Book Review

Baluta by Daya Pawar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A book about the author’s battle with his personal demons and the sacrifices of his mother. She is the real “hero” of this narrative. Her struggles are multiplied as she is a woman, a widow, from the so called ‘lower caste’, living in grinding poverty, a son who does not acknowledge her often, suffers from diseases due to poor nutrition and hygiene and so on.

I can identify with the practice of baluta. I recall the village manual scavengers during my childhood who would not take money but come twice a year (post-rabi and -kharif harvesting) to claim their share of grain. Thankfully this reprehensible and shameful practice of manual scavenging has been done away with.

But the trend persists in a subtle fashion. Like the job the author gets as a laboratory assistant in a Veterinary College, where his job is sorting out faecal samples of sick animals, cleaning sweeping jobs in hospitals, offices and municipalities are still claimed by the euphemistically named (thanks to Gandhi) ‘People of Gods’. Sadly, it is as if these jobs appear to have been ingrained genetically into them.

Parochialism and caste are two concepts that are holding back our country from progress. Reservations in the name of affirmative action have really not helped remove these socioeconomic barriers – if anything, they divide has deepened the antagonism between castes.

Take the example of the Indian infantry (this is irrelevant in other arms of the Army, the Navy and the Air-force). Regiments are still named according to caste (Mahar Regiment, Jat Regiment, Rajput Regiment, Dogra Regiment, Naga Regiment, Maratha Light Infantry), region (Rajputana Rifles, Bihar Regiment J&K Light Infantry, Madras Regiment, Garwhal Rifles, Assam Regiment) and religion (Sikh Regiment, Sikh Light Infantry). Some of these regiments have been in existence since the 1700s albeit under a British moniker. To remove caste overtones these regiments should have neutral, yet martial sounding, names like The Grenadiers or the Brigade of the Guards.


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