Social evils and exploitation

NIBADDHAKSHARI (Sahityakeeyalu 1 & 2) (Telugu): A.B.K. Prasad; Campus Publications, Osmania University Campus, New Nallakunta, Hyderabad-500044. Rs. 75 each.

IT IS almost impossible for the younger generation to realise the depth of social discontent that prevailed some decades back in parts of the present day Andhra Pradesh. The Zamindari system, its peculiar manifestations in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh and the exploitation and cheating of tribals in the agency areas are now history but when newspapers those days reported such happenings, one's blood boiled.

Who could countenance women labourers not being allowed even to feed their babies or innocent tribals being deprived of their valuable lands in exchange for trinkets?

These social evils also gave rise to a new breed of poets and writers who provided vivid accounts of these happenings and emphasised the rights of the victims to dignity and decency. One can dismiss Ravi Sastri, ``Beena Devi'', Naked (Digambara Kavulu) and others as aberrations but they became symbols of opposition to the social exploitation.

Mr. A.B.K. Prasad, a former editor of Vartha, and many other Telugu dailies, is a powerful writer who objectively analyses in his editorials and essays what these poets and writers said. It is a revelation even for those who lived in those times that such injustices did exist.

He brings before our eyes what these evils were and why these writers chose to write the way they did. Singers like Gaddar may have attracted the attention of the immediate victims but it is the writings of people like Mr. Prasad which have made people at large sit up and realise the rot that was setting in. It is a pity that this versatile writer's essays are in Telugu - not in English, which could educate a larger audience.

The writings in these volumes cover a wide field in addition to social conditions. However, sometimes one is surprised at the naivete of this author. Mr. Prasad blindly accepts that Tippu Sultan was a patriot. After all, Tippu was only trying to safeguard an illegitimate throne he inherited from his unscrupulous father who had dethroned a legitimate monarch and usurped the throne. Tippu tried to woo one foreign power to protect himself from another foreign power. Where does patriotism come in?

There is another aspect to these times. The social injustices and exploitation of the oppressed are a small part of the larger India that has always put down these injustices in its own way. The Buddha is perhaps the earliest such revolutionary.

They have followed any number of such great figures who have fought and defeated these reactionary forces. Of these there is very little in these essays, possibly because the concentration is on matters of the day.

It is a fact that even religious Acharyas like Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa fought for the oppressed though their followers down the centuries have distorted their teachings to preserve their own vested interests. Of these again there is so little.

Reading through these two volumes is, as mentioned earlier, an education in itself. It provokes thinking and the reader realises what is rotten in our society and what is great. Social oppression belongs to the rotten part, and these books belong to the great part of our society.

G.D.

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