Gonmei1

Pamziuliu Gonmei
Dr. Anju Gurawa
M.A. (P) English
13 April 2015

I Will Belong to It : Poetry as a Means of Protest

(Presentation Assignment)

The poem I Will Belong to It was written by Arjun Dangle and is

part of an anthology called Poisoned Bread which was first published in
1992 and was the first ever Dalit literature. The anthology contains the works
of several Dalit writers and ranges from extracts from autobiographies to
short stories and poetry. This particular poem is one such work which is
written in a form of outcry towards the injustices practiced upon the people
whom society deemed and categorized as untouchables.
Besides being a way of reaching out, the poem also seeks to discuss all
the injustices that has been implemented upon this section of society. The
speaker of the poem traces his whole life along the lines of the space that he
had been confined to by society. He has spent his whole life, throughout all
the stages, following and acting out on what society dictates he must do. He
first talks about his youth, at the time when he reached puberty, he had to

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sit and do the task of twisting ropes. At a time when he should be exploring
his sexuality, discovering his manhood and indulging in the pleasures of
youth like others, he was unable to do so as he was tightly bound by his
duties of serving those more privileged than him in the social ladder. Being a
Dalit, he was not allowed childhood or youth, and was instead subjected to
ritual and mandatory tasks such as the one described in the second line of
the poem.
Further down the days of his youth, when it is time for others his age to
be lost in the world of love and are forever gazing at their lovers faces,
spending their days in relentless romance, the speaker has had to walk and
wander around the time doing various tasks and labour in rags and shoes
which are barely sewed together. He has never had the time or means to
love or be loved. Instead he has been deemed simply as a hand, a labourer,
just a statistic with the masses who has been born to serve and hence, be
used. The speaker goes on to talk about old age, the time when a man leads
a happy and contented life, surrounded by his grand children. Such is usually
the time in a persons life when a lot of leisurely times are spent with his
grandchildren, jollying and merry-making with them. However, it is an
entirely different picture for the speaker altogether. His body gets racked
with disease and suffering, most presumably as a result of the years of hard
and forced manual labour, as the years fall heavy upon him. As death will
eventually befall him, the speaker is picturing his own death, likening it and
identifying himself with the many others who die homeless and without any

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sense of identity. He talks about the land he was born and grew up in, the
soil on which he toiled all his life. Yet he never felt a true sense of belonging
with the soil or acceptance from it. He says this soil, on whom all those years
of sweat and tears have been spent, has never allowed him to make his
mark on it, a significance of his existence. He was never given any rights in
his land, in other words, his society. He only gave and gave but never
received. Born into misery and having led a life of misery, he has nothing but
sorrow over the land which bore him.
Here, the image of the soil is a representation of society. The speaker is
referring to his society which has only spurned and trampled upon him with
all its false values and evils. The immediate context here is the Indian caste
system and the inequalities that stems from it as a result of the prominent
hierarchy that this system upholds. The poet attempts to draw attention to
the sufferings that this system is able to cause, mainly the exploitation of
those who have been placed at the absolute bottom of the social ladder. The
poem generally talks about forced labour, poverty and hunger. The speaker
here is clearly someone who belongs to an untouchable community, who has
struggled all his life to find a place, to belong and an identity. Despite all that
he has had to go through, he realizes that he remains just another face in the
masses, one who was never identified as an individual or a human being. He
is just another pair of hands and legs to those who holds power over his life.

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Towards the end of the poem, he mourns over how he has nowhere to
turn to, as he questions whom he should speak to of his agony. He turns and
finds no acceptance, place or love. He grieves over how he and others like
him must continue to live sorrow among this huge density of people. He
craves for meaning and worth and not just shallow actions upon the soil. He
struggles desperately to find and discover himself for the individual he is and
take his rightful place in humanity.
All in all, the poem is a very heartfelt form of lamentation or protest
against the social injustices the caste system has brought upon those it has
subordinated. The poet speaks from the oppressed point of view and goes
very deep into the aspects of the speaker as an individual, successfully
presenting him as a feeling human being, regardless of which caste he may
belong to.

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Bibliography
Poisoned Bread; I Will Belong to It, Arjun Dangle. Arjun Dangle (ed.)
Orient BlackSwan.