Revolutionary literateur (1949– 2014)
In the end, it is Namdeo Dhasal’s poetry that defines him, defines his political initiatives and actions. Though without the fire that raged in him about the life and conditions of not only Dalits, but also the working class of Mumbai, his poetry would not have throbbed and disturbed the way it did. Reading him was never and is not an experience to calm the nerves, reading him is to be left shaken and provoked, perhaps to even have many of your fond illusions brutally shattered. He did that with great style and sophistication; make no mistake, his poetry might be about subjects no one had considered “poetic” before, but it was nuanced, the thought process complex and at all times, it forced you to engage, to feel, to be involved.
His family (belonging to the Mahar caste) moved to Mumbai from Khed, Pune (Maharashtra), when he was six years old. His father Laxman Dhasal worked in a butcher’s shop and the family lived close by in Kamathipura, the red light area. Dhasal grew up among those who lived in the direst circumstances, and it gave him an insight into human nature that enriched his poetry. He drove a taxi for a living for some time, formed the ‘Tiraskrit Naari Sanghatana’ (Association of Loathed Women), and later as his voracious reading grew, got interested in politics. Along with other young men, he formed the ‘Dalit Panthers’. The latter galvanised the Dalit movement in Maharashtra that had stagnated under the burden of self serving leaders. This group (many of them poets and writers too), breathed new life not only into the Dalit movement, but also “Dalit literature”. Their anger at the misery of the marginalised and the shunned fired both, their writings and their political acts.
Dhasal married Mallika, the daughter of Maharashtra’s beloved poet Shahir Amir Sheikh. She is a poet and writer too, and though their marriage was a turbulent one, they remained together until his death.
Entirely self-taught, Dhasal read and interacted with Socialists and Marxists and politicians of the other parties in Maharasthra too. After his poetry (translated into English by friend and poet, the late Dilip Chitre) got national and international acclaim, he was interviewed and written about extensively. V. N. Naipaul wrote about him as did a number of Western journalists, fascinated by what he and his poetry represented. Dhasal’s political career took some turns which were controversial and as would be obvious, he had a lot of critics who did not mince words while talking about him.
But as mentioned above, it was as a literary genius that Dhasal will be remembered as, even though his politics nurtured his literary work. Golpitha (1972) created an upheaval that is rarely credited to a poem. The language shocked many, but with it began Dhasal’s use of Marathi as the language had never before been used. No clichés, no nice-sounding phrases – instead, as has been said, it exposed the “underbelly” of Mumbai as the elite had never before experienced. It made his reputation and other works followed: Golpitha (1973), Tuhi Iyatta Kanchi (1981), Khel (1983), Moorkh Mhataryane dongar halvle, Ya Sattet Jiv Ramat Nahi (1995), Mi Marale Suryachya Rathache Sat Ghode, Tuze Boat Dharoon Mi Chalalo Ahe. He received a lot of recognition and awards and was also awarded the Padma Shri.
Dhasal lost his long battle with colorectal cancer at the age of 64, but not before he had thoroughly shaken up the comfortably entrenched literary traditions