Y.B. Satyanarayana - My Father Balliah

MY FATHER BALIAH

Y.B. Satyanarayana

HarperCollins Publishers India

To my father, Baliah,
and my unlettered mother, Narsamma

Contents

I take great pleasure in writing the foreword to My Father Baliah by Dr Y.B. Satyanarayana. This book is Dr Satyanarayanas tribute to his father Yelukati Ramaswamy (later known as Yelukati Baliah) and to his forefathers. This biography, introspective at times, is a vivid portrayal of the journey of a family belonging to the Dalit Madiga community of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh. It is also a history of the Yelukati family which strove for a better world against all odds. The book depicts continuity as well as change over a period of almost two centuries and three generations. But it is not merely a family chronicle. Rather, it is the depiction of the lived experiences of members of the Madiga community over several decades in different places, settings and situations, making it a unique social history of the times.

My Father Baliah is a detailed delineation of the different facets of the unique world of untouchables the inviolable societal boundaries and attitudes, the social, economic and cultural landscapes, the norms and patterns of intercommunity and interpersonal relationships, the ways of life and means of living, the negotiations and compromises and the aspirations and shortcomings as well. The narrative becomes a history of the relentless struggle of an untouchable community against social and economic discrimination, against oppressive caste hierarchy, against feudal conditions, and against ridicule and humiliation. It brings out the inhuman cruelty of untouchability and the caste system, and the helpless acquiescence and internalization of this condition by the untouchable community itself. At the same time, the book does not fail to bring out the kindness of some people belonging to other communities, especially the deep affection and empathy shown by some teachers.

During my career as an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in Andhra Pradesh, I had the good fortune of working among the poorer sections of the people, particularly those belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. I have seen untouchability being brutally put into practice, despite constitutional and legal commandments to the contrary. I can even now recall the image of a Dalit woman sitting on the banks of a water tank with a pot in her hand, waiting for someone to pour water from the tank into her pot, since, being an untouchable, she was forbidden from entering the tank and collecting the water herself. I have been appalled at the manner in which derogatory suffixes are attached to the names of people from the untouchable community to depict their lowly status in the caste hierarchy. I have personally seen the exploitation of bonded labourers, many of whom were bonded for generations for repayment of paltry sums taken as loans from landlords. I have seen fear writ large on the face of Dalits while in the presence of big landlords, known as Doras in the Telangana area, and have felt the intensity of social oppression denoted by the expression I am your slave, I touch your feet which was the compulsory conventional salutation with which untouchables were called upon to address people belonging to the so-called upper castes. Such sufferings of the untouchable community and the indignities heaped upon them are brought out in the narrative as it describes the life history of the Yelukati family.

There is another reason for my attachment to this book. Having lived in railway colonies in my younger days, I related easily to the depiction of life in such mixed colonies where the rigours of the caste system were somewhat though not fully loosened. I have closely observed gangmen, pointsmen and shunters, mostly drawn from the so-called lower castes, as well as stationmasters and railway guards mostly from the upper castes with their guard boxes, and the manner in which their relationships at official and personal levels were negotiated. I have often marvelled at the run through trains which sped away with someone keeping aloft the green flags on the platform. I have witnessed women rushing to collect water from the steam engines of those days, and the fact that ticketless travel by members of the families of railway staff was conventionally accepted as legitimate! Until the end of the Second World War, grain shops too were operated by the railways for railway staff. The railways constituted a universe somewhat different from the rest of the society. This book brings out all these aspects vividly in relation to the life of a Dalit family which struggled to overcome the feudal oppression in the villages. As the author observes, the railways constituted the universe for them. The authors father, who did not know much about the world beyond the railways, was firm in his view that his children should be educated well only so they could become railway officers.

The advent of British rule offered new positions in the army with the cantonments, the docks, the railroads, the mines and the mills. Th ese provided new opportunities to people of the untouchable community. In fact, there was wide access to such jobs for untouchables since people belonging to the so-called upper castes were not ready to take them up; the jobs were difficult and hazardous, and the latter often also had inhibitions based on notions of caste pollution. It may be worthwhile recalling in this context that Babasaheb Ambedkar himself belonged to an army family and was born in Mhow, an army station. Ramabai Ambedkar too was from a similar family.

As the author rightly points out, the railways opened a route for Dalits to get out of the stifling and oppressive atmosphere of the villages by providing jobs, even though these were manual and menial. Untouchables gained entry into the railways. To live in the railway quarters along with other castes was a new and liberating experience for people who were treated as outcasts and segregated as such in every village. They found similar opportunities in coal mines too.

The story of the life of Shri Narsiah starts in a small village called Vangapalli in the Karimnagar district of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh. When the nizam of Hyderabad was on a tour through this village, Narsiahs father, whose name was also Narsiah, presented the nizam with a beautiful pair of shoes made from the hide of a young calf. Th e nizam was so pleased that he declared a gift of fifty acres of land to this gentleman, the great-grandfather of the author. But land, even when gifted by the nizam himself, could not be enjoyed by them because of the feudal power of the local Dora who permitted Narsiah to occupy only two acres. Strange but true that Narsiah was neither dismayed nor resentful about this turn of events, but relieved. Not sorry that the land was seized from him, but happy that he could have at least two acres and that he was also saved the wrath of the Dora! Indeed, such a situation exists even today in several villages where, even if the government grants land to people belonging to the scheduled castes, they cannot effectively occupy or cultivate it, owing to the prevailing local power dynamics.

The author gives a detailed description of the social structure of a village. His words speak to us poignantly and directly:

Most villages in India have for centuries had the same composition. A village has the perfect Hindu caste set-up with all the characteristic features codified by Manu. It has two types of dwellings, varna houses and avarna huts, separated by either a boundary or a well-maintained distance.