Salāma: Kahānī-saṅgraha

by Omprakash Valmiki

‘दलित लेखन दलित ही कर सकता है’ को पारंपरिक सोच के ही नहीं प्रगतिशील कहे जाने वाले आलोचकों ने भी संकीर्णता से लिया है ! दलित विमर्श साहित्य में व्याप्त छदम को उघाड़ रहा है ! साहित्य में जो भी अनुभव आते हैं वे सर्वभोमिक और शास्वत नहीं होते ! इन सन्दर्भों में ओमप्रकाश वाल्मीकि की कहानियां दलित जीवन की संवेदनशीलता और अनुभवों की कहानियां हैं, जो एक ऐसे यथार्थ से साक्षात्कार कराती हैं, जहाँ जहरों साल की पीड़ा अँधेरे कोनो में दुबकी पड़ी है ! वाल्मीकि के इस संग्रह की कहानियां दलितों के जीवन-संघर्ष और उनकी बेचैनी के जिवंत दस्तावेज हैं, दलित जीवन की व्यथा, छटपटाहत, सरोकार इन कहानियों में साफ़-साफ़ दिखायी पड़ती हैं ! ओमप्रकाश वाल्मीकि ने जहाँ साहित्य में वर्चस्व की सत्ता को चुनोती दी है, वहीँ दबे-कुचले, शोषित-पीड़ित जन समूह को मुखरता देकर उनके इर्द-गिर्द फैली विसंगतियों पर भी चोट की है ! जो दलित विमर्श को सार्थक और गुणात्मक बनाता है ! समकालीन हिंदी कहानी में दलित चेतना की दस्तक देने वाले कथाकार ओमप्रकाश वाल्मीकि की ये कहानियां अपने आप में विशिष्ट हैं ! इन कहानियों में वास्तु जगत का आनद नहीं, दारूण दुःख भोगते मनुष्यों की बेचैनी है !

131 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Omaprakāśa Vālmīki or Omprakash Valmiki (30 June 1950 – 17 November 2013) was an Indian Dalit writer and poet. well known for his autobiography, Joothan, considered a milestone in Dalit literature. He was born at the village of Barla in the Muzzafarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. After retirement from Government Ordnance Factory he lived in Dehradun where he died of complications arising out of stomach cancer on 17 November 2013.[3]

Being a Dalit child, he was tortured and abused everywhere in society. He was fortunate enough to be born in a household where everyone loved and cared for him. The support and encouragement he gained from the family enabled him to face the dangers of being a Dalit. Right from the early stages of his life, Valmiki was conscious of the importance of studies and hence he was always a bright student. Reading and writing made him an enlightened human being. Valmiki married Chanda; despite the protestations his father accepted her as his daughter-in-law. He was not allotted a house in the government colony. They had to struggle a lot during the initial days of marriage. But he soon settled and both Valmiki and Chanda started a happy married life.

In his novel Joothan he talked about the discrimination they had to face in the school at different points. He says: “During the examinations we could not drink water from the glass when thirsty. To drink water, we had to cup our hands. The peon would pour water from way high up, lest our hands touch the glass”. Omprakash Valmiki describes his life as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s. Joothan refers to scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or animals. Dalits have been forced to accept and eat joothan for centuries, and the word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of a community forced to live at the bottom of India's social pyramid. Although untouchability was outlawed in 1949, Dalits continued to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule. Valmiki shares his struggle to survive a preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the Dalit political leader, B. R. Ambedkar.

Besides Joothan (1997) Valmiki published three collections of poetry: Sadiyon Ka Santaap (1989), Bas! Bahut Ho Chuka (1997), and Ab Aur Nahin (2009). He also wrote two collections of short stories, Salaam (2000), and Ghuspethiye (2004). In addition, he wrote Dalit Saahity Ka Saundaryshaastr (2001) and a history of the Valmiki community, Safai Devata (2009), Do Chera' (a play).

Reviews

[Tarun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of 14 tales delivers a searing indictment of India's caste-based society. While most of these stories are set in Western U.P. and the western terai of Uttarakhand ( the author was born and raised in Barla, Muzaffarnagar), the depictions of brutality and dehumanization have a pan-India relevance.

[Puja]

सुन्दर प्रस्तुति

[Sanjana Prasad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dalit jivan ka darpan hai

[Abhaga · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book I have read in the dalit sahitya stream of Hindi literature. The stories revolve around the experiences of characters from castes that have suffered untouchability. Some stories explore the dynamics in offices in presence of reservations. Others narrate the caste atrocities in rural settings. A recurrent theme is how seemingly good, helpful people react to caste related situations. Of course there are those who are willing to exploit this as another tool of subjugation but the former are the ones that break your heart and make the situation seem hopeless.

There are no happy endings here. There is only deep depression of an endless struggle. At some places, one does gets inclined to say that this is just over the top, that there are good people out there who break these caste barriers, there are situations where the humanitarian response overrides the old thinking but you won't find those people and those situations in these pages.