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 socio-cultural 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 main-stream 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 anthro-pocentric 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.
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.
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
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