Namdeo Dhasal
Namdeo Laxman Dhasal was a Marathi poet, writer and Dalit activist from Maharashtra, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sahitya Akademi in 2004. In 2001, he made a presentation at the first Berlin International Literature Festival.
Biography
Namdeo Dhasal was born in 1949, in the village of Pur in Khed taluka, Poona, India. He and his family moved to Mumbai when he was six. A member of the Mahar caste, he grew up in dire poverty. He was a Buddhist.Following the example of the American Black Panther movement, he founded the Dalit Panther movement with friends in 1972. This social movement worked for the reconstruction of society on the basis of the Phule, Shahu, and Ambedkar movements.
Dhasal wrote columns for the Marathi daily Saamana. Earlier, he worked as an editor for the weekly Satyata. In 1972, he published his first volume of poetry, Golpitha. More poetry collections followed: Moorkh Mhataryane, inspired by Maoist thoughts; Tujhi Iyatta Kanchi? ; Khel; and Priya Darshini, about the former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
During this time, Dhasal also wrote two novels and published pamphlets such as Andhale Shatak and Ambedkari Chalwal, a reflection on the socialist and communist concepts of B. R. Ambedkar.
Later, he published two more collections of his poetry: Mi Marale Suryachya Rathache Sat Ghode, and Tujhe Boat Dharoon Mi Chalalo Ahe.
In 1977 Dhasal married the noted Marathi writer Malika Amar Sheikh after a brief courtship. However the marriage was troubled due to Dhasal's alleged domestic violence, alcoholism and debt burden. In 1981 Dhasal was diagnosed with Myasthenia. Later he suffered from colorectal cancer and myasthenia. He was and admitted for treatment in a Mumbai hospital in September 2013. He died in 2014 at the age of 64.
Activism
In 1982, cracks began to appear in the Dalit Panther movement. Ideological disputes began to eclipse the common goal of liberation. Dhasal wanted to engender a mass movement and widen the term Dalit to include all oppressed people, but the majority of his comrades insisted on maintaining the exclusivity of their organization.Dhasal's illness and alcoholism overshadowed the following years, during which he wrote very little. In the 1990s, he once again became politically active.
Dhasal held national office in the Indian Republican Party, which was formed by the merger of all Dalit parties.
Literary style
The Dalit literature tradition is an old one, though the term was introduced only in 1958. Dhasal was greatly inspired by the work of Baburao Bagul, who employed photographic realism to draw attention to the circumstances which those deprived of their rights from birth have to endure. Dhasal's poems broke away from stylistic conventions. He included in his poetry many words and expressions which only the Dalits normally used. In Golpitha, for instance, he adapted his language to that of the red-light district, which shocked middle class readers.The establishment assessments of Dhasal's political and artistic achievements may differ drastically, but for Dhasal himself politics and art were inextricably linked. In a 1982 interview, Dhasal said that if the aim of social struggles was the removal of unhappiness, then poetry was necessary because it expressed that happiness vividly and powerfully. Later he stated, "Poetry is politics." Dhasal adheres to this principle in his private life. He told the photographer Henning Stegmüller, "I enjoy discovering myself. I am happy when I am writing a poem, and I am happy when I am leading a protest of prostitutes fighting for their rights."
Arundhati Subrahmaniam describes his poetry thus: "Dhasal is a quintessentially Mumbai poet. Raw, raging, associative, almost carnal in its tactility, his poetry emerges from the underbelly of the city — its menacing, unplumbed netherworld. This is the world of pimps and smugglers, of crooks and petty politicians, of opium dens, brothels and beleaguered urban tenements."
The pioneer of Navdottri chauthi NAVTA movement Shridhar Tilve has written an independent book on his poems titled " NAMDEO DHASALH : EK ADHALH KAWI". According to him NAMDEO DHASALH has originated from untouchable MAHARI language and developed international rebellious language of protest which was unique in poetry.
Works
Poetry
- Golpitha
- Tuhi Iyatta Kanchi
- Khel
- Moorkh Mhataryane dongar halvle
- Amchya itihasatil ek aprihary patra : Priya Darshini
- Ya Sattet Jiv Ramat Nahi
- Gandu Bagichha
- Mi Marale Suryachya Rathache Sat Ghode
- Tuze Boat Dharoon Mi Chalalo Ahe
Prose
- Ambedkari Chalwal
- Andhale Shatak
- Hadki Hadavala
- Ujedachi Kali Dunia
- Sarva Kahi Samashtisathi
- Buddha Dharma: Kahi Shesh Prashna
Awards and honors
| Year | Award | For |
| 1973 | Maharashtra State Award for literature | Literature |
| 1974 | Maharashtra State Award for literature | Literature |
| 1982 | Maharashtra State Award for literature | Literature |
| 1983 | Maharashtra State Award for literature | Literature |
| 1974 | Soviet Land Nehru Award | Golpitha |
| 1999 | Padma Shri | Literature |
| 2004 | Sahitya Akademi's Golden Life Time Achievement |