Tikḍe šīše kī vyathā / The Tale of the Cracked Mirror (A Сhapter from Chāṅgiā rukh / Against the Night)

Abstract

The commented translation 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 Dalit inhabitants of a Punjab village in the 1960–1970s. 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. He has authored 14 books, including three volumes of poetry, translated 36 pieces of world literary classics into Punjabi, his mother language, and edited 44 books in Punjabi. In 2014, he was awarded the Translation Prize from India’s Sahitya Academy for his contribution to the development and promotion of Punjabi. His new fiction novel Miṭṭī bol paī (Earth Has Spoken, 2020) focuses on the struggle of downtrodden Punjabis for their human rights and the ad-dharam movement in the North of India in the 1920–1940s. Narrating his autobiography, Balbir Madhopuri shares memories, thoughts, and emotions from childhood and youth days that determined his motivations to struggle against poverty, deprivation, and injustice. The chapter Tikḍe šīše kī vyathā (The Tale of the Cracked Mirror [Madhopuri, 2010]) tells readers about the everyday life of Madhopur, complicated relationships between the village inhabitants, as well as about the destinies of low-caste Punjabis. Memories of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears of the childhood years go side by side with Balbir Madhopuri’s reflections on social oppression and caste inequality that remain in contemporary India’s society.