An Apartheid Saloon Poem by Varghese Kuncheria

Joji Varghese Kuncheria
An Apartheid Saloon

It may seem so strange to know:
There is a place in my country
Where still exists a barber's shop
That follows a caste apartheid.

It's not a question of colour here,
All are of the same colour to say,
But something more venomous,
Rooted deep within their hearts.

This particular barbershop
Caters only for the high castes;
They bluntly refuse haircuts
To those of a lower caste.

People thus refused of service
Have to travel out of this village,
To the nearby town for a haircut;
What a mockery of democracy!

The authorities tried in vain to
Clampdown hard, but some chose
To close down rather than cut a Harijan's hair.
Where are the modern Gandhis?

We need politicians of will and guts,
To trample down on such social evils,
To mark them as social outcasts,
Who deny citizens equal rights.

__________

Author's note:
Harijans belong to the lowest social and ritual class in India. Mahatma Gandhi started using
the word Harijan, meaning 'people of God' or ‘child of God', to identify Dalits (the
untouchables) , in 1933.