Dignity and Labour


One short story touched my heart today.  It’s a Bengali short story written by Banaphool titled, ‘Chotolok’. “Chotolok’ means the subaltern working class here in the story. The story is only pages long and talks about two men : one passerby and a manual rikshaw puller. Raghab is a  enlightened man with knowledge of labour exploitation and subaltern studies, believes that manual rikshaw pulling is worst kind of discrimination and labour exploitation he ever witnessed. The rikshaw puller started following while he was walking briskly to cover a short distance in scorching sun. Raghab thought this worst kind of labour of rickshaw pulling must be the only livelihood option for this man. He negotiated his ideology for a short distance. He hired the rikshaw but didn’t sit on it and was walking side by side despite several requests from the rikshaw puller to be seated in the cart. How can Raghab sit? He has studied the great labour movements: division of labour, Bolshevism, factory labour and exploitation and what not.

After reaching the destination Raghab offered him a pay. Rikshaw puller asked him , ‘you didn’t ride my cart. Why the payment?’. Raghab answered, ‘I don’t ride rikshaws. It’s sin [to be seated in a cart while another human being pulls it].  The rikshaw puller wore a sign of avoidance and frustration. “ I don’t beg from others’. He answered and disappeared.  

Such a short story made me think 'dignity matters'......

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ima market of Imphal

Image
Imphal: The Khwairamband Bazaar, Imphal, Manipur is a marketplace with peculiar smell, sweat, cacophony and busy movements of shoppers and as well the shopkeepers. There is hardly anyone who does not require visiting the market. Khwairamnand bazaar or the popular name Ima market or Nupi Keithel is the world’s only all-women marketplace and one of Imphal’s main tourist attractions. This is because the most important feature of the market is that 4000 odd shopkeepers are women representing the greater mobility and economic participation of Manipuri women. Women vendors selling dry fish, a popular food in north east India What is not sold in the Ima Market? One can easily find items ranging from food items such as fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and dried fish to local herbs to clothes and woolens, and traditional costumes. Metal and bamboo items are also found in the shops. The market consists of two main sections -one where the vegetables, fruits and necessary items are sold and
Read more

On Citizenship Rights in Assam

Image
 https://www.institutesi.org/resources/monthly-bulletin-march-2021   When and why did you become interested in citizenship rights issues? Illegal immigration has been a perennial socio-political issue in Assam. It resulted in a spectrum of policies and practices in legislations, executive policies, judicial orders for detection and deportation of illegal immigrants since partition in 1947.  These actions enacted from time to time are reminiscent of the colonial legal process based on the colonial understanding of ‘alien’. The process bears reflection of dominant racial and cultural norms together with the claims of civilizational superiority of the ‘Assamese’. Any non-conforming community to this criteria is regarded as ‘outsider’, an ‘Other’ [Bohiragoto in Assamese] and is subjected to persecution, censorship, social stigma, prolonged incarceration and virtual statelessness.   In 2008, I was researching for a project on Understanding Impunity in India, when I started d
Read more

When memories haunt

When memories haunt Memory is a mental activity of recalling information that one learns or experiences in life. Memory can be short term as well as long term. Short term memory is one that remains in the temporarily. On the other hand long term memory is a procedural one that remains for a long time or permanently in the mind either consciously or unconsciously. The long term memories of the victims of the Nellie victims are very much permanent. Yet another year passed by for the victims of Nellie massacre. Each day Nellie victims are haunted by the memories of the massacre that took place long back on February 18, 1983. “We cry when we remember that day and I feel as if it happened the other day. Memory is so fresh in my mind.’ Memories of violence may impact ones reaction and may cause inaction on instance which may be otherwise severely disturbing. “We have seen so many dead bodies that when Mumbai terror attack [at Hotel Taj and other places] killed 200 people, we hardly felt any
Read more