Балбир Мадхопури. Баньян — «дерево чамаров» (глава из автобиографии «Обрубленное дерево»)

Abstract

This commented translation from Hindi of a chapter from the Chāṅgiā rukh (Against the Night) autobiography (2002) by Balbir Madhopuri, a renowned Indian writer, poet, translator, journalist and social activist, brings forward episodes from the life of low-caste inhabitants of a Punjab village in the 1960s — early 1970s. After two decades after independence, destinies of those stuck in the lowest part of the social ladder remained unenviable — despite the fact that according to India’s constitution, untouchability was abolished and its practice in any form was forbidden. The main social conflict in Punjab’s villages between high-caste landowners, Jats, and low-caste chamars, chuhras and other village servants is still underway — with only minor modifications. Following the school of hard knocks of his childhood in the chamar quarter of Madhopur, a village in Jalandhar district, Balbir Madhopuri managed to receive a good education and take to literature. Narrating his story, Balbir Madhopuri shares childhood memories and emotions that determined his motivations to struggle against poverty, deprivation and injustice. The metaphor of a hardy bargad — a strong and powerful tree that used to be heart and soul of chamars’ area in Madhopur, but was slashed and distorted at a whim of the high and mighty villagers — holds a special place in the book.