When I was growing up, a childhood friend of my father's used to visit us every now and then. His name was Sudarsana Rao--everyone called him Suda--and he was the youngest son of a judge. His family had a huge, rambling house in the style of the English houses in India, which, together with its garden, spanned two streets. They came from the goona chakali caste, which is a backward caste--traditionally, they dye clothes--but some of them do very well. Even though he was my father's friend he constantly tried to belittle him. Once when the topic of older generations came up, Suda insisted that no untouchable can remember any further than two generations back. "You can't name anyone before your grandfather," he challenged my mother. "You people have no culture, no literacy, no tradition."
This is the story of my ancestors, as far back as we can remember.
Follow the links below for samples from this work-in-progress.
"My great-grandfather was born in the jungles of Khammam. His name was Venkataswami."
"The uppercastes would not drink from a lower caste rayvu and the lower-castes were not allowed to touch water from an uppercaste rayvu."
"Ismail was not only the first in his family to go to school, he was the first one in the whole village."
"Missionaries did not work specially for the upliftment of untouchables. That was not their aim."
I wish to include an excerpt from Sujatha's family history in a proposed anthology in English translation, TELUGU DALIT WRITING, which includes poetry, short stories, autobiography, speeches, an intervew and essays. It is to be brought out by a prestigious publisher. Will Sujatha please contribute an excerpt for the same. It may be mailed to kpku62@gmail.com
Posted by: Prof Purushotham | October 30, 2009 at 01:12 AM