How Rakshit Sonawane’s Scum of the Earth revives Ambedkar’s politics of lived experience

The first-generation learner Sonawane belongs to the earlier untouchable caste, Dalits – later his family converted to Buddhism. His father, an ardent follower of Ambedkar, both in principle and practice, used to work as a security guard, and his mother as a house-help. Having grown up in a Mumbai slum facing the multi-storeyed buildings that marked the dreams of a developing country and an aspiring middle class, Sonawane, as well as the protagonist of his story, Avinash, dreamt of a dignified future. But the road was not easy. Apart from the open drain that ran past their one-room settlement, coupled with a poor sewage system that leads to flooding even in a spatter of rain, there were caste prejudices, everyday discriminations, ethical compulsion and moral contradictions that marked his journey.

Despite extreme poverty, following Babasaheb’s path, Avinash’s father sent him to a private English medium school. However, during college days, he had to take up an informal job in a factory to support his education. Later, he found a government job at the docks, but without opting for the benefits of reservation. He believed that, given the limited seats, these constitutionally enshrined rights should be left for the people from a more underprivileged background. His determination to do something right for society brought him into journalism, where the ethical decay just started kicking in, yet decades to go, before they started crawling, when asked to bend. Everywhere, Avinash witnessed ethical and moral hollowness. But on each occasion, he stood up “with a renewed resolve to face yet another challenge lined up before him.”

Divided into four parts — Slum, Dock, Factory and Newspaper — marking Avinash’s life trajectory, this novel stands out for three reasons. First, it captures the socio-economic and socio-political transition in Independent India. His experience as an informal factory worker opens up the faultlines of unionism. It also reveals the opportunism of partisan labour unions, besides their embedded casteism. It reminds the readers of the caste-class fractures between the Marxist labour unions and the Dalit labour mobilisations in the Mumbai cotton mills during the 1930s. Second, Avinash’s tenure in the docks works as a historical documentation of license-raj and the entailing corruption. His efforts to uphold ethical standards faced stumbling blocks. The rule of the docks was clear: Either compromise or step aside. Third, from the Mumbai slum to the newsroom, Avinash witnessed the symbolic use of Ambedkar, mostly manifested in sloganeering, not in the celebration of his values.

Sometimes, Avinash’s self-righteousness may push the readers to think: Is it the sole responsibility of Dalits to live by virtues, while the Savarnas continue engaging in corruption and come unscathed due to their caste networks? These contradictions and moral dilemmas make “lived experience” a crucial fulcrum of knowledge. Sonawane’s writing is placed in that epistemic framework. Perhaps, this is what can be called living Babasaheb’s values, not just symbolic posturing.