Wall of Shame!
For decades stood there
in the village a wall
built with bricks of
shame and tears of dalits.
Keeping in exile senses
of mutual trust and honor
the upper caste built the
wall, parading airs of supremacy.
A long and huge wall-- it
wasn’t built by cement, but
by unjust and unruly
ethics-- hatred being the Mason.
Poor dalits, mute they
became seeing the wall in their way;
resigned timidly to their
cell of subservience … a bequest
they got from the
Varnas. “It’s another albatross on our neck”
muttered the Dalits
wrenching their hands in despair.
Happy they became when
down went the wall of shame.
For, in its debris they
saw no stones and bricks, but
the pride and arrogance
of a haughty caste.
To the ground gone the
village wall, but yet to go from
our minds is the sturdy
wall of casteism, which
we still keep for revenge.
[A sturdy wall that was built
across a village in South India which blocked the lower-castes to have access
to the main road was recently demolished.]
Image courtesy: Google
