Genesis of anti-Dalit Mentality

  Genesis of anti-Dalit Mentality  

                                                        --Dr RAJ BAHADUR YADAV

Understanding the anti-Dalit Mind-set [An Article]

Earth smiles in spring

Earth smiles in spring

                Earth smiles in spring

                                                                                                      -Dr RAJ BAHADUR YADAV

William Shakespeare has said so beautifully,"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything". The earth's beauty gets enhanced manifold in March and April when we find every tree, shrub and creeper copiously laden with fresh leaves and flowers. The chirping birds, winds buffeting the plants and trees and the fleeting white and yellow butterflies under the thick boughs create a mysterious  polyphony when the enchanting spring knocks at the doors of Nature. James Thomson [1700-1748] , a Scottish poet gracefully welcomes the king of seasons in these famous words,"Come,gentle spring! Ethereal mildness! Come!"  We find plants,bushes and trees wearing a divine robe which has delighted the human beings for ages. This "delightful robe" cannot be exactly categorized though it continues inspiring music and poetry. In his own peculiar style, Robert Burns, says," Again rejoicing Nature sees, her robe assume its vernal hues/Her leafy locks weave in the breeze/All freshly steeped in the morning dews". However, this time the spring proved to be a bit freakish in its conduct  of being "warm today and cold tomorrow" in India as the frosty winds and hail-storms flattened the standing wheat crops in the middle of March. And now when the wheat plants have turned golden from green, the peasants are ready to harvest their crop without any complain against the king of seasons. I have always looked at the baur [flowering ] of the mango trees with a lot of wonder and curiosity since my childhood. The process of flowering in mango trees takes place from December to March. The flowers are produced in terminal panicles with a length of 10-40 cm long, each flower has usually  five petals 5-10 mm long with a mild sweet smell. And then the small and immature mangoes make their gradual appearance. I still remember gathering a lot of "tikoras"[ immature small mangoes] from mango trees near our fields in my village when I happened to be a school going boy. My mother prepared chutney[sauce] from them. All the family members took their lunch savouring every bit of it alongwith the chapatis. Leaves of the mango tree are evergreen,alternate,simple and broad. They have fibres and crackle when crushed. Mango is indigenous to India  and it has been cultivated here for the last four thousand years. The Jain Goddess Ambika is traditionally represented in Indian paintings as sitting under  a mango tree. The Mughal emperor Akbar[ 1556-1605] very fondly planted a mango orchard having one lakh trees in Darbhanga district of Bihar.

                               These days, I can notice in the villages and towns of Haryana and Punjab, the Bakain tree[ Persian Lilac] in full blossom. This tree is often confused with Neem yet it is quite different. It is a common tree which grows in plenty in gardens and on both sides of our country and town roads. Its white  flowers look really beautiful tinged with lilac blue. The black mulberry[Morus Nigra] is believed to have reached India from the mountainous areas of Mesopotamia and Persia. Its leaves are semi-lobed and vary from live green on the new flush to dark green when they mature. In local parlance in India, we know it as "shahtoot" which means king's superior mulberry in Persian tradition. According to a Babylonian myth, the famous ancient lovers Pyramus and Thisbe met under this mulberry tree and committed suicide. Their splashed blood transformed the white fruit of mulberry into reddish purple.   Martin Luther thoughtfully observes,"Our lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime".

                                                                              On a few personal visits  recently, I saw the work in progress on the four-laning of  National Highway[NH] number 10 which is located between Delhi and Fazilka. In Hisar, Fatehabad, Sirsa and Dabwali particularly, one finds a sea change in the landscape on both sides of the road with countless tress and bushes having disappeared. It is really painful to watch the moving tractor -trolleys loaded with uprooted trees and their green twigs. Many rural people like me feel bewildered at the invasion of urbanisation on the countryside with a vengeance. Earlier the leafy trees on both sides of the road formed an endless green canopy for the travellers. But then, change is the law of nature. But again, how can we have "spring-dreams" without trees,bushes and flowers? We must spare enough space for planting trees, green grass and flowery bushes along our newly built National Highways in order to accommodate our "gentle" and "mild friend" "Vasanta Ritu"[the spring season].

                  

Dr RAJ BAHADUR YADAV   Behind Kath Mandi, Kranti Nagar,Fatehabad[Haryana]

                         

Memories of childhood

Raj Bahadur Yadav

 

The noted writer and TV programme producer, Sam Ewing has very beautifully said,”When you finally go to your old hometown, you find it was not the old home you missed but your childhood”. Last week, when I was assigned the duty of supervising the evaluation of answersheets of the Diploma in Education (D.Ed) as head examiner at Hisar by the Board of School Education, Haryana, I felt that it was a god-send opportunity to stay in this historical city for a few weeks built by Feroze Shah Tughlak in 1354 AD. 

 

I have a special love and regard for Hisar city, the people,public parks, libraries, schools, colleges and universities. I can never forget those delightful days when I meandered in the streets of Jain Mohalla located inside the Talaaki Gate in the west and Nagori Gate in the south sucking ice-cream, munching gram, cracking jokes with my classmates and friends. The hazy shadows and images of the giagantic Talaaki Gate made of ‘lakhori’ bricks and huge stone-pieces still lurk into the deepest recesses of my mind. I can still visualise the poor cobblers sitting under its huge porch mending old shoes.