The Poet as Political Cartographer

Lal Singh Dils Poetics of Disjunction

Rajesh Sharma
an enormous enclosure
as far as the eye can see a wall
an immense pond
all dried up (Billa Came Again Today [Ajj Billa Phir Aaya] 89)
Lal Singh Dil (194!"##$) is% &uite stri'ingly% a poet of the contemporary historical geography of
the east (un)a*+ ,is poetry ma'es the reader acutely aware of the (un)a*-s li.ed spaces
transforming through time+ /hese are fraught spaces% tra.ersed *y figures of the dispossessed
and the precariat for whom life is an hourly struggle for sur.i.al (ref)+ /he figures are often
minimally drawn% and they drift in anonymity+ Sometimes% though% they are touched with a
memora*le detail such as his 0illa is% the protagonist of Ajj Billa Phir Aaya+ /hen you cannot
forget them )ust as you cannot forget this young man with his always oiled long *lac' hair%
*right eyes% a chain around the nec' with a goddess framed in sil.er% and rings on se.eral
fingers (4!1)+
0eginning in the 192#s% Dil-s poetry documents some four decades of the history of the
post!partition 3ndian (un)a*+ ,e *egan writing in the re*ellious and dreaming 2#s and $#s and
continued into the cynical "###s+ /he continuity is more than temporal4 it is sym*olic and
su*stantial in that it answers to deeper correspondences *etween then and now which the
historians of the present are *eginning to map+ 5fter all% the neo!li*eral world order of today was
*orn in the $#s when the realpoliti' of 6argaret /hatcher and 7onald 7eagan wedded the
economic theories of 8riedrich .on ,aye'% 6ilton 8riedman and the 9hicago 0oys+
Dil-s poetry cannot% therefore% *e confined to the world of the 2#s and $#s+ ,e is e&ually
a poet of our times+ 3n fact% his poetry is capa*le of re!disclosing the earlier decades in the light
of our day re.ealing there*y also the lineages of the present+ ,e was not a trained historian%
nor a geographer% yet he grasped capitalism-s historical geography in this part of the world in a
way that none among his contemporary (un)a*i poets writing in the neoli*eral 199#s and "###s
argua*ly did (ref :oga Singh)(7;8 ,ar.y< add footnote)+ 5s a result% he remains among our
most sensiti.e% anguished and insightful witnesses to the dim!lit drama of =ordinary- li.es
impacted *y the transforming spaces of the (un)a* as seen through recent history-s trou*ling
hour glass+
>
3n ?olume 3 of Capital% 6ar@ unra.els Athe economic original sinB of Aprimiti.e
accumulation of capitalB (8$)+ 3n his *roadly linear narrati.e% the *ar*arities of the founding
period of capitalism are gradually replaced *y sophisticated% less o*.ious methods of capital
accumulation+ 7osa Lu@em*urg% howe.er% was to note that capital accumulation in the periods
since has actually proceeded simultaneously through e@panded reproduction and primiti.e
accumulation< Aforce% fraud% oppression% looting%B which characteriCed the early phase of capital
accumulation% ha.e not *een a*andoned (The Accumulation of Capital% 4")+ /hese are
regularly resorted to whene.er the capitalist order *rushes against the non!capitalist modes of
production% particularly when it is loo'ing to e@pand into new territories% domestic% colonial% or
neo!colonial+
6ar@-s term (Aprimiti.eB or AoriginalB accumulation) carries% in our day% a shade of
o*solescence that can o*scure a clear .iew of the present% which is shaped actually *y a dual
process of capital accumulation+ 8or this reason% as Da.id ,ar.ey suggests% it would *e *etter if
we used the term Aaccumulation *y dispossessionB (The New Imperialism 144)+ 5s he points
out% the process includes more than plain ro**ery and possession *y force<
5 closer loo' at 6ar@Ds description of primiti.e accumulation re.eals a wide range
of processes+ /hese include the commodification and pri.atiCation of land and
the forceful e@pulsion of peasant populations4 the con.ersion of .arious forms of
property rights (common% collecti.e% state% etc+) into e@clusi.e pri.ate property
rights4 the suppression of rights to the commons4 the commodification of la*our
power and the suppression of alternati.e (indigenous) forms of production and
consumption4 colonial% neo!colonial% and imperial processes of appropriation of
assets (including natural resources)4 the monetiCation of e@change and ta@ation%
particularly of land4 the sla.e trade and usury% the national de*t% and ultimately
the credit system as radical means of primiti.e accumulation+ (141)
,ar.ey goes on to o*ser.e% and then su*stantiate with instances% that A[aEll the features of
primiti.e accumulation that 6ar@ mentions ha.e remained powerfully present within capitalismDs
historical geography up until nowB (141)+ /he instances that ,ar.ey cites ha.e a glo*al
pro.enance% and e@pectedly include those from contemporary 3ndia+
6ar@ defines Aprimiti.e accumulationB as Athe historical process of di.orcing the producer
from the means of productionB+ /he history of this process% he adds% Ais written in the annals of
man'ind in letters of *lood and fireB (8$1)+ /his is so *ecause Agreat masses of men [ sicE are
suddenly and forci*ly torn from their means of su*sistence% and hurled onto the la*our!mar'et
as free% unprotected and rightless proletariansB (8$2)+ 5long with the peasants% the agricultural
wage!la*ourers too lose access to Athe common land% which ga.e pasture to their cattle% and
furnished them with tim*er% fire!wood% turf% etc+ (8$$)B+ 6ar@ traces the gruesome history of this
process of e@propriation Aunder circumstances of ruthless terrorismB (891) in ;ngland *ac' to
the fifteenth century+ /he resources such as land that had *een until then the common property
of people are forci*ly and sometimes under co.er of (cunningly fa*ricated) law snatched from
them and *ecome the pri.ate property of the emerging capitalist class (8$9!8)+ Fot stopping
here% the wealthy class Apractice[sE on a colossal scale the thefts of state landsB as these
Aestates are gi.en away% sold at ridiculous prices% or e.en anne@ed to pri.ate estates *y direct
seiCureB (884)+ 6ar@ notes that Athe law itself now *ecomes the instrument *y which the
people-s land is stolenB4 he refers to A[tEhe (arliamentary form of the ro**eryB em*odied in =0ills
for 3nclosure of 9ommons- (881)+ /he .ery use of Aa parliamentary coup d'tatB% he o*ser.es% to
transform the commons into pri.ate property pro.es the illegality and illegitimacy of the process
(882)+ /he dispossessed are then *randed as A=.oluntary- criminalsB through Alegislation against
.aga*ondageB (892)+
6ar@-s words resonate% with an unmista'a*le measure of irony% in the 3ndian (rime
6inister 6anmohan Singh-s warning% issued on "$ Decem*er "#1"% against the menace of
Afootloose migrantsB who lea.e their .illages and come to the cities in search of wor' (A(6
GarnsB)+ Singh was alluding to the rising graph of crime in the country-s capital% *rought into
sharp focus after the gang rape of a girl a few days earlier+ 5s one of those neoli*eral economic
policy ma'ers who cannot wait to study history *ecause they are in a hurry to ma'e it% he
e@pectedly displayed no inclination to reflect historically on the forces the policies of successi.e
3ndian go.ernments ha.e unleashed since the early 199#s+ /he e@ecution of these policies has
remo.ed enormous num*ers of the poor from their land and hearth and flung them into the *ig
cities% where they are compelled to sleep under flyo.ers or *eneath impromptu shelters in the
teeming slums (ref 6ani Shan'ar)+
Dil-s figures do not inha*it metropolitan spaces% not e.en their peripheries+ 5t *est they
li.e in small towns (*ut that is when they are not mo.ing from one place to another)% such as
Samrala% Dil-s home town+ /hat renders their li.es more precarious% as the opportunities for
wor' are e.en fewer there+ So they remain perennially insecure+ Ghat is called =de.elopment-
flic'ers for them li'e a fitful dream< 0illa is a mistri (mason) who came to the town in search of
wor'+ ,e found wor' for a while% *ut can do so no longer< all the *uildings that were to *e *uilt
ha.e *een *uilt ($H)+ 5t least for now% =de.elopment- in this place has e@hausted itself+
3n Ajj Billa Phir Aaya% the longest and pro*a*ly last poem of his poems% Dil addresses
glo*al capitalism-s historical geography in the east (un)a* from the point of .iew of a witness!
*earing poet!chronicler+ 3t is o*.iously a formida*le tas'% considering the sweep and comple@ity
of the historical processes confronting him% and it demands that he forge a narrati.e that can
accommodate fragments as much as coherences at .arious le.els+ ,e responds to the demand
*y de.ising a 'ind of poetics that are at once AhallucinatoryB% anecdotal% oneiric% and AreportageB+
,e cannot forgo either dream or actuality% either reality or unreality+ ,e 'nows that art cannot *e
separated from the world+ 5nd so he cannot *ut con)oin reportage and poetry+ Dil-s poetics are%
conse&uently% the poetics of dis)unction< he deploys the logic of dis)unction to capture a reality
that is% to recall ,amlet-s anguished cry% Aout of )ointB (ref)+ 3t is a dis)ointed reality that needs
nothing short of a dis)uncti.e aesthetic with its characteristic shoc' of the )ump cut (ref)+ 3t may
*e added that the Dil-s poetics of dis)unction operate at the le.els of the narrati.e% the image
and the myth+
/o appreciate the significance of Dil-s efforts to achie.e the necessary form through the
poetics of dis)unction% we may recall 5dorno-s o*ser.ations on the pro*lematic relationship
*etween form and reality< A/he unsol.ed antagonisms of reality return in artwor's as immanent
pro*lems of form+ /his% not the insertion of o*)ecti.e elements% defines the relation of art to
societyB ($)+ 5nd yet there is also% in addition to the antagonisms of reality% the challenge posed
*y the sheer a*normity of a =de.eloping- (comment< ,opefully the pun on =de.elopment-%
deri.ing from the ideology of =de.elopmentalism-% is not lost) reality which compels art to re!
e@amine its own *eing+ 7egarding this% 5dorno says< A3n the face of the a*normity into which
reality is de.eloping% art-s inescapa*le affirmati.e essence has *ecome insuffera*le+ 5rt must
turn against itself% in opposition to its own concept% and thus *ecome uncertain of itself right into
its innermost fi*erB (")+ Dil faces unflinchingly the specific a*normity of his times% which consists
as much in capitalism-s =dispossessi.e- *rutalities e@ecuted on an unimagina*le scale as in the
seductions of its spectacle% and he stri.es to create a poetic form that might *e a*le to answer
ade&uately the impossi*le demands of the times+ 6oreo.er% he does not renounce affirmation%
using it instead to defy the insuffera*le+ Sometimes the a*normity of the present lends a
peculiar poignancy to the affirmation which occasionally *looms into cele*ration of life
howsoe.er tenuously li.ed+ Sometimes it pro.o'es him to whisper an irony+ Sometimes it e.en
rouses his wrath% particularly when he contemplates the *rutalities running from prehistory
though history to the present+ Iet he does not allow the a*normity% howsoe.er insuffera*le% to
destroy his capacity for )oy+
>
/o repeat% the use of the AhallucinatoryB is part of Dil-s effort to de.ise a form to answer
the demands of the reality which can *e descri*ed more precisely as capitalism-s historical
geography+ 3 use the term AhallucinatoryB here in J+ F+ De.y-s sense% who employs it to e@plain
a 'ey trait of the adi.asi art Aits peculiar manner of constructing space and imageryB<
Ghether it is the oral and literary form of representation% or the .isual and
pictorial form% adi.asi artists seem to interpret .er*al and pictorial space as
demarcated *y an e@tremely fle@i*le =framing-+ /he *oundaries% therefore%
*etween art and non!art are highly porous+ 5n adi.asi epic can commence its
narration almost out of a tri.ial e.eryday e.ent+ 5di.asi paintings merge with their
own li.ing space as if the two are no different at all+ 5nd within the narrati.e itself%
or within the painted imagery% there is no deli*erate attempt made to follow a
se&uence+ /he episodes retold and the images created ta'e on the apparently
chaotic shapes of dreams+ + + + Iet% one would *e wrong in assuming that adi.asi
arts do not employ any ordering principles+ ($1)
3n Dil-s case% the AhallucinatoryB is used in response to the chaos let loose *y the neoli*eral
economic order+ ,is Afle@i*le =framing-B is a re)ection of the nostalgia for a seamless narrati.e
which% in any case% cannot accommodate the fractured and fracturing reality of the present+
0esides% poetry and reportage cannot strategically *e 'ept separate in a world in which the
discourses of re.olt always ris' *eing promptly a*sor*ed and co!opted *y the mar'et+
Ghile the AhallucinatoryB functions as an ordering de.ice in the face of a systemic chaos
and ma'es that chaos comprehensi*le% AreportageB can act as a de.ice to tell the *are%
mundane truths of the li.ed reality+ /here is% as Dil-s poetry fre&uently demonstrates% an order of
truths that poetry can access only through reporting+ Discussing the &uestion of intellectual
honesty in the face of truth% Jeorge Krwell writes<
Ghat is really at issue is the right to report contemporary e.ents truthfully% or as
truthfully as is consistent with the ignorance% *ias and self!deception from which
e.ery o*ser.er necessarily suffers+ 3n saying this 3 may seem to *e saying that
straightforward AreportageB is the only *ranch of literature that matters< *ut 3 will
try to show later that at e.ery literary le.el% and pro*a*ly in e.ery one of the arts%
the same issue arises in more or less su*tiliCed forms+ (A/he (re.ention of
LiteratureB "4)
Krwell identifies intellectual freedom with Athe freedom to report what one has seen% heard% and
felt% and not to *e o*liged to fa*ricate imaginary facts and feelingsB ("1)+ /o report% thus% is part
of the o*ligation to *ear witness to what is+ 3t thus reinforces the uses of the AhallucinatoryB
which% as we ha.e noted% is not an escape from a difficult truth *ut a commitment to seeing
*eyond frames and fragments+
/he anecdotal% em*odied in the many anecdotes which the narrator tells as well as
those which his characters relate% lends to the wor' the dimension of oral histories of the
present+ /heir li.e resonance as personal testimonies emanates from the authority of their
sources% which are historical as much as fictional+
/he oneiric apparently *rings the element of dream into the narrati.e% *ut its real
significance lies in e@tending the geographies of reality *y e@posing the impossile as a
constituti!e element of the contemporary reality+
Lsing the oneiric% the AhallucinatoryB% the anecdotal and AreportageB% Dil creates a mo*ile
montage whose organiCing force is supplied *y mo.ements of wandering and drifting which
recapture at another le.el the enforced nomadism of the dispossessed+
>
Dil has dedicated Ajj Billa Phir Aaya to Athe new 6ar@B+ /o read the present% one has to
renew 6ar@% renew one-s reading of 6ar@% renew one-s understanding of the contemporary
world in the light of 6ar@-s interpretation of history+ Kne has to ac'nowledge as Derrida would
wish the presence of 6ar@-s spectres that 'eep us company (ref)+ /he spectres are no mere
ghostly shades *ut presences that lur' at the edge of the comprehensi*le and suggest crises of
articulation and communication+ AFo% no% 3 am not a ghost%B the specter of the poet-s mother tells
him ("1)+
/he poem opens with the identification of an amorphous fear and the o*ligation to
confront it *y writing it down% and it goes on to ac'nowledge that the underta'ing itself is a
passage through fear+ 0y the time the poem ends% Dil has figured out the AmonsterB (1"8) the
A*eastB% as 5rundhati 7oy calls it (ref) that is the source of the fear+ 5s a 'ind of performati.e
pro)ect% the poem thus wor's itself out as a cartography of the monstrosity% the a*normity% of
capitalism-s historical geography+ /he old ri.er% aged and deserted% recalls the Satlu) of the first
poem in the poet-s first *oo'% "inds from the #atluj $#atluj di %awa] (19$1)% a poem in which the
theme of the ro**ery of land ma'es its maiden appearance+ 9onfronting the o*scure fear is li'e
crossing the ri.er% he writes+ /he fear dehumaniCes people4 li'e dogs they wag their tails and
lic' the plates for lefto.ers of falsehood ("1)+ 5gainst this% the poem offers% to the reader as to
the poet% a *aptism of fear so that the monster is seen% siCed up and confronted+
/wo deeply pertur*ing images in the poem o.ershadow all others+ 0oth are =monstrous-
images+ /he first is of women ma'ing rotis< the food smells of flesh4 in the food plates% in e.ery
home% flesh shines ("4)+ /he second image is of the poet!narrator-s mind rising up after he has
seen certain dreams+ 3t has risen% he says% li'e the head of a child rises in a thousand *oils< an
insurrection of *oils e@ploding through tender s'in+ 7eality and the Lacanian real meld in these
images to =report- the unsaya*le% ma'ing the images the 'ey sites of the poem-s acti.ity+
Billa Came Again Today is simultaneously a document interspersed with criti&ue and a
sustained reflection on the &uestion of poetic form+ /he document% significantly% accommodates
se.eral dreams+ 3t is a dream% too% that prompts the poet to write ("1)+ /he impossi*ility of
dreams% sewn into AreportageB% wor's to disclose the impossi*le geographies of reality+ 3n fact%
the failure of the numerous impractica*le AschemesB which a worried 0illa ma'es for his
li.elihood points to his ina*ility to grasp the =impossi*le- reality around him (2)+ /he reality
affords to him no opening+ Feither does it to 0hatti% a scooter mechanic with a diploma in
technical training+ ,is small wor'shop got no wor' after the municipal authorities dug up the
road to lay sewerage pipes+ /he local =de.elopment- pro)ect pushed him to see' escape from
his worries in drugs in the company of an addict% a 0rahman who sells mil'+ Gith the reality
eluding them% these young men see' escape in day!dreams and drug!induced fantasy+ Su'hu-s
son% who sells tea and mil' from a rehri in the grain mar'et% also reports a failing *usiness (11!
1")+ 6ay*e% he too would find solace in some escape+
6eanwhile% what is the reality that is dri.ing these persons to despair without their *eing
a*le to understand itH 3t is the widespread process of dispossession through which the means of
production% on which the poor sur.i.e% are *eing transferred to the wealthy on a massi.e scale+
3ncreasingly% the people are *eing denied any right to the commons+ /he commons are *eing
=enclosed- and transformed into pri.ate property% and sometimes AstateB property *efore that is
stolen away and turned surreptitiously into pri.ate property+
Dil dwells e@tensi.ely and repeatedly on the e@propriation of the commons *eing carried
out in the (un)a*+ ,e notes that pastures% ponds% gra.eyards% shamlats and other common
lands are *eing occupied *y the wealthy and powerful who also control the political parties+ /he
poet literally reports se.eral illegal occupations% gi.ing specific details% including those in.ol.ing
the lands ta'en for social and charita*le purposes+ /he cattle of the poor% including their pigs%
are attac'ed% slaughtered and set on fire with tyres around the nec's to eliminate the threat they
pose to the e@propriated commons+ /he poor% among whom the o.erwhelming ma)ority are
dalits% are thus .iolently depri.ed of the *arest means of sur.i.al (224 $1!$"4 $24 84 824 914 1#"!
#44 1#2!#$4 11"!1)+ Lna*le to find sustenance in their .illages% they rush to the cities% where
they are again disappointed+ /he cities ha.e no wor' for them (2$)+
3n this situation% drugs ser.e different purposes+ /hey offer an escape to the poor who
turn to their false solace% and they afford an e@cuse to the e@propriators who can =correctly-
*lame their prey from a morally high ground+ Dil sees the easily a.aila*le drugs as weapons of
mass destruction in a class war (in which the caste% too% is necessarily implicated)+ 3n his .iew%
reiterated more than once in the poem% these are instruments of genocide of the poor dalits%
although they 'ill others also now and then (2$4 $14 $84 81)+ Some of the most terrifying images
in the poem are% thus% of the .ictims of drugs< they are dying on the roads and in deserted
cremation grounds% sometimes eaten *y pac's of dogs (4)+ (ar.een% one of them% tells 0illa<
Loo' at our condition%
worse than a dog-s+
;.en a dog doesn-t let worms infest it+
0ut we are *eing eaten *y worms+ (2#)
/he poet-s *itterness is part of a larger structure of response% which addresses the logic of the
postcolonial state+ /hat larger% inhuman logic has to *e tal'ed a*out% understood and e@posed<
/hose tyrants who%
after the 0ritish had left%
in.ented new forms of tyranny
must *e tal'ed a*out+
/heir ways must *e discussed+ (99)
Ghat follows is a ram*ling report on% among other things% the disappearance of the historic
forests of 6achhiwara where Juru Jo*ind Singh had wal'ed< the marauding land!gra**ers
ha.e erased all signs of that history% including the well where the Juru had pro*a*ly &uenched
his thirst (1#4)+ /his is followed *y pointed remar's on what Dil sees as a calculated
e@termination of the small peasantry% sym*oliCed in the way ur*aniCation is pushing the poor
.illager-s *ulloc' cart off the road with seeming ine.ita*ility a reality that is simultaneously a
grim sym*ol of capitalism-s historical geography (11#)+
Something of this =dou*ling- as *etween reality and the sym*ol occurs when Dil
reflects aloud on the pro*lem of form in the *ody of the poem itself+ /he reflection is underta'en
with e@treme self!conscious clearly not *ecause the poet is awed *y the norms of poetic
propriety% *ut *ecause he would not conceal his purpose% which is to capture an elusi.e reality<
3 want to catch something in poetry%
something that has *een lost+
3t-s li'e shooting an arrow in the dar'+
3f the poem fails to catch the thing%
it will ha.e failed
li'e a .ine that *ears no fruit+ ("9)
So once again% after more than a century% poetry has the o*ligation to mirror reality+ /he
difference% though% is that reality today has melted all e@isting frames% including the *inaries+ 3t
has *ecome a monstrosity% an a*normity< it has *ecome a AFarasinghaB (the (uranic figure of
the half human and half lion) (1)+ 6ust not% then% poetry *ecome monstrous in order to catch
reality and *ring it to )usticeH
Such poetry is AsomethingB that grows in the mind li'e a har.est of mushrooms+ /he poet
wonders how to la*el it+ 3s it a poem% a story% a no.el% or an essayH Iet one thing is certain< it
ta'es place only when the poet stands apart from the world% e.en when it happens to *e aout
the world itself (42)+ 5nd one might add< the poet then has a specter-s relation to the world+
5t times% of course% poetry seems to *e Amere wordsB% a desperate effort to 'eep oneself
from drowning (91!9")+ 0ut then there is the promise it holds out% the promise to fly free
Atowards real s'iesB (118)+ Ghen the promise is realiCed% the poem o.erta'es the poet< he is
then no longer holding its reigns (1"$)+
3n a curious in.ersion lighted up with irony% Dil du*s reality as ApoeticB when the real%
historical characters of the poem are una*le to understand what is really going on around them
and so retreat into some fictional world that e@ists only inside their heads+ /his too% he
sardonically remar's% ma'es his poem ApoeticB (2#)+
/he hallucinatory and reportage fuse as the long poem draws to its end+ /he poet!
narrator as's< ,ow shall we deal with the monster that has swallowed e.erythingH 5nd
Ae.erythingB here is not )ust another word+ 3t is a whole li.ed world% with its don'eys% camels%
horses% *ulloc's% pastures% lands% ponds% peasants% rehris% people-s ways of life% songs%
freedoms% forests% state properties% honest officials% and what not (1"8)+ /his is the poet-s
apocalyptic .ision of the monster of glo*al capitalism crunching e.erything< a historically
situated i&arre replay of the potent old myth of Mrishna-s !ish!arupa% the dar' god-s cosmic
form% witnessed *y an indecisi.e% *ewildered and fear!stric'en 5r)una in the 'ahaharata+
/he poem opened with dreams and apprehensions+ 3n ending the way it does *y
historiciCing a myth in a way that also draws a map of glo*al capitalism-s historical geography
it pro*a*ly points the way% past a *aptism of fear% to the freedom of Areal s'iesB+ /he oneiric% the
hallucinatory% the anecdotal and reportage con.erge in the apocalyptic in a tense fusion in which
are realiCed a specific poetics of dis)unction appropriate to the (un)a* whose landscapes and
life!worlds are today *eing fe.erishly o.erwritten *y glo*al capitalism-s cogniti.ely challenging
cartography+
>
Dil came to the writing of this miniature critical epic of glo*al capitalism after a long
)ourney which apparently *egan with the poems that first appeared in "inds from the #atluj%
which was his maiden collection of poetry+ /he collection is dedicated to Athe treasures of the
human spiritB in an a*solute affirmation of the 'ind (a*lo Feruda sees as the essential act of
re*ellion against situations of oppression (ref)+ 3n the all!em*racing glow of this affirmation%
there is no room for ressentiment (ref)< the poet refuses to *ite the dominant order-s *ait to play
according to a gi.en script+ ,e would not act the .ictim as a re*el defined *y the order against
which he is re*elling% *ut would rather redefine% in his own way% the terms and the categories of
that order+ Feither would he found a separate% e@clusi.e world in retaliation against his
e@clusion+ "inds from the #atluj% in this sense% mar's an important point of departure in the
politics of literary aesthetics+ Lnli'e (ash who% in a sense% tries to construct alternati.e% or
counter% literary aesthetics% Dil rewor's the a.aila*le aesthetics to ma'e them spea' other truths
and to thus su*.ert the gi.en order+ Dil-s underta'ing has a significance which% it seems% will
only deepen as late capitalism reincarnates itself in newer a.atars% a*sor*ing% co!opting and
commodifying the .arious resistances that arise to challenge its plastic regime+ Li'e ,amlet% the
poet chooses to Adel.e one yard *elow their minesN
5nd *low them at the moonB (Sha'espeare)+
0lending sadness% anger and )oy% the opening poem entitled AGinds from the Satlu)B
(A#atluj di %awaB) addresses the ri.er Satlu) as a witness to the su*continent-s history of
dispossession and dishonor<
Iou loo' far%
e.en to where the 9au.ery flows%
and see the land *eing ro**ed%
the har.est of wheat dishonoured%
the paddy set on fire under laughter+
Iou loo' far%
to where their palaces stand%
the palaces that still cherish the hanging noose
used *y those white rulers+ (2)
/he postcolonial state as a continuation in many ways of the colonial state is a site of concern
that Dil re.isits again and again+ 0ut it is in A/he 9olour of the ;.eningB (A#ham da (angB 9!
4#)% argua*ly Dil-s *est 'nown poem% that the rewor'ing of the a.aila*le aesthetics is first
accomplished+ /he protagonists of the poem are the itinerant agricultural wor'ers% other daily
wage earners and the unemployed+ /hrough a process that may *e called alchemical% they
enter the poem-s images as li.ing raw materials and then a*ide there as spectral presences in
some *iCarre fairyland+ /he alchemy of suffering and *eauty is set to wor' in the .ery first line of
the poem% which e.o'es time through a hint of immemorial histories< A/he e.ening% again% has
an old colourB+ (eople lur' as spectral remainders in the dis)uncti.e images of the AfootpathB and
the Ala'eB e.en as the two apparently stand for and =reflect- those .ery people+ /he AcityB going
towards Asome .illagesB wea.es a circle of irony% sending off spar's of alienation and sheer
numerical friction+ /he agricultural wor'ers- perpetual% forced nomadism stands out sharply
against the enduring reality of Aanother-s landB on which they ha.e wor'ed+ 5nd the procession
of the endlessly dispossessed carries a curious *aggage< that of the a*uses and admonitions
hurled at them+ /hese Ahunger!stric'en 5ryansB are the disenfranchised people of their country4
if they unload anywhere for a short stay% they are treated as menacing encroachers+ Knly the
trees% under which they ha.e halted to snatch a restful *reath and in whose shade they ha.e
tied their cattle% want them to stay and not lea.e+ 3n their own country% these people ha.e *een
reduced to the hopeless memory of a promise which si@ decades of the country-s independence
ha.e done little to redeem+
A/he LnemployedB (ABeru&garB 41) reads li'e an accompanying poem+ /he .ulnera*ility
and precariousness of the unemployed% trying to conceal their humiliating po.erty% is caught in
the gestures of these faceless figures+ /hey ha.e refined the art hiding their frayed cuffs and
tattered footwear+ /heir smiling eyelids *ear shrouds under them< another image that
transcends the metaphorical to communicate a truth which reality can carry only on the *reath
of poetry+
Ghat Jaston 0achelard terms as the Aa*solute imaginationB (ref) in the creation of
images is at wor' in the short poem ADanceB (ANachB 1)+ /he poem *ears witness to
impossile celeration the cele*ration of (mere) li.ing crystalliCed in the scene of an
anonymous woman la*ourer Acoo'ing her heartB o.er the hearth% the moon laughing through the
*ranches of a tree% her hus*and 'eeping their two children entertained% and the elder child
*rea'ing into a dance to the impromptu jugalandi of a *owl and the waist!cord *ells+ /he image
realiCes an asent house% yet with all its essential affecti.e furniture+ :ohn 0erger writes< A/he
*oon of language is not tenderness+ 5ll that it holds% it holds with e@actitude and without pityB
(41#)+ Dil-s poem somehow holds tenderness without AtendernessB and Awithout pityB e.en as it
draws the (a*sent) house Awith e@actitudeB+
A5 Gay of /hin'ingB (AI) #ochB 28) achie.es a fusion of thought and image with the
minimal architecture+ :ust three lines+ /he dry% rough thoughts recei.e their nourishment
parado@ically from the well!nourished% well!oiled hair whose illusory gift of li*eration is regretted
and renounced with the first light of a dawning =wisdom-+
A/he 7ed ;astB (A*al PuraB 9"!91) is another poem in which thought and image flare
up and fuse remar'a*ly% in spite of the insistent note of re.olutionary propaganda that
somewhat impairs the poem-s o.erall artistic merit+ /he rising Sun is seen against a pageant of
struggling and despairing people+ 8amished A*udsB go *arefoot% carrying great loads on their
young heads4 star.ing women &uarrel loudly to forget their hunger4 grie.ing men-s eyes swim
with rain clouds4 aged heads and dry white *eards trem*le with the stro'es of the hammer4 li.es
*urn out with lamps late into the nights4 and peasants% consumed *y worries o.er their
mortgaged little land% eat the *read of insults while the rafters in a sha'y ceiling threaten to
crash o.er their distressed heads+ 3t is a whole life!world of hopeless an@iety .isualiCed in colors
the grey and *rown of dust% the *lac' of rotting old moss% the red of the Sun+ /he mur'y gloom
is lit only with hope+ /here is% howe.er% no hope in AFightB (A(aatB 11)% an inde*ted peasant-s
auto*iographical narrati.e in which dream and reportage are interwo.en to yield glimpses into a
tormented life< he watches empty 'itchen utensils flying away4 he po'es the hearth and finds no
fire+ A3 was soldN li'e all who are sold%B he cries< the consciousness of a condition in which he is
not alone lends a measure of dignity to his lament+
Dil was to create again a procession of fraught images in A/he ,aystac'sNStac's of
Gheat 9haffB (A+uppB 1") which appeared in his second collection of poems% #o 'any #uns
(Bahut #are #uraj% 198")+ ,ere you ha.e a farmer% a jatt% *arely managing to sa.e his honour at
the hands of his looters in the mandi4 a father hounded *y men in Aspotless whitesB looming
outside his door to get his or his daughter-s thum* impression on a paper4 and officers of the
go.ernment reclining royally on his cot and leering at his daughter% amusing themsel.es o.er
the AdanceB the frenCied panic of father and daughter+ 5nd then you ha.e also the image of
a young son *olting from school after smashing a window pane with the hoc'ey stic'+ /his is
followed *y another image in which the haystac's of AhopeB (as they appear when the poem
opens) *ecome sites of .iolent re.olt as policemen go *erser' scattering the chaff in search of
two men suspected to *e hiding there+
7elationship *etween the peasantry and patriotism is pro*lematised in ALetterB (A+hatB
1#8) and A8riends Sitting in a 6ilitary ?ehicleB (A,auji -addi !ich Baithe .ostB 1#9)+ 3n the first% a
soldier-s wife writes to him of lo.e% de*t and death+ /he poem is at once her letter and the poet-s
dream of her consciousness+ /he first image is of the *ric's of a falling wall% an image
simultaneously menacing and romantic< she sees in the *ric's tentati.e images of their con)ugal
lo.e+ /his is followed *y the image of moneylenders% whom the soldier-s )ust deceased father
owed money% coming daily with demands for reco.ery to 'noc' on their house in mourning+ /he
lamp *urns on all night< is it the lamp lighted *y the side of the dead during the last .igil yet
spilling its light *eyond that dread nightH /he nights% in the last% e@tended image% settle down
li'e sleeping .ultures% to wail in the woman-s intermittent sleep+ 3n the second poem% A8riends
Sitting in a 6ilitary ?ehicleB% the narrator unra.els the conditions at home which ha.e pro*a*ly
forced the young men to )oin military ser.ice+ /heir fathers are perhaps desperately chasing the
dream of a filled stomach4 their mothers% timid and fearful li'e .ulnera*le *irds% are perhaps
wal'ing the long road to wor'+ 6ay*e their small patches of land ha.e *een sold off4 may*e the
police ha.e scattered on the road the contents of his *other-s chhari /!endor0s as)et1+
3n ANahma2 (119!"#) you can discern see the seed of Ajj Billa Phi Aaya+ /his short poem
foreshadows the precariat-s state of li.ing which was to recei.e an ela*orate treatment *y the
poet years later+ 3t runs% &uic'ly% the whole gamut from the poet!narrator-s innocent *oyhood
pran's to the unspea'a*le grief of a father who helplessly watches his young son lose his sanity
to the shoc' of finding himself useless *ecause he can find no wor'+ /he poem is told li'e an
anecdote that captures a historical condition incomprehensi*le to the young man+ ,is insanity
comes ali.e in the strange =dialogue- with which the poem ends< Fahma and the son sit face to
face *eside the pit of fire o.er which sugarcane )uice is *oiling in a cauldron+ /he son spea's of
the fateful cycle of *irths and deaths in which sons and fathers might e.en e@change places+
5nd then he a*ruptly threatens to )ump into the cauldron+ /he people standing near*y ta'e him
away+ /he father does not utter a word throughout the =dialogue-% yet his silent presence ooCes
from the image and articulates his unspea'a*le grief+ /he poem deri.es its peculiar force not
only from its anecdotal spontaneity% initial humour and understatement% *ut also from the dual
structure of witness!*earing< the narrator *ears witness to a father-s sorrow who% in turn%
helplessly watches his son-s insanity+
A3nnocent JirlsB (ABholiyanB 111!12) appears to *e ma'ing an o.erstatement towards the
end% yet the poem a*sor*s it naturally after the concrete definiti.e touches with which the
destitute young girls going to earn their daily wages are s'etched+ /he a*normity of their
dehumaniCing condition compels a response of mythical proportions<
Should this *e made 'nown
to the inha*itants of another planet%
they would *e stunned% would *ecome stones%
would ne.er arise and mo.e again+
Should the *easts realiCe this%
they would flee man'ind
and% terrified% rush screaming
*ac' to forests+ (112)
/he talent to gi.e oddness a home% the *asis of Dil-s poetics of dis)unction% appears with
characteristic facility in A3n Iour 8ields% 8atherB (ABaal Tere +hetan 3ichB 1"")+ /he daughter of
a dispossessed tiller ac'nowledges that her family has lost their claim to the land in the court of
law% yet she refuses to renounce her dreams+ She .isualiCes the tractors AdancingB in her
father-s fields one day+ She cannot *e dispossessed of the freedom to dream+ /he girl-s =naO.e-
refusal *rings the oneiric and the hallucinatory within the geography of the reported+
AGonderB (AAjooaB 19) demonstrates the capaciousness of myth to accommodate the
dis)uncti.e+ ;lsewhere Dil in.o'es or re!creates myth4 here he creates myth% something that
may not *e possi*le unless a poet comes to em*ody a people and their culture and *ecomes in
his *laCing singularity the .oice of a collecti.e consciousness+ /he poem ad.ances li'e a .ine
with its many surprising turns4 the moods shift+ /he star' opening statement that woman is a
wonder of the earth &uic'ly gi.es way to the declaration of an article of faith< that woman holds
and *ears the earth on her palm+ /he sensory testimony ele.ates the declaration to the realm of
the su*lime< the earth has the fragrance of woman-s *ody% the crops sway li'e her flowing
garment% the flowers recei.e their innocence from her lips+ Lne@pectedly% the poem then turns
to fathom the anguish of *eing earth and *eing woman< hunger is the lot of *oth4 the seas are
salty *ecause woman-s eyes ha.e tears+ /he poem turns again< she lo.es honour and no*ility%
so the stars a*ide in her .icinity+ 0y the time the poem reaches this point% she has *ecome
am*i.alent she is *oth earth and woman+
3t can *e argued% indeed% that for Dil poetry itself has the immense capaciousness of
myth% for only then it can accommodate the .ast and disparate reality+ ,is poem A(oetryB
(A+a!itaB 1#1!#2) is a manifesto of what may constitute the poetic+ /he crops dying for want of
fertiliCers are poetry4 the mills are poems4 the forest in flames is a poem4 the laughter of the
poet-s father is poetry4 there is poetry in stones and in steel4 the don'ey!herds and sna'e
charmers are poems+
/his power to un!see the *orders ena*les Dil% the firmly and deeply rooted poet of his
people and region that he is% to grasp the human condition without inhi*itions or *ias+ 3n
A(un)a*B (1#)% he sees (un)a* e.erywhere+ 5ll wor'ers with their unsha.ed faces and crac'ed
*are feet% *e they in 0engal or Merala% are (un)a*is to him+ /he whole world is 6achhiwara% he
says< at once e@ile and home+ 3n fact% the passion for uni.ersal self!identification introduces
itself right in Dil-s first *oo'% in the poems A9ountryB (A.eshB 4$) and A3nfle@i*leB (ABelacha)B 2#!
21)+ 3t is a humane% generous re*u'e% so typical of Dil% to the ethnocentric procli.ities often put
on *latant display in (un)a* and elsewhere nowadays+ 9aste% too% recei.es its share of the
poet-s *itter attention< more often it informs his o*ser.ation% though it is treated with
unconcealed and raw irony in the short poem A9asteB (A:aatB 24)% which appeared in his first
*oo'+ /he poet tells the girl who lo.es him and who comes from another caste that their families
ha.e separate places to e.en cremate their dead+ 0eyond this the poem says nothing% letting
silence ta'e o.er+ ,ow can the li.ing unite in lo.e when e.en the dead are not permitted to mi@H
#atthar% Dil-s third collection of poems% pu*lished in 199$% is su*stantially a wor' of
mourning+ 0ut it is mourning with a sting of satire% which .erges at times on ridicule+ /he
castrated *ull% whose horns ha.e now lost their itch and who has learnt to &uietly su*mit%
*ecomes almost a fol' sym*ol of the renegade re.olutionary (A0ullB [A#aahnBE 149)+ A8eet of the
7e.olution 7e.ersedB (A4lat In5ala de PairB 11#)% ASearch for a Fon!7e*ellious (oemB (A-air
3idrohi Na&m di TalaashB 11")%B(assengersB (A#awariyanB 18)% ASong of the 9omradesB
(AComradan da -eetB 188)% A:oltB (A%iloonaB 19#) and A/he Kne Gho 9ould SeeB (AA))han
"alaB 199) all are a disenchanted re.olutionary-s angry outpourings+ Kne can easily see that
the glowing em*ers of the poet-s imagination are *eing increasingly smothered *y ashes+ /he
fire would return with Billa Came Again Today [Ajj Billa Phir Aaya] and *ecome a conflagration+
3t can *e argued that Dil could ha.e gi.en us much more+ ,is protean talent had the
potential to *e a real match for the protean cunning of capital which 8redric :ameson has so
meticulously mapped in our day+ 8or instance% Dil had the sense and the pride to suspect the
appropriati.e attempts at representation that the su*altern studies group was later to &uestion<
AIou )ust tell us who you are to do somethingN for our sa'eB (A3mprisonment in JlassB [A#heeshe
di 6aidBE% "inds from the #atluj 2$)+ /he poem A9ultureB [A#ans)ritiBE (48)% A*rush[ingE history
again the grainB% to use Galter 0en)amin-s words% recalls the reader to 0en)amin-s se.enth
thesis on the philosophy of history ("12!1$)+ A6iss GorldB [A3isha! #undariBE ($$) criti&ues the
glo*al capitalist spectacle and simulacrum which are fa*ricated out of% and conceal% the
unac'nowledged la*our of anonymous people+ 3n one of the AghaCalsB Dil e.en spea's of the
commodification of courage and intellect through cooptation *y the mar'et (8#)+
3n a sense% then% Dil-s oeu.re is radically unfinished+ 5nd that also means it ristles with
potentialities *y which we% his readers% shall *e )udged+ 0y challenging us from his gra.e that
was ne.er to *e% Dil continues to haunt us li'e the undead 6ar@+
Ghat ma'es Dil-s images the &uintessential poetic images+ 5s 0achelard sees it% the
poetic image *egins to find its form at the limits of .isualiCation concei.ed as imaging or
reflection+ 3t is a wor' of the imagination at the limits+ 5 limit e@perience% from where another
world can *e discernedNdim!descried (GordsworthH)+

0en)amin% Galter+ Illuminations7 8ssays and (eflections+ /rans+ ,arry Pohn+ 19114 1928+ Few
Ior'< Schoc'en% 7andom ,ouse< "##$+
7osa Lu@em*urg% /he 5ccumulation of 9apital% /ranslated *y 5gnes SchwarCschild
.ie A))umulation des +apitals first pu*lished 191
;nglish edition first pu*lished 1911
*y 7outledge Q Megan (aul
8irst pu*lished in 7outledge 9lassics "##
*y 7outledge
11 Few 8etter Lane% London ;94( 4;;
"9 Gest 1th Street% Few Ior'% FI 1###1
(outledge is an imprint of the Taylor 9 ,rancis -roup
/his edition R "## 7outledge
A(6 warns of Dfootloose migrantsD from rural areasB+ %industan Times+ "8 Dec "#1"+
http<NNwww+hindustantimes+comN3ndia!newsNFewDelhiN(6!warns!of!footloose!migrantsN5rticle1!
981"1$+asp@
Sha'espeare% Gilliam+ %amlet+ 5ct 333 Scene i.% "#8!#9+
0erger% :ohn+ A/he ,our of (oetry%B 441!4"+ #elected 8ssays+