BENGALURU: Writers, theatre personalities, professors and artists came together on a virtual platform on Tuesday to pay tributes to poet, playwright and the Bandaya Sahitya movement pioneer Dr Siddalingaiah, who passed away due to Covid last week.
Writer, columnist and critic Agrahara Krishnamurthy, speaking about his association with the poet, said Siddalingaiah actively participated in college elections and famously took part in the Bhoosa Chaluvali. “He played a major role in the rise of Dalit movement in Karnataka,” said Krishnamurthy, taking part in the tribute -- ‘The People’s Poet’, organised by the Bangalore International Centre.
Speakers remembered how Siddalingaiah was not just a poet, but an activist and public intellectual throughout his life. He helped found Bandaya Sahitya Sanghatane in 1979. “He was a key person in bringing Dalit consciousness to an entire generation. He showed us the world in a different way,” said BL Shankar, former chairman, Karnataka Legislative Council.
Theatre personality Prasanna said critics and literary giants should revisit Siddalingaih’s poetry to understand his “civilised anger”. “Most of the renaissance poets who broke the barriers of caste etc were from upper castes and their poems were shaped around ‘sabhyata’ (decency) which was broken by Siddalingaiah. He was not just a Dalit poet, but a people’s poet,” he said.
“In his poem ‘Nanna Janagalu’ (My People), he talks of Dalits being docile and hardworking, but not protesting. But his anger was subdued in his next anthology ‘Saaviraru Nadigalu’, where he asks his lover not to walk under the moonlight, for it may burn her. This is an amazing metaphor,” Prasanna said. MS Asha Devi, writer and translator, Mogalli Ganesh, theatre personality, and Gopal Guru, editor of a political weekly, paid their tributes.