You say
the beak that steals
The worm-ridden grain spread out to sun
is a pariah cow.
The poem, “Pariah God” explores the construction of the term “pariah”. It originally comes from the word parai, a musical instrument.The people who played the parai or the drum on weddings and funerals constituted a specific social group, considered lower in terms of caste divisions. People belonging to this group were discriminated against by the privileged caste groups. Over a period of time, pariah was used to refer to Dalits in Tamil Nadu. At the same time, pariah also refers to an outsider, one who does not belong to the social system. The term pariah therefore captures both the social history and the lineage of humiliation and ostracism faced by the Dalits in Tamil Nadu. As Sukirtharani recounts in an interview with Divya Karthikeyan,
My grandfather played parai (the musical instrument after which the Dalits in Tamil Nadu were named as Pariah) in events of the village. My father worked in EID Parry as a labourer. In festivals or funerals, parai is an important part of the rituals. Every year one person would be chosen to perform the task of playing parai, which he should oblige. My father protested and the panchayat called him and cast him out of the village. As my father was working at Parry’s in Ranipet, it didn’t affect him.
The opening line of the first stanza in an accusatory tone inverts the usual order— ”You say”. Through this first statement, the subservient position of the Dalits is inverted and it is the privileged caste people who are interrogated. In it, the sun that gives light and is life affirming is also harsh. The harshness of the sun is blamed as pariah. The “heat that sears your side” indicates how the powerful social groups name the harshness of the sun as “pariah sun”. The Dalits are not given credit for the light and life-giving aspects of the sun, but its heat is attributed to them.
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