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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