brahmin. But why does only Dukhi? Just because he is Chammar; an out caste. Only for Chammar people these rules are applicable. An upper class people have many things to offer and so they are not being victimised by such pundits. It is like this that Dukhi has been harassed by the pandit not because of he is poor but just because he has been socially excluded due to his caste. So in place of costly offering when Dukhi offers himself then he is totally at mercy of the pandit and Once Pandit gives these tasks to Dukhi then he is bound to finish it before the given time limit. How mean it is when Ghasiram gives an impossible task to Dukhi to chop the log of wood into small pieces. Before Dukhi many had tried to chop that wood but it was remain as it is. The poor fellow suppressed his hunger and began to chop the wood. The piece of wood had a thick knot which had defeated many a devotee, and was now ready for battle again. Dukhi was good at cutting grass, and had no experience of chopping wood. Grass would always bow its head before him, but here he attacked the knot with all his force but it refused to yield even a bit. His axe would slip again and again. He was sweating profusely. He gasped for breath and sat down, rested a while and got up again. He was unable to lift his hands, his legs were shaky, his back would not straighten. Darkness clouded his eyes and his head reeled. Even then he continued his labours. With little fiver and empty stomach Dukhi gives his everything to tear

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

that wood but he remains unsuccessful. At last when he was no more able to hold axe to cut the wood as he has being empty stomach since morning he decided to take some energy through certain source. First he decides to go back to home and have his lunch but he dropped that idea as his home is very far and he will not be able to come back within time and resume his given duties. Thus he decides to have some tobacco and chilam. But again he realises that he is in the premises of a bhrahmin house thus asking for tobacco is itself a big sin. Thus he went to the house of Gond and able to have the tobacco but still there is a question of fire to light the chilam. Thinking that he will be provided fire from the pandit house, went into the house of Ghasiram. When Pandit Ghasi Ram’s wife reacts sharply to Dukhi’s entry in the house, he considers himself guilty of a crime (which was never there): He repented: it was a mistake to come. She was speaking the truth – how could a tanner ever come into a Brahman’s house? These people were clean and holy, that was why the whole world worshipped and respected them. A mere tanner was absolutely nothing. He had lived all his life in the village without understanding this before…Panditayin, mother, it was wrong of me to come inside your house. Tanners don’t have much sense – if we weren’t fools why would we get kicked so much?

So just to save that deadline for the whole day Dukhi works with an empty stomach. In the killing heat he works continuously without food, without water and without rest for a second. At one stage panditayin felt pity for Dukhi and told Ghashiram to give Dukhi some food to eat. Since morning, Dukhi has been working hard with the same zeal to complete the given order by the god incarnated in pandit. As all the untouchables believe that the Brahman's were supposed to have come out of the mouth of Lord Vishnu whereas the Sudra's came out of his feet thus Dukhi has a very clear point of view towards Brahmin that whatever they order should get fulfil immediately. Panditayin watching him since long and observe that it is proper to feed him as if they called someone to complete the same task then he may charge money more than their expectations. Thus both agree to give him some roti but suddenly pandit denies this with a very odd kind of reason that he is chammar and their hunger can never be satisfied with the chpatis made by upper caste people. Instead of giving chapattis made of wheat it would be proper to give him roti made of millet. Such a ridiculous thing to say that chammar cannot digest wheat which is a food patent for brahmins. Such things brings one thing on the surface that the upper class people snatched away whatever is made by the god from the lower class people. The subaltern is not having any right on any natural thing made by the god. Without worrying of Dukhi pandit told Panditayin not to take any stress for that animal who is actually working and killing himself in killer heat for them. After By the evening he falls and tired body gives up and he dies in front of pandit’s house. Pandit sees this but does not feel pity for that dalit who has no value or place in the society.

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

Hungry Dukhi wants to finish the job of splitting the wood to make please the pandit so after smoking the pipe he again engages himself. In the meanwhile the Gond visits him and tells him of the uselessness of his labours. The Gond is sympathetic to Dukhi and enquires if Dukhi has had anything to eat. He also helps in chopping the wood for some time before he gives up. He advises Dukhi to give up this impossible work for which he is not being waged and then he takes his leave. Dukhi, for a moment, considers quitting the work. But he is unable to summon the courage to do it. He starts shifting the hay from the store to the fodder bin. Tired, hungry and exhausted he falls asleep. In the meanwhile the Pandit after a nice nap comes out and finds Dukhi asleep. Instead of being thankful for the service rendered by Dukhi, he starts abuse him and his caste. He also threatens Dukhi with horrible consequences if the work is not completed. Dukhi is stunned. After all if the Pandit refuses to pick an auspicious day then the marriage would be a disaster. A mix of dread, respect and fear gets hold of Dukhi and he gets into a state of hallucination. He works the axe so hard that after sometime his tired and exhausted body gives up. He is dead. Even after his death he is just like dirty rubbish which is untouchable and stinks. Even his death doesn’t change his destiny as after the death of Dukhi Pandit worries only about his corpse that how should he remove it as early as possible? Social exclusion of Dalit is clearly visible in the story at the stage when no one is even ready to touch the dead body of Dukhi. Pandit who is regularly pass his devotee time by enchanting certain holy Shlokas and Mantras offering to various Gods forgets the universal reality that dead Dukhi is no more a dalit but a dead body. But his religious values do not allow him to think so. For him the person who took birth as dalit dies as dalit. He also tried to take help from the people of Dukhi’s caste but they are not ready to do so as they are feared of legal action. After two days the disgusting odour from the dead body is beginning to spread quite a bit. If someone from the upper caste dies then there is no such annoyance which reader can see in the case of Dukhi who is socially excluded. So to get rid of such a disgusting piece of rubbish Panditji gets a rope, makes a noose and manages to get it over the dead Dukhi's feet and draws it tight. He grabs the rope and begins to drag it until it is out of the village. It is just like eating beef for Pandit thus when he gets back home, bathes immediately, and reads out prayers to for purifications and sprinkles Ganges water around the house. And out there in the fields the jackals and kites, dogs and crows are picking at Dukhi's body. What ridiculous thing to know that a person who had thrown a dead body like a piece of rubbish to and not offered a proper last rituals to that man who has died while working for him asks pardon to Almighty God for his sin. Still for Pandit its not a sin but actually he has done good cause for the society as he has cleaned the path from the stinking dead body of lower caste man Dukhi. On the one hand instead of doing all such nonsense with Dukhi Pandit still holds his holly place among the people of his society and on the other hand Dukhi a poor guy who just wanted to fix a perfect date

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

for the marriage of his loving daughter gets an unwanted death at the end. And that is perhaps the reward of a whole life of devotion, service and faith.

Conclusion

For summing up we can say that throughout the story reader witnesses the social exclusion of Dukhi being a tanner. The last concluding part is even more bitter and difficult to believe which makes us acutely aware of the brutality and cruelty of the caste system. Dukhi, literally, dies a dog's death as he is destined to as a part of cast system. There is a harsh contrast between the weeping and the insensitive, heartless attitude of Pandit Ghasiram and his wife. Readers come to witness the nastiness of the Pandit couple by the discussion between them about providing Dukhi a light and later some food. The dialogues between the two expose the miserliness of their characters. When it is suggested that the tanner be given some food the Pandit considers it 'entirely outside the behaviour expected of him'. He goes on to say' You can never fill up these low-caste people with good bread'. The Panditayan responds with, 'Let's forget the whole thing...I'm not going to kill myself cooking in weather like this'. Thus ends the proposal for feeding a hungry man who has been working for free at their house since morning. It is very difficult to miss the misery of Dukhi at the ending. What Dukhi could not achieve in life he manages to do that in his death. Pandit Ghasiram, who considers the touch of Dukhi polluting, is forced to drag the dead body of Dukhi himself. And what comes as an even greater irony is the fact that Ghasiram disposes the dead body of Dukhi in the fields to be eaten by scavengers, after Dukhi had served him with devotion and loyalty. Instead of gratifying Dukhi for his selfless services, Pandit Ghasiram has ensured that Dukhi suffers in death as he was in life by giving him curse as he forced Pandit to touch his dead body. Pandit Ghasiram performs the necessary purification rites and, perhaps resumes his normal life. But the price was a dog's death for Dukhi, left in the field to be devoured by scavengers.

References

Chakraborty, Prasanta:"Dalits in " In Language in India: Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow" Volume 1l:4ApriI 2011

H.S.Chandalia, Dalit Writings: The Question of Representation‘, Creative Books, New Delhi:2009

H, Sagar R. "PROJECTION OF DALIT LIVES IN NOVELS OF ENGLISH NOVELISTS ARUNDHATI ROY, ARVIND ADIGA AND MANU JOSEPH."International Multidisciplinary Research Journal Golden Research Thoughts 4.9 (2015): 1-4. Web

Premchand, Munshi. Sadgati: Mansarovar, the collected stories of Premchand. : various edition, 1931.

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

Qureshi, Vaseemahmed G. "Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal." The Search for Self and Space by Indian Dalit Joseph Macwan and African American Richard Wright 2.5 (2013): 1-10. Web.

Rubin, David. Deliverance and other stories. New Delhi: 1990.

Sites Retrieved http://ghai-tc.blogspot.in/2013/03/prem-chands-story-sadgati on 5 November 2015, 15:20:40 http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/01glossaries/soas/premchand_sadgati_screenplay_gloss.pdf on 10 November 2015, 11:20:20 omarsfilmblog.blogspot.in-SADGATI DELIVERANCE Dir Satyajit Ray 1981 India - High and Low on 28 ‎September ‎2015, ‏‎14:10:40.

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817