Writer, poet, intellectual and member of Parliament from Tamil Nadu, D Ravikumar brings to his works the sharp analysis of an Ambedkarite and the accumulated wisdom of fighting and writing for the marginalised over the decades.
His poem, It is indeed my wish, emerges out of the turbulence of 2019, when the rights of Kashmiris were trampled upon by the Indian state, with an erosion of the institutions expected to guard these rights. The year ended with police violence on those protesting against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act – citizens seeking to protect India’s secular Constitution.
Ravikumar’s poem is at once a record of 2019 and a hope for a better future. It is a yearning for justice and dignity, a call to his fellow countrymen to eschew violence and inequality.
It is indeed my wish to say
That another house will not be burned
That another throat will not be slit
Another honour not defiled
Another passage not denied
Another door will not be shut
Another opportunity will not be blocked
It is indeed my wish to say
That everyone’s voice will be heard
All grievances are redressed
That every wound is healed
Every tear is wiped
And everyone’s view respected
It is indeed my wish to say
That the innocent will be identified
And the guilty punished
That the vile ones will be removed
And the virtuous recognised
It is indeed my wish to say
the next year won’t be like this year
Translated from Tamil by K Venkataramanan.
Read all the articles in the Art of Resistance series here.
