Keki N. Daruwalla's Social Concerns with His Sympathy and Compassion

Daruwalla's Social Concerns: 

Daruwalla's poetry is conspicuous for the expression of Indian socio-political conditions both in cities and countryside. Sarcasm and irony, anger and activism characterise his poetry of social concern. Bruce king remarks: "...Daruwalla's poetry has an immediacy and anger. It contrasts the naturalness of violence, aggression, and sexual desires with repression, hypocrisy and deceit, usually the speaker and sympathetic characters appear alone, isolated, alienated from their society. There is anger at incompetence, passivity, official lies, romantic illusions and the repressiveness of communal solidarity; but there is also a strong interest in Indian history and traditions." 

Lack of social compassion and varied manifestations of corruption have been dealt with irony and understanding. The business class creates artificial scarcity of essential commodities in times of famine, flood and earthquake." In Hunger-74 he sarcastically writes: 

“No end to hoarding! 

Breaking open the lockers they find 

a briefcase full of rice.” 

In Collage II he says: 

“Corruption is the Chemistry of flesh 

no wonder the senses suppurate, 

passions putrefy.” 

Ailing Mother India "Crawls towards Benares to die": 

“Then why should I beat the Kafka heat or the wasteland 

When mother you are near at hand 

One vast, sprawling defeat?” 

Daruwalla’s ruthlessly exposes corruption, especially the notorious evil of bribery and widespread malpractices in Craft. Adulteration, which plays havoc with public health, goes on unchecked under political tutelage. Oils are adulterated, medicines are made of chalk infected vegetables, meat and fish are on sale. The poet sarcastically remarks: "the right buck at the right time tips the scales." Religion has also been affected by corruption. 

Daruwalla ironically and sarcastically exposes the defunct and debased attitude of the political establishment in Independent India. The virtuous and meritorious are not free. The corrupt and debauch, criminals and anti-social elements are basking in the light of freedom: 

“Freeing rapists and robbers 

On Republic Day.” 

And the amnesty adds: 

"We'll review with sympathy 

the cases of the following 

pimps, pederasts, poets 

and further 

we have inaugurated crematoriums 

with an unclaimed corpse a V.I.P. has opened 

the sluice-gates of a drain 

and given it an epithet 

"the drain of hope".

……………………

“If we had plague

Camus-style 

and doctors searched for the virus 

there would be black market in rots.” 

Daruwalla's attitude towards corruption and other malpractices is unsentimental, realistic, balanced and objective. 

The mindless performance of rituals on the death a dear one and waste of money is juxtaposed with the object poverty of the marginalised people. The bank of the holy Ganga in Varanasi presents a hellish sight where "Corpse fires and cooking fires burn side by side."

• Must also read: Themes in the Poetry of K.N. Daruwalla 

In The Beggar the poet objectively and dispassionately depicts the theme of beggary which has increased enormously in independent India. It is a condemnable social evil. The beggar miserably sits, time passes round him like a kite, and "maggots, moments, worms, crawl like changing seasons." Daruwalla's social concern also appears in Vignette I. Lepers sit huddled as "the Ganga flows swollen with hymns." They are a miserable lot, hated and despised by the pilgrims. Nobody shows any sympathy or concern for them. Even the holy river Ganga flows unmindful of the unbearable sufferings refers: 

"Beggars hoist their deformities 

as boatmen hoist their sails 

Ganga flows through the land 

not to lighten the misery 

but to show it.” 

Communal problem is highlighted in Death by—Burial. Food and Words, Words and Food depicts the squalor and poverty in India. The Revolt of the Salt Slaves reveals the inhuman exploitation of the poor and deprived.

• Must also read: Imagery in the Poetry of K. N. Daruwalla

Sympathy and Compassion: 

Daruwalla's social concern is permeated with sympathy and compassion. He feels pity and compassion for the victims of misfortune. The Ghagra in Spate depicts horror of flood as "half a street goes churning voice in the river belly." Consequently the cottages of the poor are completely washed away in surging flood. The poet arouses the feeling of compassion and sympathy for the suffering villagers who have lost their all in flood. They have no spirits, which children abundantly show: 

“Children have spirit enough in them 

to cheer the rescue boats; 

the men are still life-subjects 

oozing wet looks.” 

In Pestilence the poet depicts the misery of people in the wake of the epidemic cholera. The heartless and cruel doctors refuse to admit them in hospitals saying, "Who says they have cholera? They are down with diarrhea" or gastro-enteritis. In Epileptic the poet again exposes the apathy and want of sympathy in the doctors of the hospital. A woman, suffering from an epileptic fit on the street arouses the sympathy of the passersby who "fanned her, rubbed her feet, and looked around/for other ways to summon back her senses." She is taken to the hospital where the doctors frown and use technical terminology to describe her condition but do not bother to cure her. Meanwhile the fit is over and she recovers. Ruminations brings to light the vicious national evil of communalism which has resulted in the social divide between the Hindus and the Muslims. In communal riot countless of people are killed and the dead bodies are dumped in a mortuary, where they decompose, and rot. But the leaders of the communities quarrel whether to bury or burn the decomposed bodies, which are beyond recognition either as Hindus or as Muslims: 

“Man is so fliant, adaptable. Bury him 

and he is steadfast as the earth 

Burn him and he will ride in flames 

Throw him the birds and he will 

Surrender flesh like an ascetic.”

• Must also read: Satire and Irony in the Poems of Keki N. Daruwalla