Heera Dom | |
---|---|
Born | 1885 Danapur, Bihar |
Occupation |
|
Notable works |
|
Heera Dom was a Bhojpuri poet who contributed to Dalit Literature. [1] He is credited with creating the first poem about the Dalits. [2] The poem was Acchut Kee Shiqayat, which was printed in the "Saraswati" published in Allahabad in 1914. [3]
He was a Dalit poet from the Domra or Dom caste which is one of the lowest ranked castes in Hindu caste system. He was born in 1885 in Danapur in Bihar. [4] Some scholars also claim that he was from Varanasi. [2]
"Acchut ki Shiqayat" (Bhojpuri: 𑂃𑂓𑂳𑂞 𑂍𑂵 𑂮𑂱𑂍𑂰𑂉𑂞; IAST: achūt kī śikayat; transl. The compliant of an Untouchable) is written in Bhojpuri. [5] It was published in the Hindi magazine Saraswati in 1914 from Allahabad. [3] In this poem, Dom has expressed the trauma of his Dom community in literary form. [6]
The first and second stanza of the poem are as follows:
Kaithi Alphabet | Devnagari script | IAST transliteration |
---|---|---|
𑂯𑂧𑂢𑂲 𑂍𑂵 𑂩𑂰𑂞𑂱 𑂠𑂱𑂢 𑂠𑂳𑂎𑂫𑂰 𑂦𑂷𑂏𑂞 𑂥𑂰𑂢𑂲, | हमनी के राति दिन दुखवा भोगत बानी, हमनी के सहेब से मिनती सुनाइबि हमनी के दुख भगवानओं न देखता ते, हमनी के कबले कलेसवा उठाइबि पदरी सहेब के कचहरी में जाइबिजां, बेधरम होके रंगरेज बानि जाइबिजां हाय राम! धसरम न छोड़त बनत बा जे, बे-धरम होके कैसे मुंहवा दिखइबि | hamanī ke rāti din dukhawā bhogata bānī |
Hindi literature includes literature in the various Hindi languages which have different writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃśa like Awadhi, Magadhi, Ardhamagadhi and Marwari languages. Hindi literature is composed in three broad styles- गद्य (Gadya-prose), पद्य( Padya- poetry) and चम्प्पू In terms of historical development, it is broadly classified into five prominent forms (genres) based on the date of production. They are:
Mahadevi Verma was an Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist, sketch story writer and an eminent personality of Hindi literature. She is considered one of the four major pillars of the Chhayawadi era in Hindi literature. She has been also addressed as the Modern Meera. Poet Nirala had once called her "Saraswati in the vast temple of Hindi Literature". Varma had witnessed India both before and after independence. She was one of those poets who worked for the wider society of India. Not only her poetry but also her social upliftment work and welfare development among women were also depicted deeply in her writings. These largely influenced not only the readers but also the critics, especially through her novel Deepshikha.
Dalit, also previously known as untouchables, is the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Dalits predominantly follow Hinduism, with significant populations of the adherents of Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam. Scheduled Castes is the official term for Dalits, who get reservation under positive discrimination, as per the constitution of India.
Kanshi Ram, also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar or Saheb, was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lower caste people including untouchable groups at the bottom of the caste system in India. Towards this end, Kanshi Ram founded Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS-4), the All India Backwards (SC/ST/OBC) and Minorities Communities Employees' Federation (BAMCEF) in 1971 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984. He ceded leadership of the BSP to his protégé Mayawati who has served four terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
The Dom, also known as Domra, Domba, Domaka, Dombara and Dombari, are castes, or groups, scattered across India. Dom were a caste of drummer. According to Tantra scriptures, the Dom were engaged in the occupations of singing and playing music. Historically, they were considered an untouchable caste called the Dalits and their traditional occupation was the disposal and cremation of dead bodies. They are in the list of Scheduled caste for Reservation in India in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi was an Indian Urdu language poet, author, critic, and theorist. He is known for ushering modernism to Urdu literature. He formulated fresh models of literary appreciation that combined Western principles of literary criticism and subsequently applied them to Urdu literature after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Some of his notable works included Sher-e-Shor Angez (1996), Ka’i Chand The Sar-e Asman (2006), The Mirror of Beauty (2013), and The Sun that Rose from the Earth (2014). He was also the editor and publisher of the Urdu literary magazine Shabkhoon.
Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh was one of the most prominent Hindi poets, essayists, literary and political critics, and fiction writers of the 20th century.
Namdeo Laxman Dhasal was a Marathi poet, writer and Dalit activist from Maharashtra, India. He was one of the founders of the Dalit Panthers in 1972, a social movement aimed at destroying caste hierarchy in Indian society. The movement was active in the 1970s and the 1980s during which time it popularised the usage of the term dalit in India. Dhasal was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sahitya Akademi in 2004.
Ravidas or Raidas (1267–1335) was an Indian mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement during the 15th to 16th century CE. Venerated as a guru in the modern regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana, he was a poet, social reformer and spiritual figure.
Daya Pawar or Dagdu Maruti Pawar was an Indian Marathi language author and poet known for his contributions to Dalit literature that dealt with the atrocities experienced by the dalits or untouchables under the Hindu caste system. He was a Buddhist by religion.
Bihar has produced a number of poets and writers in its languages like Bhojpuri Maithili language, Magahi language, Angika and Bajjika including Bhikhari Thakur, Heera Dom, Viveki Rai,Satishwar Sahay Verma, Pandey Kapil etc are writers of Bhojpuri, Vidyapati in Maithili. Besides its regional languages, Bihar has also produced writers in English such as Raj Kamal Jha, Amitava Kumar, Tabish Khair, Gunjesh Bond, Abhay K, Siddhartha Chowdhury; and Hindi including Raja Radhika Raman Prasad Sinha, Kumar vansi, Acharya Ramlochan Saran, Acharya Shivpujan Sahay, Divakar Prasad Vidyarthy, Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar', Ram Briksh Benipuri, Phanishwar Nath 'Renu', Gopal Singh "Nepali", Ramesh Chandra Jha and Baba Nagarjun. Writer and Buddhist scholar Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan was born in Uttar Pradesh but spent his life in the land of Buddha, i.e., Bihar. Hrishikesh Sulabh is a short story writer, playwright and theatre critic. Arun Kamal and Aalok Dhanwa are poets.
Ilavenil Meena Kandasamy is an Indian poet, fiction writer, translator and activist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
The Pasi is a Dalit (untouchable) community of India. Pasi refers to tapping toddy, a traditional occupation of the Pasi community. The Pasi are divided into Gujjar, Kaithwas, and Boria. They are classified as an Other Backward Class in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They live in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Dalit literature is a genre of Indian writing that focuses on the lives, experiences, and struggles of the Dalit community, who have faced caste-based oppression and discrimination for centuries. As Jobymon Skaria explains, "Dalit literature has been the most potent literary expression of Dalits' daily struggle for human dignity." This literature encompasses various Indian languages such as Marathi, Bangla, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Sindhi, Odia and Tamil and includes diverse narratives like poems, short stories, and autobiographies. The movement originated in response to the caste-based social injustices in mid-twentieth-century independent India and has since spread across various Indian languages, critiquing caste practices and experimenting with different literary forms.
Bhikari Thakur was an Indian Bhojpuri language poet, playwright, lyricist, actor, folk dancer, folk singer and social activist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Bhojpuri language and most popular folk writer of Purvanchal and Bihar. Thakur is often called the "Shakespeare of Bhojpuri" and "Rai Bahadur". His works consist of more than a dozen plays, Monologues, poems, and Bhajans, which were printed in nearly three dozen books. His noteworthy works include Bidesiya, Gabarghichor, Beti Bechwa and Bhai Birodh. Gabarghichor is often compared with Bertolt Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Thakur is known as the father of the naach folk theatre tradition. He is also credited as the first person to cast male actors in female roles.
Parichay Das, is an Indian writer, essayist, poet and editor of contemporary Bhojpuri poetry. He is Professor and Head, Department of Hindi, Nava Nalanda Mahavihara Deemed University. He writes in Bhojpuri and Hindi. He earned his Ph.D. from Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur. He is former Secretary, Maithili-Bhojpuri Academy and ex-Secretary, Hindi Academy under Delhi Government. He has written/ edited/ text edited more than 30 books. He received Dwi-Vaageesh Samman award for "Srijan Evam Anuvaad" [Creative Writing and Translation] by the Bhartiya Anuvad Parishad [Translator's Association of India] in 2012. He received Bhojpuri Keerti Sammaan, Bharteey Dalit Sahitya Sammaan, Shyam Narayan Pandey Sammaan, Editor's Choice Award and Damodar Das Chaturvedi Bhasha-Sahitya Sammaan. He delivered a lecture on Bhojpuri in Kathmandu as representative of Kendriy Sahitya Akademi in 2012. He recited his poems in 'SAARC Literary Summit ' in Delhi in 2011. He is considered a unique personal essay writer in Indian Languages and path breaker poet in Bhojpuri.
Bhojpuri literature includes literature written in Bhojpuri language. Bhojpuri has developed over a course of 1300 years, the development of the language started in 7th century. The earliest form of Bhojpuri can be seen in the writings of Siddha Saints and Charyapada. Distinct literary traditions in Bhojpuri language date back to medieval periods when saints and bhakts of the region adapted a mixed language for their works.
Swami Achhootanand, also known as Achutanand or Hariharanand, was an Indian anti-caste intellectual, Dalit writer, and social reformer. A former Arya Samajist, he became disillusioned with the Arya Samaj and established the Adi Hindu movement. He was a poet, critic, dramatist, and historian.
Chandrika Prasad 'Jigyasu' (1880s/1890s—1974) was an Indian anti-caste intellectual, Hindi-language writer, and publisher of Dalit literature.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link)