Abhijay Srekanth- Week 4

Sharankumar Limbale, Akkarbashya (the bastard)

Sharankumar’s autobirography details the experience of an illegitimate child of mixed caste heritage, with a high caste father and a lower caste (mahar) mother. Tracing his biography to his earlier days, it details his family’s experience. His mother Masamai was married to Ithal. They were poor grass mowers who worked on a High caste landlord’s (Patil) land. His mother was raped by this landlord Hanamanta. The caste-council subsequently forces Masamai’s mother to divorce her husband Ithal. Sharankumar goes on to highlight how the experience of his beautiful mother as a victim of Patil-led sexual abuse arising out of her lower-caste status exposed her to “double-tyranny”- a recognition of intersectional oppression. His autobiography also highlights the trauma inflicted on rape survivors by societal conceptions. He writes, “A man can eat paan and spit as many times as he likes but the same is not possible for a woman. It is considered wrong if a woman does that. Once her chastity is lost it can never be restored”.

If things weren’t bad enough already, Hanamanta offers Masamai a flat to stay in- with the implicit condition that he submit herself to her. The author is the accidental result of this arrangement. While empathetic of what his mother had to go through, there are instances where Shankarkumar is resentful of how is mother gave in to Hanamanta. He details his experiences as a Mahar child in a village dominated by the upper caste. As a child he was made painfully aware of his caste status- from the different food that upper children brought to picnics to the absence of food at home. His biography is a eye-opener to the brutality of caste, and a close reading reveals an especially brutal impact on women.