Analysis of Black Dance by K K S Das

           K K S Das was one of the early dalit writers in Malayalam. He engaged with the dalit political movements and also played a significant role in dalit assertions in Malayalam. An active member of SEEDIAN, he was conscious of the deep rooted structures of caste in Indian society and believed that the formulation of a counter culture is the need of the hour. He emphasised the need of creating a protest culture which would challenge the Brahminic values.

            Black Dance is one of the poems written by KKS Das in which the poet urges the subaltern communities like cherumis to give up their slavish labour at the landlord’s fields and asks them to take up their tools to fight against the oppressors. He kindles their sense of pride in themselves as they are the force that moves the land, and prepares it for farming. He also indicates the strength of the lower castes as they are involved in the manual labour and offers a nuanced description of the physical labour that these communities do and portrays the injustice they are rewarded with. He gives vent to the agonies of the community informing the atrocities committed by the lords on the hapless workers and the endless toil of them though they are kept hungry on most of the days of the year.

           The poet makes the clarion call to all the lower castes to fight against oppression. He is aware that any encounter with the upper castes needs ideological strength and he excavates the buried gods and goddesses of the dalits and invokes those powers of destruction to enter into a dance of destruction. Here the poet unveils cultural memory of the community and connects the bound labourers to their own collective memory and prompts them to act. He lists forgotten gods and weapons of the underdogs such as Kali, Valan, Kalan, Velan, Matan and weapons such as saw, lance death nose etc,etc...He resists the efforts of the savarna castes to brahminise local gods and goddesses and appropriate them into the fold of braminic value system.

           Enraged at the legitimate violence of casteism in India, the poet sings of taking violent revenge. Though many readers may hesitate to accept the violent rage in the poem, the poet is unambiguous to seek for bloody revenge as he ask for “We shall take revenge/eye for an eye/Tooth for a tooth” All the gods he has invoked are gods of destruction, and they need to be propitiated by animal sacrifice. His outburst is a result of the centuries old ruthless suppression of the slaves and the denial of human justice. Now, they are freed from the bondage by the gods of destruction that they are dancing to lay waste the ivory towers of the lords. He will definitely find it a reversal of the situation and believes in ‘setting the score’. It is also important that the writer has identified with others such as Kannaki who have been denied of justice. Then poem concludes with note of revenge and hope “Let tongues cut off turn/ into tongues of flames; /Let the oppressed masses rise up/and settle the score”

            As Raj Gautham, one of the leading Tamil Dalit thinkers, observes, ‘annihilation of caste is possible only when dalit culture becomes a protest culture and it must spring from the cultural roots of the community’. Das also forges a new idiom for dalit literature as he has challenged the domination of the upper castes and encourages the oppressed to take up arms by unearthing their own cultural resources. Liberation is possible when communities involved in fighting maintain their own cultural identity and place the struggles within their cultural memory.