Academic Publication

Author Profile

Mahadev Toppo, born in Ranchi, Bihar in 1954, is an Indian writer from Oraon Adivasi group of the present Jharkhand. His prolific pen has created poems, short stories, plays etc. in Hindi and his native language, Kurukh. He has tried his hands in the realm of film as an actor in Nagpurifilm- ‘Baha’, short feature films in Kurukh–‘Pahada’, ‘Edpa Kana’ (Going Home). His books, Jungle Pahadke Path (acollection of poems) and Sabhyonke Beech Adivasi (a collection of articles), are milestones in the Adivasi discourse. Jungle Pahad ke Path has been translated into Santali, Marathi, and Kurukh. His poems have been translated into German, Assamese, Sanskrit and Telugu too. Dr. Santosh Kumar Sonker, born in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh in 1983, is an Assistant Professor, Dept. of English and F.L., Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh. He has edited two books-Dalit Assertion and its Space in Literature and Situating Tribals of India: Culture, Language and Self. As the Co-ordinator, Palash : Tribal Theatre, IGNTU, Amarkantak he has directed several Adivasi cultural performances in the various corners of India. He is an academician, critic, writer, actor and director. He has written five plays and various poems in Hindi. Lessons from Forest and Mountain is his maiden effort in the art of translation.

About The Book

Lessons from Forest and Mountain is a rubric of the ‘Fourth World Literature’ from India. Each poem composed with lived experiences of the writer hailing from Adivasi sociocultural milieu is a lesson for the main-stream society which is ignorant of Adivasi philosophy and value system. Adivasis treat Nature not as a thing but as a living creature and a spiritual manifestation. They believe in the notion of co-existence which recognizes every creation on the Earth-human beings, animals, birds, rivers, trees and plants-as a family. They are away from the lust of hoarding more than required. Words woven into the poems communicate inner turmoil of Adivasis who are victim of the mainstream anonymity and animosity manifested in deforestation, displacement, deceptive model of development, denial of basic human rights, rejection of due space in the academic arena, and treatment of women and Nature as commodities resulting in the drastic changes in the Nature and emergence of horrible situations like pandemic. The book voices audaciously against the contemporary anthropocentric Indian value system and advocates for the revival of vanishing Adivasi culture and values. It treats the subject in a realistic manner with the candid tone which reflects bold temperament of the writer who has expressed grieved heart of Adivasis without caring for sweet appreciation from the main-stream society.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgement 2. Foreword 3. Poet’s Note 4. Translator’s Note 5. Introduction 6. A Song to Sharpen Rusted Arrows 7. I was Happy 8. Till When? 9. A Dream of an Intermediate Student from an Adivasi Village 10. Books will have to be Written 11. Tragedy, a Hope 12. Why do You Laugh at Us? 13. Transformation 14. In Democracy 15. In the Cell of Questions 16. Some Scenes: After Formation of Jharkhand 17. Tip of a Tourist 18. I Want Poem to Travel around Jharkhand 19. Have Changed Myself Somewhat like This 20. Company of Mandar 21. Jharkhand Maintaining Rich Traditions of India 22. Birjit Khan, Robert Fisch and We 23. On the Publication of the First Collection of Poems 24. From the Eyes of Mountain 25. Convincing Samu 26. Jharkhand with Market 27. We have been Deceived so Much! 28. United in Crisis 29. Pigeons of Perwa Ghagh-1 30. Pigeons of Perwa Ghagh-2 31. Question of Identity 32. Your Habit of Working like a Horse 33. They and We 34. You Came to Us 35. Don’t Read my Poems 36. Knowledge 37. In your Main-Stream 38. Protest 39. I shall not Learn Talent of Being Called a Human Being from You! 40. A Poem 41. For the Son Travelling on Kalahandir Road to Join his Job 42. Yet we have been Wishing Johar1 43. He 44. A Poet of the Forest 45. I Ask 46. Why do you not Get Angry? 47. Otanga1 48. Intelligent Butterflies 49. Lessons of the Mountain