The speaker brings out the concept of defilement and purification. How is the meaninglessness of the practice brought out?
Answers
The speaker brings out the concept of defilement and purification. The meaninglessness of the practice is brought out ironically by the speaker’s wish to be a tree which is beyond all practices of untouchability.
EXPLANATION:
The Kannada-Dalit poet, Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy, makes a critical assertion in his poem, ‘If I was a Tree’. In this poem the poet takes up the heinous practice of untouchability. He ironically states that if he was a tree he would not have to face the wrath of society for being an untouchable. His touch, his shadow could not defile the upper classes as the tree faces no inequality from the various aspects of nature like the sun, the rain even the holy cow.
Nobody would curse him for his existence. In fact he could be the instrument of purification as when a tree grows old its wood is cut to lit a fire. This fire may be of a holy pyre. If the poet is burnt for a holy purpose he too would achieve purification. The poet thus ironically asserts the meaninglessness of the caste prejudice using the tree as an extended metaphor.
Answer:
The poem makes it very clear that the question of defilement and purification are man made concepts.
The poem makes it clear that the concept of defilement is in the mind of man and hence purification must be the purification of such evil thoughts in the mind of man.
Ironically purification doesn't mean that purification of the so called outcasts. The purification is the purification of those who have by mistake come into contact with the outcasts. There are different rituals performed in the name of purification.
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