People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 04
January 26, 2014
|
Vol. XXXVIII
No. 04 January 26, 2014 |
Namdev Dhasal THROUGH
a statement issued
on January 15, 2014, by its general secretaries Murali
Manohar Prasad Singh and
Chanchal Chauhan, the Janvadi Lekhak Sangh (JLS) expressed
its deep sense of
grief over the demise of Namdev Dhasal, renowned Marathi
writer of dalit
literature. He was seriously ill since September 2013, was
in a Mumbai hospital
for treatment and the doctors had diagnosed him as suffering
from a kind of
cancer. He breathed his last on Wednesday, January 15. Namdev
Dhasal was born in
a Mahar dalit family in a village near Pune on February 15,
1949. He spent his
childhood in Mumbai in utter poverty. When his famous poetry
collection, titled
Golpitha, came out
in 1973, it
established him as an important writer which had given dalit
literature a new,
realistic turn. Apart from having 11 poetry collections to
his credit, Dhasal
also wrote plays and novels. He earned numerous awards for
his writings ---
from Namdev
Dhasal was the
founder of Marathi Dalit Panther movement. The
JLS statement recalled
that like several sections of the middle class, Dhasal too
underwent
vacillations in his political views but yet writing always
gave a voice to the
realities of dalit life and therefore his creativity
remained committed to the
democratic values which motivate the great writings. The
JLS, through its
statement, conveyed its tributes to this fighter and its
condolences to his
family members and friends.
