Analysis of Pavan bhagat’s novel – By Anil Barsagade.
The life that goes on..
helplessly vulnerable,
endless fire path and
the pain terrible!
Pawan Bhagat’s novel ‘Te Panaas Divas’.
The saga of human transmigration! The thrilling travel-story !
A novel depicting the mood of migrant laborers during corona-pandemic-lock-down.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) predicted that due to the pandemic and the lockdown, about 400 million workers would be poverty-stricken. Most migrants in the country originate from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The cities of Mumbai and Delhi attract the highest number of migrants in India.
Maharashtra has the largest number of migrants, according to the 2011 Census of India. Its state government imposed a lockdown on 20 March 2020 in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Nagpur, leaving the migrant workers with no work. Due to the lockdown, thousands then gathered at the train and bus stations, seeking transport to their hometowns but with the nationwide lockdown in place, all transport facilities were closed.
Thousands of migrant laborers were desperately trying to return home to their own country. Struggling with hunger and fatigue, they were bound by the collective desire to somehow return to their place.
Clearly, the lockdown to prevent an epidemic had turned into a humanitarian crisis.
Indian migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic have faced multiple hardships. With factories and workplaces shut down due to the lockdown imposed in the country, millions of migrant workers had to deal with the loss of income, food shortages and uncertainty about their future. Following this, many of them and their families went hungry.Thousands of them then began walking back home, with no means of transport due to the lockdown.
Every sensitive person’s mind was shaken by the terrible incident of this pandemic migration. The sentiments of laborers, workers and common people have been captured by the pen of Pawan Bhagat. Indeed, reading this novel evokes those painful memories, numbs the mind.
Dear friends, This novel, which presents a diverse vision of life, is written by friend Pawan Bhagat. This unique effort provides a very important direction and vision. During the pandemic Corona period, lakhs of people, were crushed. Millions of people, through no fault of their own, found themselves in this strange, inhuman predicament of having to walk and have no food to eat. ‘Te Pannas Diwas’ is a novel of that painful moans, by my friend Pawan Bhagat, a poet, writer and social activist from Ballarsha, a village in Chandrapur district in the far corner of Maharashtra.
Miles and miles.. tells the story of a grueling 50-days journey of a group of people struggling to reach their own land. ‘Pawan Bhagat’ has presented the displacement of laborers along with capital brokers, corrupt system, law, health, hunger, brutality of terror, sense of uprooted stake, insecurity.. According to Manish Tawade’s article on this book, ‘obsessive death-vision and the vision of dampness (love) of humanity in common man in this novel! Yes, it’s right, it’s not exaggeration!
Dayanand Kanakdande writes, ‘in the upheavals caused by war, partition and epidemics, not only the death, displacement or resettlement of people, but the upheaval is the context of history, present and past.’ yes, it’s absolutely right. This novel is an important document of such upheaval.
I agree with Dr. Deepak Borgawe’s statements, ‘In the past several years, cities and metropolises have been formed through science-technology and industrialization. With the demise of the feudal system came the birth of the middle class and the capitalist system. This system also came to our country in the form of colonialism. A large number of workers and laborers migrated from villages to the metropolis in cities and metros. Metropolises arose out of the labor and exploitation of this working class. All these people had to return to their homes during the epidemic. Had to be displaced. From this, this dilemma stands before us. Absolutely right, it’s not exaggeration. (To be continued—)
