Prabin Dhungel
Likhe, a novel by Sharad Poudel, focuses on the microcosm of the Dalit community in the rural landscape with a special focus on how they are often perceived and persecuted by the so-called higher caste. Originally serialized as small pieces of tales in the Nava Yuwa monthly, this book came out as a complete novel in 2002.
The book is quite relevant and makes readers ponder about the various spectrums such as caste, culture, language, livelihood, economics, psychology, etc., and also has a different pedestal in Nepali lit-sphere, especially literature on Dalits. The book helps readers feel deeply connected with the rural Dalits, their activities and the race for survival. It tells how deep-rooted the caste system in Nepal is, and what its irrevocable prices are.
The novel gives plenty of ideas about the rural lifestyle, poverty, exploitation, activities and indulgence, politics, migration to Indian towns and cities, rule of fear, identity quest, and physical and psychological exploitation of the womenfolk from the Dalit communities. The predicament of the Dalit families and poor villagers has been wonderfully illustrated by the author.
The novel is a blend of emotional, psychological, philosophical, and ideological whirlwinds of ideas, and gives a perfect visualization of life in Nepal (Parbat) and Delhi (India). The book also tersely gives prognostication about the need to empower the rural communities, and extricates the community from decadent treatment.
The book alludes to the chasm that exists among people based on caste, culture and language, facing a fervent need to re-invigorate ways to uplift themselves and bring about revolutionary changes. The author has utilized all the characters justifiably to bind the flow of the story. Discrimination is gout in the socio-cultural system, bringing nothing but discord, abuses, and exploitation.
The main character Likhe is forced to work under Bista couples, called Bista Baje-Bajai, and have to endure painful jibes, abuses, traumatic beatings, and false accusations, until he is heavily exploited. He is sequestered from the love and affection of his poor parents. The boy is traumatized heavily under the pretense of purloining jewelry from the house and is scarred. After his rescue he moves to India for work.
While in India, Likhe suffers painful transition while working as domestic help, and does not get to work for lengthy-time period, due to illness. So he is exploited harshly. He is thrown out from his work due to rhombic schedule and trepidation.
His encounter and networking with Parshuram and Sunam makes him more curious and effulgent. He cultivates thirst to know more. His life gets transformed with the prescient knowledge bestowed upon him by them, and inspires him to get back to the hinterlands, and work pro-actively for the socio-cultural transformation.
The novel is beautifully crafted in simple, easy-to-understand vocabulary from the Nepali language, intricately detailed life descriptions chores in the rural landscape as well as everyday events in the migrant workers’ lives in India.
The plights of the Nepali migrant workers in Indian towns and cities have also been beautifully illustrated in the novel in a pellucid manner. They are often exploited with heavy workloads, malodorous treatment, and minimal wages.
The book picturizes how migrant workers often insulated from their families and place of births, find a common place for bonding and sharing. While en-route for their works, they are often seen by the border patrols with disdain, and are quite often looted.
Sardonically, Indian cops regard them as animals to be treated harshly and see them coming to loot the locals of their employment. There is a digression in the storyline, wherein bits and pieces can be pictured about the united efforts of Nepalese migrant workers to share bonding through as union, and shows how rural people tend to talk in circumlocution.
The novel details how poor migrants and Dalits are often chastised, treated infelicitously in socio-cultural setups, and are perused to be tacit sufferers. The cognizant characters such as Parshuram, and Sunam show that anyone can be a pall-bearer of positive changes, and all the individuals can attain knowledge to create a better environment for the future generation.
All-inclusive actions, knowledge, and amalgamation of variegated ideas and a positive attitude can actually end the hauteur and dominance of the so-called people of high-caste and class. Today’s youths might not be able to completely eradicate such conservative ruminations from their parents but can definitely leave a new, dynamic, and effervescent environment for the future generation.
Axiomatically, the book can be seen as a testament of the veridicalities and conservative mindsets, an epithet for the need for ablutions of discrimination, and the birth of iridescent visage of an equal and equitable society.
This novel laconically remonstrates a masterpiece on Dalit communities, and should at least be read by the social, critical and cultural thinkers, pecuniary experts, and rights activists alike. This is a remarkably wonderful novel that reaches and touches the innermost part of the readers’ hearts and uncovers the veneers and abstruse visage of the traditional Nepali societies.
[Prabin Dhungel is a student of MA (journalism) at Tribhuvan University and former media reporter as well as an avid bookworm. He occasionally loves to pen his musings on social media and at times undertakes blogging. He hails from Lalitpur.]