Aastha - Week 4


Aastha Bhardwaj
Reflection Paper 4
Feb 28th 2020
Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki

The history of India has wiped out the pages it did not want to come face to face with and Joothan provides a look, even if it’s us looking from the outside, into that part of history of the Indian social and culture post-independence. Valmiki is born not only into a ‘lower’ caste but also a lower class of the society which excludes him even further from being a respectable part of the said society. We are introduced to the struggles he faces along the road to being an educated playwright.
Valmiki’s account of his life puts us within the perspective of the ground realities of the Indian societal structures that have been internalized for generations. Valmiki puts forth accounts that remain unknown to the world because of the systematic marginalization as well as the wiping out of the cultural and social presence of the lower castes. The system is systematic because it deprives the lower caste of education, job and a decent living to maintain the structural hierarchy.
Valmiki’s struggles of casteism and the class system unveil a system that is so deep rooted that it has remained prevalent through the eras of the partition and through the hierarchy of the so called educated upper classes.

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