Namdeo Dhasal

Namdeo Laxman Dhasal
Born	(1949-02-15)15 February 1949 Poona, Bombay Presidency, India
Died	15 January 2014(2014-01-15) (aged 64) Mumbai, India
Occupation	Writer, Poet
Language	Marathi
Genre	Marathi literature
Literary movement	Dalit Panther
Notable works	Andhale Shatak Golpitha Moorkh Mhataryane Tujhi Iyatta Kanchi? Priya Darshini
Notable awards	Padma Shri award Soviet Land Nehru Award Maharashtra State Award Golden Life Time Achievement
Spouse	Malika Amar Sheikh

Namdeo Laxman Dhasal (15 February 1949 – 15 January 2014) 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 (By a Foolish Old Man), inspired by Maoist thoughts; Tujhi Iyatta Kanchi? (How Educated Are You?); 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 (Century of Blindness) and Ambedkari Chalwal (Ambedkarite Movement), 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 (I Killed the Seven Horses of the Sun), and Tujhe Boat Dharoon Mi Chalalo Ahe (I'm Walking, Holding Your Finger).

Dhasal was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and admitted for treatment in a Mumbai hospital in September 2013.

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 rebelious language of protest which was unique in poetry.

Works

Poetry

• Golpitha (1973)
• Tuhi Iyatta Kanchi (1981)
• Khel (1983)
• Moorkh Mhataryane dongar halvle
• Amchya itihasatil ek aprihary patra : Priya Darshini (1976)
• Ya Sattet Jiv Ramat Nahi (1995)
• Gandu Bagichha (1986)
• Mi Marale Suryachya Rathache Sat Ghode
• Tuze Boat Dharoon Mi Chalalo Ahe

Dilip Chitre translated a selection of Dhasal's poems into English under the title Namdeo Dhasal: Poet of the Underworld, Poems 1972–2006.]

Prose

• Ambedkari Chalwal (1981)
• Andhale Shatak (1997)
• Hadki Hadavala
• Ujedachi Kali Dunia
• Sarva Kahi Samashtisathi
• Buddha Dharma: Kahi Shesh Prashna

Awards and honors

The following table shows list of awards won by Namdeo Dhasal.

Year	Award	For
1973	Maharashtra State Award for literature	Literature
1974
1982
1983
1974	Soviet Land Nehru Award	Golpitha
1999	Padma Shri	Literature
2004	Sahitya Akademi's Golden Life Time Achievement

Personal life

Dhasal was married to Malika Amar Sheikh, the daughter of poet Amar Sheikh. They had one son, Ashutosh.

Death

Dhasal died of colorectal cancer at Bombay Hospital on 15 January 2014.

External links

• An essay on Namdeo Dhasal, 2005