Anti-politics of the Heterodox Poetry and Life history of Shah Abdul
Latif: Ambedkarian Perspective
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to analyze from the Ambedkarian perspective the
interpretation of Latif’s poetry by the Progressives to assess its
emancipatory potential for the Dalits. Building my critique primarily on
the scholarly work of H.T.Sorley, I argue that in an attempt to
construct the Sufi image of ‘Sindhi nation’, the Progressives undermine
the casteist, fatalist and sectarian import of Latif’s poetry and
life-history. Latif’s heterodox and multivocal nature of poetry and
ambiguity regarding the originality of his verses gives expression to
multiple and contradictory signifiers, including the casteist ones. This
heterodoxy of Latif creates the anti-political crises of interpretations
and self-contradictory projections that depoliticizes the problem of
casteism. It allows the ‘Progressives’, like any other social and
political group, to legitimize and popularize the selective verses that
may have, at least on surface, the egalitarian and patriotic import, to
exonerate Latif from any possible hegemonic impact of the orthodox
casteist values and the Ashrafia privileges that he enjoyed during his
lifetime, or the Ashrafia-Savarna Progressives themselves continue to
enjoy.