The Poetics and Politics of Migration: A Study of Selected Works of Hindi Dalit and Tribal Women Poets

Abstract

According to the social activist and renowned author Arundhati Roy, almost 30 million people have been displaced since 1990 due to dam and development projects undertaken by the Indian government. The new economic reform policies have triggered a massive movement of landless workers towards nearby towns and suburbs resulting in the mushrooming of slums on the outskirts of metropolitan cities with an intimidating promptness. The present dismal scenario proves the fact that the global India is heading towards a clean cleavage. There is an ongoing parallel life on the outskirts of the thriving city as in the middle of it. The thrust of this article is to deliberate on the growing discontent among the marginalized women as represented by themselves and understand the nuances of living on the periphery. They have reiterated their demands for Jal (water), Jungle (Forest) and Zameen (Land) with renewed vigour and lash out at the anti-people policies with double ferocity. The new crop of Dalit and tribal women writers have put their foot down and refused to accept the dark holes as home. They have expressed themselves through the genre of poetry and commented on the inhuman living conditions they are subjected to. Hence, under the light of given circumstances, this article endeavours to engage with the selected works of post-1990s Hindi Dalit women poets and study the rise of political consciousness in their literary representations. The selected works have autobiographical element or ‘testimonies’ as described by Arun Prabha Mukherjee adding depth to the poems. The trauma of leaving one’s village comes alive in the following lines from the poem Humne Chode Diye Hai Gaon (We Have Left Our Villages) by Poonam Tushamed (2017b), ‘We Have left our villages/and left behind that well, pond, temple and chaupal’.