The politics of metaphor: traces of casteism and patriarchy in the work of Shah Abdul Latif

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif for its casteist and patriarchal drift. In particular, it focuses on the ‘Dalit question’ and the interpretation of Latif’s poetry by both progressive and conservative sections of Sindhi society. Latif’s poetry is highly lyrical, and several of his works inspire love for a transcendental being immanent in nature and in people. Yet much of Latiff’s poetry and his biography suggest that Latif was not as progressive and egalitarian as he is often represented to be. Metaphors of caste, gender and religion have materiality. They do not simply invoke esoteric mystical feelings but also furnish justifications in everyday life for persisting with entrenched casteist and patriarchal values. Observing the easy appropriation of Latif’s poetry by different sections of Sindhi society, I conclude that it provides a social and political idiom that depoliticizes casteism and lacks the capacity to inspire Dalit consciousness.