September 2008 
Year 15    No.134
Voices


Betrayal Beyond Belief

– Badri Raina

 

Agreed you were Adi Indians,

Long before the Aryans came;

Agreed we made you Dalit

To set off the conqueror’s name.

Agreed you are illiterate,

Agreed you have no say;

Agreed you are untouchable,

Agreed you are kept at bay.

Agreed that our development

Makes you resentful, red;

Agreed, in fact, we prosper

Upon your sweat and blood.

Agreed we rape your women,

Agreed we stray, at worst;

Agreed you may not use our wells

To quench your low-born thirst.

Agreed our Constitution

Is ours and ours alone;

Agreed our hallowed temples

Will not let you in.

Agreed your land, your forest

We grab, we chop, we burn;

Agreed our banks, our markets

Will never serve your turn.

Even so, your villainous move

To leave the Hindu fold –

How could we ever forgive you

Betrayal so beastly, bold?

Go tell these priests who dupe you

That all plants, animals, men

Were created Sanaatan Hindus

The minute the world began.

Do you then prefer Christian ease

To family atrocity?

How traitorous, how ungodly

Can this world of vermin be!

 

(From Modest Proposal and other Rhymes for the Times, SAHMAT, Delhi, 2000.)


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