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Collector’s Mother: Braving the Odds

A story of humiliation. A story of grit. A story of triumph. Poet turned autobiographer, Bishmupada Sethi reconstructs his past in The Collector’s Mother, charting his personal growth in a hostile environment. Dealing with antagonism from a predominantly upper caste society, the autobiography is replete with humiliations his parents had to put up with and bring him up, instilling in his mind a sense of resilience and dignity. Dalits, being at the lowest wrung of society, faced abomination on multiple grounds. His intention of detailing issues of untouchability regarding himself and his family that they faced for most of their life, is to excavate deep-rooted discrimination within the caste system of his time. The System was at its own pace, that of the reality of the society was at another. Says he, “Despite the introduction of the new panchayati raj system by the government, the old panchayanti raj system remained functional. The story of my family serves as a case study of how the village system in older times was unfair and could not be accepted as an authority to deliver justice in modern times, even though it had served several purposes for centuries.”

The untouchables were debarred from entering temples. We all know Mahatma Gandhi’s stand in this regard. In this regard common readers will benefit much from what Gandhiji said about it. Sethi quotes the quintessential Gandhi in his autobiography The Collector’s Mother. Refusing to enter Puri temple when he was in Odisha, in 1934, Gandhiji made a poignant statement which reads,

“Orissa is the dearest place in India for me. When I reached India, I came to know the poverty, drought of Orissa….Orissa became a sacred place for me, not because of Lord Jagannath, but because his doors are closed for the Harijans, so it is for me. This is my tirtha, and for this reason, I have started to remove the work of untouchability system from here on my padayatra.”

Even though The Odisha Temple Entry Authorisation and Indemnity Bill 1947 was passed in the Odisha Assembly on 14 February 1947, it was not until 1980s, says Sethi, that the untouchability ceased to be a stigma.

Sethi’s villagers used every pretext to “humiliate” his family. Sometimes it would become so unbearable that his mother contemplated drowning herself. His father ran away from home for long time. Luckily he came back. That added strength to his mother for “killing a person was easy in those gory days. His parents were constantly in fear of being attacked by the upper caste. They could not use an umbrella in the presence of upper caste people. Even friendship depended on the caste hierarchy. He narrates a specific incident with utmost shame, and bitterness: “I became friends with a Brahmin boy. One day, he took me to his house, and I sat on a cot on the verandah. His mother was making a pan and kept the betel leaf and other ingredients on the cot. She could not tell me on my face that I had broken a rule by sitting on the cot. After I left and was some distance away, I heard her shouting, ‘That boy sat on the cot and now everything has become impure.’ I felt I was slapped hard that day, and I never played with the boy again.” One may very well recognize that such incidents may hamper not only any person’s social standing but a personal mental state.

By underlining such incidents, Sethi paints a horrific picture of a scarred childhood which remains a baggage throughout his life. (Even when he rises in the social hierarchy, as he says later on in the book, his achievement was not recognized by the villagers, which was evident from their attitude towards him.) Soaked with humiliation, Sethi, at one point “swore to take revenge and protect his family” when he grew up. But does he actually vent his vindictiveness? One has to peruse the story to find out. Does karma play a part in his rise? Does diligence find its way in his unspoken response? As an autobiographical narrative, one can detect the neat chapterization befitting the protagonist’s development. However, there’s a catch. The first chapter doesn’t begin with his initial days of immaturity rather with a tribute to his mother without whose persistence, his job, and life would be nothing more than a mechanical materialism. Despite being treated unfairly by the villagers, Sethi’s parents remained faithful to their caste, and social obligations. His father, a devout Vaishnava, remained composed, especially with his son, narrating “stories about the hardships (they) faced in the village due to (their) enemies.” Sethi says, he learnt how to muster “courage to do something substantial when (he) grew up.”

Similarly, his mother extended immense support to his nutrition and career, who asked of him if he could become “a collector” one day. So, when he qualifies GATE examination, and goes on to take admission at NITIE, the desire within him to stand out among the rest becomes even stronger. At the heart of his personal, and academic growth, one detects the obvious role of his mother, who instils a certain sensibility within him, not to pursue money, but to pursue kindness and empathy through his career goals. Irrespective of how they have been treated, the autobiography produces a cultural ethos of humanity. As one comes to the end of the heart wrenching story, one can’t help but rejoice in the victory of humanity, and empathy through a battle of caste fought through sheer doggedness, and familial values. The autobiography is aptly titled as Sethi’s mother was always, in the face of adversity, a source of inspiration to him. The Collector’s Mother, divided into eight chapters, such as “Passage to Immortality” that deals with the demise of his mother at the very beginning of the book and ending with “The Collector’s Mother” is a journey of triumph of the disadvantaged over the stumbling blocks.

Sethi remains grateful to God but his narration ends with appalling incidents that remain fresh in his mind. Among his achievements, and the ring of the call, “collector’s mother”, an extollation to motherhood, his narrative is a thrust on individual Dalit consciousness. The hatred toward the caste system, and the pride of the accomplishment of being a civil servant to serve people, in an unbiased manner, stands out, unparalleled.

Book Review by Shri Rabindra K Swain
Email: [email protected]

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