Caste and oppression are rarely understood fully when studied as concepts. When learnt through lived experiences, from within the world of the subaltern rather than through the language of theory or observation, the narratives bring a human presence to history and struggle. And when allowed to encounter oppression, wounds, feelings, and experiences through the lives of those who endured it, it unsettles.
Ready to unsettle Chennai are poets, under the banner The Reserved Compartment, who are arriving in the city this weekend after three successful shows — one in Mumbai and two in Bengaluru.
The mission to start a poetry collective with Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi poets was in the minds of Daniel Sukumar and Abhijit Khandkar, co-founders of The Reserved Compartment, since 2014. “Not everyone from the marginalised communities come from privileges that allow them to walk into a café for an open mic and perform.” Even within mainstream spaces, Daniel believes that there is little representation for marginalised communities, and that visibility is shaped by a narrow aesthetic economy that only rewards poets who are considered “good-looking” and who embody certain socially approved standards of beauty and presentation. He shares, “We wanted to find people who wrote about caste for a long time. We didn’t find many because a lot of subaltern works are in regional languages. Eventually, we found Gautam Vegda, a PhD scholar, and Aleena, an author and poet. We all realised we wrote on the same lines and wanted to begin a collective late last year.” Together, the four co-founders set out to perform.
The format of their shows is standard. A poet from the region, who writes in the regional language opens the show, following which the four poets perform individually. At the end of the one-and-a-half-to-two-hour-long showcase, the audiences are encouraged to ask questions and the floor is opened up for discussions. At the Chennai show, C Nivitha, hailing from Manjolai in Tirunelveli, will perform the opening act.
Daniel asserts that the showcase is an effort to simply present the performers’ art. But in their previous shows the audiences turned into a community. “It (the showcase) is turning into a community-building exercise even though we didn’t plan for it to be one. Those who came to our shows realised that they shared similar problems that don’t get discussed, or have even realised how similar their experiences have been with caste,” he says.
But the hope for Daniel is for their poetry to start conversations. “On the internet, it is about who is winning an argument. No one seems to be learning. Comments just get personal, they turn into threats and abuses. We hope that people get to take something from our art and have conversations about it, which seems very important in this political climate,” Daniel says.
The Reserved Compartment is also looking to begin an incubation programme to help writers who are writing in regional languages from the marginalised communities to write in English. This becomes important because writing in regional languages restricts widespread visibility and even those who have managed some visibility risk their works being appropriated during translation. “That is the next step, but for now, we are coming to Chennai to perform,” Daniel signs off.
The Reserved Compartment, in collaboration with Mahad productions, will be performing in Medai, Alwarpet, on August 22. Tickets are priced at Rs 599.