Poet pens apology, says context of verse being ‘misinterpreted’

Poet pens apology, says context of verse being ‘misinterpreted’

Yogita Rao & Sanyukta Singh TNN

Mumbai:

Poet Dinkar Manwar, whose poem ‘Paani Kasa Asta’ was dropped from Mumbai University’s textbook after protests from students’ organisations, said his work has been misinterpreted due to a line.

In a statement given to the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission, Manwar said that his poem is a comment on the status of the oppressed in society and ‘the objectionable line’ should be read in the same context. Manwar, who appeared before the Commission on Saturday, apologised for hurting the sentiments of ‘his own people’ and said it was unintentional. He urged the commission to not initiate action against him.

The Marathi poem by Manwar compares the colour and nature of water to several images. A line in the third paragraph reads – Kivnha aadivasi porichya stanasaarkha jhambla which translates into ‘or purple like the breasts of an adivasi girl’. Objecting to the line in the poem, Yuva Sena and Chhatrabharti Vidyarthi Sena had demanded withdrawal of the poem from the syllabus. In a Board of Studies (BoS) meeting held a day later, the poem was dropped from the syllabus. Paani Kasa Asta is a poem from Manwar’s compilation ‘Drushya Naslelya Drushya’. The collection was part of TYBA syllabus.

“I and my poems have always supported the have-nots and the oppressed. I look at poems as a means to highlight societal problems, which is why I am more distraught that a sentence in my poem has hurt people’s sentiments...” he said in the statement.

The poet clarified that, while commenting on an exploitative social order in the poem, water is used to define pain and exploitation. In one sentence where a reference to the breast of a tribal girl is made, the idea is to show how tribals are pure, innocent, naive and natural. “There is no intention to highlight sexuality or to titillate. Unfortunately, it has been looked through a prism of politics and taken to a wrong direction,” he said.

Members of the university’s BoS and the registrar appeared before the commission on Friday. The poem was included in the syllabus when Cecilia Carvalho, a poetess and professor, was the convenor of the BoS early this year. Carvalho said that the ‘contentious’ poem was included in the syllabus to make students understand problems prevalent in our society. “It was a mere reflection of our society. Literature can make use of symbolic images. People need to see beyond a woman’s body and see her soul. If people get offended based on caste, creed and gender, there will be nothing left to be taught in our Marathi literature,” she said.

Source : https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/#