Adivasi people have their own ills, but it is important to see how they have entered the culture in a community. Modern education, for example, started a new trend, and many of our conflicts have also come through a newly educated class. Today a teacher in my village does not build a house on the soil of the village. He buys a plot in Rajpipla. The younger generation is enamoured of fancy ideas of development. Uprooted from their land and transplanted in a foreign soil, they do not live life the traditional way. They cannot digest red rice. They want to taste status that comes from a city job. Such servitude was never a part of our culture. Now if they are educated and have a job, they still don’t find a place to stay in the cities. People ostracise them there. So, to avoid those conflicts they start hiding their identity. Conflicts are at the heart of an Adivasi identity today.
Narmada, Gujarat
|THU, SEP 15, 2022
Of trees, people and civilisations
In his fifth and final poem in a cluster of five written in Dehwali Bhili, an Adivasi poet takes a hard look at the growing conflicts within an Adivasi identity in a society governed by fancy ideas of development
Poem and Text
Painting
Editor
असभ्य जाहिर मोव
जेहेने मां देसू
आखानारा वाइक सभ्य लोकुहुँ
आमां मोवाँ चाडाल असभ्य जाहिर की देदोहो
आन आमां लोक
सोवताल असभ्य अनुभव केरां लाग्येहें
तेहेने मां याहाकी मोवाँ फुलाहने
आथलां से बियेहे
मां बाहकाले मोवाँ नावूं ज पोसोन्द नाहा
तेहेए माँ पावुह चौठाम मोवु चाळ नेंय
तुलसी सोड लागविन
सोवताल सभ्य अनुभव की रियोहो
जेहेने मां देसू
आखानारा वाइक सभ्य लोकुहुँ
आमां मोवाँ चाडाल असभ्य जाहिर की देदोहो
आन आमां लोक
सोवताल असभ्य अनुभव केरां लाग्येहें
अध्यात्माम जीवनारा मां लोक
चाडूंरी गोठया केराँ
खाडील पूजनीय मानुलुमें
पाहाडूं पूज्या केरुलु से
डायाँ वाटिप चालीने
तोरतील याहाकी आखुलू से
काहींक नाज अनुभोव की रियेहें
आन सोवता ओळोख दोबावीन
आसभ्यता की मुक्त वेरां
केडो ईसाई बोणी रियोह, केडो हिंदू
केडो जैन ता केडो मुसलमान बोणी रियाहा
जेहेने मां देसू
आखानारा वाइक सभ्य लोकुहुँ
आमां मोवाँ चाडाल असभ्य जाहिर की देदोहो
आन आमां लोक
सोवताल असभ्य अनुभव केरां लाग्येहें
बाजारुल नफरत केआनारा मां लोक
बाजारुकी को पोई रियाहा
सभ्यताआ जेबी काय चीज
सोवता आथुमेंने सुटां नांह देता
असभ्यता बाठांसे मोड़ी होद
"एखोलकुंडाय"
बाठें माहें हिकी रियेहें
"स्व" ने "समाज" नेंय
"स्व" ने "स्वार्थ" होमजी रियेहें
जेहेने मां देसू
आखानारा वाइक सभ्य लोकुहुँ
आमां मोवाँ चाडाल असभ्य जाहिर की देदोहो
आन आमां लोक
सोवताल असभ्य अनुभव केरां लाग्येहें
पोता भाष्याम महाकाव्य, गाथा आखनारें
मा लोक पोयराहनें पोता भाष्या सोडीन
अंग्रेजी हीकवां लाग्येहें
मातृभूमि चाळ, पान, खाड्या, पाहाड़
पायरां होपनाम नाह आवतें
आमां बाठें ज पोयरें अमेरिका, इंग्लैंडु
होपने हीइ रियेहें
जेहेने मां देसू
आखानारा वाइक सभ्य लोकुहुँ
आमां मोवाँ चाडाल असभ्य जाहिर की देदोहो
आन आमां लोक
सोवताल असभ्य अनुभव केरां लाग्येहें।
Uncivilised mahua
Since a few so-called elites
of my country declared
the mahua uncivilised,
my people have started
feeling uncivilised too.
Since then, mother is scared
to touch mahua flowers.
Father detests the name mahua itself.
My brother feels cultured
with a small tulsi plant in the courtyard
and not a mahua.
Since a few so-called elites
of my country declared
the mahua uncivilised,
my people have started
feeling uncivilised too.
My people, who used to live spiritually
are now embarrassed
to treat the river as sacred,
to worship the mountains,
to follow their ancestors
and to call the earth Maa, mother.
Hiding their real identities
to free themselves of their uncivilised selves,
some are turning to Christianity now,
someone is becoming a Hindu,
someone Jain, someone Muslim.
Since a few so-called elites
of my country declared’
the mahua uncivilised,
my people have started
feeling uncivilised too.
My people, who used to hate markets,
are bringing them into their homes.
They do not let a single thing escape their hands
if it smacks of civilisation.
The biggest invention of civilisation –
individualism.
Each one is learning the ‘I.’
They understand स्व,
स्व not as Samaj,
स्व as self.
Since a few so-called elites
of my country declared
the mahua uncivilised,
my people have started
feeling uncivilised too.
My people, who used to sing stories
and write epics in their own tongues,
are forgetting their language.
Instead, they teach English to their children
Their children don’t dream
of plants, trees, rivers, and hills of this land
but of America and London.
Since a few so-called elites of
my country declared
the mahua uncivilised,
my people have started
feeling uncivilised too.
Translated from Dehwali Bhili and Hindi by Pratishtha Pandya.
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