Fourth World- Anew term has developed since the
1970s. The Fourth World- The term originated with aremark by Mbuto Milando, first
secretary of the Tanzanian High Commission, in
conversation with GeorgeManuel, Chief of the National Indian Brotherhood of Canada. Milando
stated that "When Native peoples come into their own, on the basis of
their own cultures and traditions that will be the Fourth World.
The term
Fourth World first came into wide use in 1974 with the publication of Shuswap
Chief George Manuel's: The Fourth World: An
Indian Reality. Manuel thought of the Fourth World as the "indigenous
peoples descended from a country's aboriginal population and who today are
completely or partly deprived of the right to their own territories and its
riches. Since publication of Manuel's The Fourth World: An Indian Reality
(1974), the term Fourth World is synonymous with stateless, poor, and marginal
nations.
Definition
of 'Fourth World'
These are the most underdeveloped regions in the
world. The Fourth World is used to describe the most poverty stricken, and
economically troubled parts of countries in the Third World. Unlike the
First, Second and Third World, the Fourth World does not have any political
ties and is often based on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. This area includes
tribal and nomadic communities. They may be fully functional and self surviving
units, but based on their economical performance as a whole they are placed
under the Fourth World status
Investopedia
explains 'Fourth World'
Fourth World nations can consist of those
excluded from society. For example, the Aboriginal tribes in South America
or Australia. These tribes are entirely self sufficient, but they do not
participate in the global economy. From a global standpoint, these tribes are
considered to be Fourth World nations, but they are able to function free from
any assistance from others. Fourth World nations do not contribute or consume
anything on the global scale, and are unaffected by any global events.
Fourth World embraces small nations of under twelve
million inhabitants, groups working for their autonomy and independence at all
levels from the neighborhood to the nation, minority groups whether ethnic,
linguistic, cultural or religious, and those in the fields of peace action,
ecology, economics, energy resources, women's liberation, and the whole
spectrum of the alternative movement, who are struggling against the gigantism
of the institutions of today's mass societies and for a human scale and a
non-centralized, multi-cellular, power-dispersed world order
The Fourth
World has also been used to designate:
·
The poorest, and most undeveloped states of the
world;
·
Any oppressed or underprivileged victim of a
state.
Fourth World is usually used to refer to
populations whose size and shape does not map onto citizenship in a specific
nation-state. It can denote nations without a sovereign
state, emphasizing the non-recognition and exclusion of ethnically-
and religiously-defined peoples from the politico-economic world system, e.g.
the Romani people
worldwide, the Basque, Sami,
pre-First World
War Ashkenazi Jews in the Pale of Settlement, the Assyrians,
and the Kurds
in the Middle East,
Pashtun
throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, the indigenous peoples of the Americas
and First Nations
groups throughout North, Central and South America, and indigenous Africans
and Asians.
Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells of the University
of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication has
made extensive use of the term fourth world'.
Fourth world literature refers to the written
work of a native people living in a land that has been taken over by
non-natives. Examples are the Native Americans in North America, the Maori
in New Zealand, and the Aboriginals in Australia.
The fourth world literature was emerging as a
diverse and universal field of study characterized by blooming of native
consciousness.
The literature with undercurrents of caste,
creed, conflict, exploitation and brutality, has encompassed the experiences of
various indigenous communities like Native, Aboriginal, Maori, Dalit and Tribal
groups.
Arjun
Dangle has said that ‘Dalit’ means masses exploited and oppressed economically,
socially, culturally in the name of religion and other factors”. If this
definition of “Dalit” is accepted, Muslims can also be included under the
category of Dalits.
Now a
question arises Can minority writings in India can be considered as fourth
world literature?
Yes, minority literature can also be considered
as fourth world literature because any literature which represents the voice of
any oppressed or underprivileged victim or class of a state is called fourth
world literature.
This paper was written with an objective to explore
the fourth world literature and to extend fourth world identity to Muslim
Minority People in Andhra Pradesh, India with special reference to Muslim
Minority trend in Telugu literature.
Minority/Muslimvadam in Telugu
Literature of India.
Telugu is one of the fifteen most widely spoken
languages in the world. Telugu is called by Portuguese as GENTOO language.
Telugu is second largest spoken language in India. Telugu language is one among
the Dravidian language family and is widely spoken by a majority of people in
India.
Telugu is one of the four classical languages
identified by the Government of India along with Sanskrit, Tamil and
Kannada.Telugu is mainly spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh and in the
neighboring states of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa,
Chhattisgarh, some parts of Jharkhand and the Kharagpur region of West Bengal
in India.
TELUGU is also spoken in Australia, Bahrain, Fiji,
Malaysia, Singapore Mauritius,
Ireland, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and the
United Kingdom where there is a considerable Telugu Diaspora.Telugu Language has
a rich Poetic literature and fiction
Minorityvadam is one of the major trends in
Telugu Literature in the post colonial period.
MINORITY TREND OR MINORITYVADAM
In Andhra Pradesh, next to Telugu speaking people,
the largest segment of population belongs to minority Muslims. The rights of
Muslims were well protected in the secular state of Andhra Pradesh. But the
poverty, illiteracy, the poor living conditions and less job opportunities are
making the majority Muslim life miserable. The massacre of Muradabad (1980),
Beharsharif (1981), Meerut (1989), Bhagalpore (1989), are some of the provoking incidents in recent
history that have paved way to rise of ‘identity crisis’ of minorities. The
Babri Masjid incident (6th December, 1992) the Gujarat Carnage (2002) shook the
feelings of the entire Muslim community in the country, who were made to start
doubting about the very safety and security of their rights.
In this backdrop, Muslim literature as a new genre
emerged with a creative efforts of Telugu speaking conscious intelligentsia of
Muslim community. They dared to articulate the anxieties and social aspiration
of the community in literary front. Minorityvadam' has
its origin from the cry of religious minorities to recognize them as Indian. The refusal of the upper strata of society
and religious majority, as the case may be, forced the victims to vent their
anger in the form of poems and compositions that led to the emergence of the new forms of literature.
The new phase in Telugu poetry is marked by the
evolution of Muslim minority poetry. Initially backward class Muslim converts
identified themselves with the Dalits. . Khaja, muslim poet, states that most
of the Muslims in India are Dalits who got converted into Muslims on account of
the fear of brahminism: They started reflecting on their own specific
social concerns. They have now established an identity of their own.
Hurt feelings and an emotional outburst accompanied
by hurling abuses at the supposed adversaries marked earlier phase of Muslim or
minority poetry. Subsequently, there emerged a path of their own, an expression
reflecting their concerns and a desire for recognition as human beings first
and foremost and an uninhibited desire to be accepted as fellow citizens.
Muslim Minority literature has a special entity in
Telugu Literature. Though it is a part of Dalit Bhahujan Literature, at the
beginning later it was developed as a
special separate trend.It is to be remembered
After the Demolition of Babri Masjid, on 6th December1992, Muslim poets
showed much hatred over people who doubt Muslims Patriotism. They revolted
against the state of living with fear in their own land. The carnage of Gujarat
in 2002 gave raise to their extreme passions in literature. They revolted
against the trend of subjugation and discrimination applied against them. At
the same time they showed much resentment against religious leaders and clergy
who are dictating their lives in the name of Islam. They advocate reforms and
are against the abuse of status of women in Islam.
The Muslim writers, One side they are opposing the Hindutva forces and at the same time they are also fighting for reforms in their religion.
The Muslim writers, One side they are opposing the Hindutva forces and at the same time they are also fighting for reforms in their religion.
Minority poets
gave vent to their ire on the society devoid of
human values which had maintained a distance from these sections
.Oppressed' sections call for human values in society.
The Muslim writers’ powerfully depicted the socio, economic, educational and
political backwardness of a community apartment from crisis and insecurity of
religious minority. The literature wages a struggle for dignity of a community
and social justice.
Telugu literature, particularly modern Telugu
literature, is known for the works that condemn social evils and speak of
realizing justice to the politically marginalized and socially, economically
suppressed sections of the society.
Muslim minority writers made a mark to enrich
Telugu Literature. Khaja opines that the issue of ‘Muslim as a minority’ has
strongly proved its existence in Telugu poetry both in content and form.
Yakoob, Khaza Mohiuddin, Afsar, Mahejabeen, Khasim
and others are among the prominent Muslim minority poets. Khader, Skybaba,
Khaja, Khadeer Babu, Salim, Sharif, Afsar, Mahjabeen, Shajahana, Karimulla are
found voicing the identity problems of Muslims in Andhra Pradesh in particular
and India in general.
Telugu
Muslim Poets/Poetess and their Works
For decades, Telugu Writers came from the Hindus,
with significant exceptions such as Umar Ali Sha (1885-1945) who wrote during
the thirties, and more recent and well-known poets such as Ismail,Smile, Afsar,
and Khadar Mohiuddien. An explosion of a sizable group of Telugu writers from
the Muslim community has indeed expanded the literary space beyond the limits
the majority communities imagined.
Though a majority of Muslims in Andhra Pradesh are
Urdu-speaking, more and more Muslims learning Telugu and penning verse in the
language, Muslim poets have made a mark of their own with their unique flavor
of national integration and communal harmony interspersed with the demand for
the rights of the principal minority community.
Muslim poets say that they believe in the basic
concept of universal brotherhood which is the basic tenet of the Islam and
convert them in to Islam though they are Dalits. They condemn the trend of
branding ordinary Muslims as terrorists, and scare the whole community in the
guise of terrorism. Muslims were made scapegoats where ever bombs were exploded
in India
There are over 80 Telugu Muslim poets and scores of
poetry books have been published. It is the beginning of an era; the era that
heralds a new phase Telugu literature. It
has given Muslims, an opportunity to express their views and problems
and share them with the rest of society,"
The Muslim Telugu Poets are Syed Naseer Ahmed,.Devi
Priya (Khaja Hussain),Afsar, Smile, Kaumudi, MK Sugam Babu (Mahboob Khan), Umar
Ali Shah, Dilawar,Ismail,Yakoob, Khadar Mohiuddin, Ghulam Ghouse, SA Rawoob, SM
Mallick, QadeerBabu and Khadar Khan. The torch is now being carried forward by
the likes of Khwaja, Sky Baba (Shaik Yusuf Baba), Wahed, Soujanya, (Muhammad
Nafijuddin) Iqbal Chand, Khaseem,
Karimulla, Khaza Mohiuddin,Mahejabeen,Salim,Sharif,Shajahana,Dani, ,Shaik
Hussain, ,Vali Hussain,Sikandar,Haneef,Rahamatulla,and Dada Hayat .
These Muslim poets have carved out a niche for
themselves with their unique style and rendition of the Telugu poetry.
The Recent publication of an anthology of Muslim
poets jolted the literary community in to recognizing Muslims as a part of
Telugu life. Jaljala(1998) published by the Muslim Poets, claims to be the
first such anthology in Telugu. Jala Jala, the poetry collection and Watan, a
collection of short stories is landmark in Muslim literature in Telugu. It has
followed by considerable literary and political writing.
Anthologies of Muslim Minority Poets such as Jehad,
Mukhuta, Jayam, Blackvoice, Fatwa, Aaza, Mulki,Arovarnam, Dhu, Valasa, and
Saibu are published. Many poets in this anthology are new, and come from varied
backgrounds. Stories, Novels, depicting the lifestyle of Muslims came into
light.
Khadar Mohiuddin
brought literary attention to the Muslim identity question. His
“Birthmark” debunks the complacent liberal sensibilities of modern poetic
language by exposing its ideological bankruptcy and its pseudo-liberal
dullness. The long poem, which starts as a personal biography, unfolds into a
story of a community meandering through the crooked lanes of history. It ends
by making an indelible impression of communal hypocrisy on the consciousness of
the readers. Khadar Mohiddin Published his Puttumacha(Birthmark) before the
arrival of Muslim Minorityvadam..
Rahmutulla 'Bha' and Khadeebabu's stories provide
the life and struggles of Muslims in everyday life
Syed Saleem a novelist, storyteller, poet, humanist
and idealist wrote short fiction also. His story collections and novels Provide
voice to every anguish, agony and glimpses of the intense pain of existence in
a world hurrying to embrace an irreversible decline of all that is essential
for survival of life on the planet. One of his novels Kaalutunna Poola Thota
(The Burning Garden) stands out as the coveted Central Sahitya Academy award
winner. It also won an award from the National Human Rights Commission. His
Vendi Megham (Silver Cloud) is a novel about how a Muslim woman regards the
social and family arrangements around her as creating existentialist problems
in her search for fulfillment. Salems’ claim that it is the first novel to
depict Muslim lives in Telugu Literature may go uncontested.
Karimulla with his Long Poem (DEERGHA KAVITHA) SAIBU
expressed the feelings of an ordinary Muslims in a subtle and heartfelt manner.
It is the first long poem written by a Muslim poet in Telugu literature.
Skybaaba’s “Adure” is a collection of short stories
depicts the day to day life of the Muslims in urban and rural areas. These
stories voice the fragrance and misery of the life of the Muslim families. “Adure”
is the first collection of short stories written by a Muslim storyteller in
Telugu on the social conditions of Muslim families.
Khaja is the
pioneer of Muslim poetry in telugu literature. He published his anthology of
poetry Fatwah in 1998 and published Muslimvada Tatvikata (A literary Philosophy
of Muslimism) in 2005.
Afsar is known for his deeply nuanced language,
subtle and subversive. He works his way in a quiet voice and ends just as
quietly, as if he has said nothing worthwhile, but he is devastating in his
undertones.
There is Telugu Muslim poetess too, of the likes of
Mahjabeen and Shahjahana.
The State
Government of Andhra Pradesh has honored Mahjabeen with the Ugadi Puraskar
(award) for Telugu literature.
Shahjahana is an unusual poetess with remarkable
talent. Very new to the literary field, she makes a name with a small number of
poems and promises to grow to be a major poet. Sajahana, reflects in her
writings the agony of Muslim women. Muslim women face different oppression.
Their life is absolutely conditioned by their religion. Muslim women are facing
trouble with the unwanted rules and regulations socially .The poetess goes on
depicting the misery suffered by Muslim women in her poems and she wrote against Veil system prevalent in
Muslims in her Poem NAKHAB in a powerful
way. She has concentrated on the feelings of Muslim women when they wear ‘Burkha’
and She airs a feeling of protest at this boundless agony: She tries to
fill the hearts of Muslim women with the courage to break the shackles of
misery.
Two poets,
Afsar and Shajahana turn inward to explore the problem of minority existence.
The dialogue in both these poets is internal but the reader is given the
opportunity of overhearing, and-as in all good poetry- what you overhear is
what is intended
We can say with proud It was a great honor to the
Telugu Literature that Muslimvadam started first in Indian literatures. The
trend of Muslim Minorityvadam in Telugu Literature is a unique init self.
References:
·
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth World
·
The Meaning of “Nation” and “State” in the
Fourth World by Dr. Richard Griggs University of Cape Town
·
www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fourth-world.asp
·
Wikipedia – Telugu Literature
·
Telugu Sahityam-Ninna-Nedu-Repu by G. Sambasiva
Rao
·
Hibiscus on the Lake Twentieth-Century
Telugu Poetry from India Edited and translated by Velcheru Narayana Rao
University of Wisconsin-Madison
·
Muslim Minorityvadam - The Hindu
·
Telugu Muslims Literature in search of a
friend-Kesav
·
Muslimvada
sahityam- Skybabaa.
·
Alpana Gupta -Telugu Dalit Poetry as an
Expression of Socio-Politico Historical Change
Good
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