In Our Colony by Keshav Meshram - Summary and Analysis

INTRODUCTION :

Keshav Meshram was a Marathi poet, critic, novelist and short story writer from Maharashtra. He has written over 40 books and his contribution in the development of Dalit literary discourse is especially notable.

“In Our Colony” is a poem that illustrates a dalit colony wherein people live lives of misery and utter dystopia. The poet uses vivid imagery to paint a picture of everyday life of a Dalit. Keshav Meshram isn't talking about a particular colony when he says "In Our Colony" - he is referring to every Dalit or marginalized group of people living in a segregated locality. Meshram portrays the plight of dalits living in colonies across the country as a collective entity because their plight is identical all over.

The word 'colony' here perhaps signifies how Dalit people are made to form separate colonies generally on the periphery or outside the village. This segregation between the people of the village and the Dalit community is one of the reason for the Dalit colonies being devoid of any sort of development.

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS : 

STANZA 1 :

In the opening lines of the poem the speaker says; 

"In our colony

The postman gets bamboozled

Teachings get confused

Civilization stumbles

The sun- even he is darkened"

Here, the poet is painting a picture of his colony, wherein the postman gets bamboozled, fooled, harrased by the people of the colony. He says, it is a colony where even the civilization stumbles - meaning our idea of a civilized society is in question when one enters a dalit colony, because the world infront of us is completely different than we would ideally want it to be. The speaker further adds, it is a colony where even natural phenomenons like sun too is darkened by the curse put upon the Dalits - this darkening of sun also indicates that there is hardly any ray of light - of hope in the colony.

The poet compares the houses of dalits to footprints of cattles in the mud in the following lines ; 

"Our houses stand

Like footprints of cattle in the mud"

This lines represent the poor infrastructure of the houses in the speaker's colony.

“In the midst of it all is a soul

Eager to swim along the current.”

These lines in the first stanza depicts the even amidst all this dystopia there is someone who is brave enough to have hope of facing all these challenges and sail ahead.

He further explains how there is a foaming sea of black bodies and black hair which is fading away into the age old tradition and these people are helpless and have no option but to sink into the soil of tradition. - this explains how the tradition is holding back the people from going forward, it burdening them and making their lives even more difficult.

STANZA 2 :

In the second stanza the poet is commenting on the dire working conditions of the people in Dalit colonies where they have to carry loads of cotton on their shoulders. The people have to perform hard working labour to meet even their basic needs. Their hands have become rough because of the labour. But, these rough hands are weak from inside because of malnourishment and lack of proper food. 

The speaker further explains how even the women and children are made to work in scorching heat of the summer and some of these workers work on open trucks where their veins get swollen and eyes half closed, such is the toil of the Dalits in the speaker's colony.

STANZA 3 : 

In the third stanza the speaker is giving further insights into living conditions of the dalits. He says, the people in his colony are drowned in ”country wine” and they survive on “hot chillied pieces of meat - Floating in the spicy, hot gravy” - (this is made by drying the meat peaces in heat to store and later use whenever they need by boiling the dried meat pieces with spices)

“Living half-fed despite working full hours”

The above lines explains how the dalit workers cannot even feed themselves and their families despite working full hours in demanding conditions.

“Our colony

Gets stirred on hearing the footsteps

Of the postman” 

These lines explains how the coming of the postman is like an event in the colony. People are excited and afraid at the same to know what news the postman has brought. The reason for being afraid is that in an era where the only affordable means of communication was the post, people generally used post only when there was some really important matter to be communicated, generally to inform the death of some relative. And hence the whole colony becomes restless whenever a postman is seen approaching the colony.

STANZA 4 : 

In the fourth stanza we see the postman struggling to find Renu Narayan to deliver the letter. Meshram says, the postman is “simply harassed” in the process of locating where Renu Narayan lived. 

The poet describes he is “surrounded by naked guides” who see the postman with an awe on their face - who are of no aid to the postman but rather make his quest even more hurdlesome. The postman walks through mud, “Sweating in the clumsy livery” in his hunt. But finally the search is over. The postman reads out the message “Renu’s granny has expired” and the whole colony gets unsettled. 

They “grapples with the message

Like an eagle pouncing upon its prey” - this perhaps depicts how people in Dalit colonies have a collective conscience in dealing with grief.

The description of the Dalit colony is empathetically detached in this stanza where the reader sees the colony through the perspective of the postman who is in great distress to be there and he is feeling harrased by the ‘barbaricity’ of the people.

STANZA 5 :

The final stanza of the poem discusses the inefficacy of the reforms and policies made by the government, which on paper seem to revolutionalize the Dalits' lives but on ground level hardly make any impact. 

Here, for the first time in the poem the poet can be seen to be optimistic for the youth in the colony; 

“Now- only now have boys started learning.

They write poems- stories- Indian literature” - he explains how the young people are getting educated and expressing their plight by writing poems and stories for the whole country to read.

He expresses how the modern thought and values are influencing the people in Dalit colonies and they are putting back the burden of their traditions in search of a better future, 

“The axes of words fall upon the trees of tradition”

The poet especially stresses upon the role of literature in putting the Dalits on the map of Indian literary thought. The poet is optimistic with the rise of Dalit writings which fill the eyes of the dalits with the dreams of a better tomorrow.

But again at the end the poet reminds the reader that beyond all this positive talk, in reality even now, Dalit colonies tremble with the footsteps of Police and postman. 

“Darkness is sizzling swallowing the sun”

The above line explains how the deep rooted prejudice against the dalit is so strong that it swallows any kind of light, any visible reform to restore the dystopia as it was since centuries.

“In our colony the postman is

Bamboozled – even now”

These concluding lines of the poem explains how despite some change and institutional reforms the sufferings of the dalits have not changed much. The small steps taken in the direction of improving the lives of Dalits has had only minimal impact and the Dalits really have a long way to go to expect complete change, considering the mindset of the society at large ehich is fundamentally against them.