The Election - Sitakant Mahapatra

The Election by Sidakant Mahapatra (a notable Indian poet and literary critic in Oriya as well as English) narrates a recurring episode which takes place at the time of every election. In short this episode is about the rally men of a certain politician who come to villages bearing gifts in exchange for votes. The morality and the ethical aspect of this movement fuelled by poverty and hunger are discussed in this poem.

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1.

Our jeep crawls to your village

Seeking strange melodies

From the roaring sun:

‘The common will’

From the criss-cross geometry

Of private agonies.

·         The first line here describes the arrival of the rally men or the promoters working under the politician.

·         Second, Third, Fourth Lines. Here the strange melodies are the chants roared by the supporters in the blasting heat of the sun. This suggests that it might be summer or it might be a drought hit village as at one point in time the government identified 10,000 drought hit villages in Orissa. Here, ‘the common will’ is nothing but necessities for the villages like food and water and other things.

·         Fifth, Sixth Lines. The fifth line suggests the plan (town-plan) of the village as a criss-cross geometry. The sixth line tells us about the lives of the people in the village. As the line suggests these lives of theirs are in agony and in the form of criss-cross geometries which also suggests that they are very confused and do not know what to do with their lives.

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2.

Our dark longings don’t ouch you,

Nor our trappings

Of posters, symbols, speeches, handbills,

For your grief outlives empires.

·         First Line. Here, ‘our’ refers to the rally men.  Dark longings here describe the time period for which the rallies do not take place. They are dark considering the situation of hunger and poverty the farmers in the villages live in. ‘Don’t ouch you’, quite simply means that they don’t hurt you. It doesn’t hurt them as whenever the rally men come bearing gifts in volumes and volumes that they last villages for months together.

·         Second, Third Lines. Trappings of advertisements here do not affect the villagers as that is the least they care about considering their state of rust in the village.

·         Fourth line. This line, strongly puts forward the condition of the villagers. As this line is narrated by the rally men, the poet is also trying to tell us that all the politicians know the state of villages in India right now and how they are exploited.

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3.

The cold grandchildren awaken in your heart

As you discern muted allegories

On our ashen faces.

·         First, Second, Third Lines. The dead grandchildren who died out of hunger are remembered by the villagers, as they understand the hidden purposes of these men from their faces.

·         This extract suggests the understanding of the villagers in what the rally men are really doing. Waiting for the rally men to come with food have costed the lives of grandchildren to these villagers. The ashen faces suggests the dark faces of the rally men which look like faces covered in ashes, suggesting that they brought death to all the innocent people there.

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4.

Here the great persuaders are little things and not so hidden:

Cheap plastic, cheaper nylon,

Dark glasses to blot out the Sun.

·         First, Second Lines. The poet tries to tell us that humans in general find happiness in small things. Here, the villagers are entranced at the sight of plastic and nylon utensils.

·         Third line. These glasses might have been worn by the rally men. Relating this line to the second point in the first stanza, these rally men are shown as being protected by ‘the common will’ suggesting that they are being paid handsomely for this task.

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5.

With one foot in hunger

And the other in the soul,

You make your decision:

The anguish of choice.

·         First, Second, Third Line. The villager here has too choices, to do what is needed or to do what is right. These decisions are contrasting considering the livelihood of the family opposing the right vote to be given to the right person which might lead to the death of the particular family.

·         Fourth line. The anguish of choice being doing what is needed instead of doing what is right so as to support the family. This anguish is brought upon as it is fairly understood that one must do what is right instead of what is needed as it is only human to do so.

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