The Amazing Story of the Man Who Cycled from India to Europe for Love
Page 24
The British, on the whole, did not consider untouchables to be subhuman or ritually unclean but useful manpower, and many were recruited into the army. During the Raj rule untouchables were treated with a degree of pragmatic benevolence and they achieved some small emancipation. PK’s family did well by the British.
Even so, Mahatma Gandhi started a nationwide movement against untouchability and named the so-called lower classes Harijan or ‘Children of God’. He started the All-India Anti-Untouchability League and the weekly newspaper Harijan. He also undertook a Harijan tour of India between November 1933 and August 1934, which helped spread the message down to the lowest and most oppressed sections of society. However, by renaming untouchables with the seemingly elevated word Harijan, many believed Gandhi papered over the deep-set issue of the persecution of the underclasses. They claimed it only removed ‘the offence to the ear’ and little else changed. Nowadays Harijan is considered by many to be a derogatory and insulting term. PK himself really dislikes the word, as it can be taken to imply a denial of true parentage.
Untouchables were later called ‘Scheduled Castes’ and ‘Scheduled Tribes’ under the India Act of 1935, and the later Indian Constitution of 1950. The constitution also banned discrimination on the basis of caste and announced quotas in government jobs and educational institutions for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The Untouchability (Offences) Act (1955) provides penalties for discrimination on the grounds that an individual is from a Scheduled Caste.
Despite these measures the divisions between caste groups persist and violence and intolerance continue, especially in rural areas. In the early 21st century, Scheduled Castes or Dalits numbered 170 million people in India.
A recent Human Rights Watch statement says:
Despite commitments to end caste and descent-based discrimination, the practice persists due to poor enforcement of laws and policies. Affected communities face severe restrictions and limited access to resources, services and development, keeping most in severe poverty. In India atrocities and violence against Dalits are on a double-digit rise, whereas acquittal rates for these crimes remain extremely high. The attacks are brutal and inhumane, ranging from gang-rapes to the recent burning alive of two children in India’s Haryana state.1
PK regards caste as a serious disease, like cancer, and discrimination is merely the symptom. We must focus on curing the disease (the root of the problem) rather than the symptom, and love and compassion are the appropriate medicines to do this. In Sanskrit, the word Dalit means ‘suppressed, smashed, broken to pieces’. Legislation can achieve only so much. As PK says: ‘laws are useless if left unenforced. Ancient prejudices are embedded in people’s minds like layers of bedrock. Change must come from within, from the heart.’
_____________________
1 Human Rights Watch statement: 11 March 2016, General Debate on Ending Discrimination Based on Caste and Descent
PK’s Acknowledgments
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Juliet, Novin and everyone at Oneworld for their love, warmth and constant support, as well as for their hard work on this story. When I first met them at their publishing house in London I immediately felt at home, and they and all their colleagues have made a great impression on me. As my son commented: ‘We have found the best publishing house in the world.’ The name ‘Oneworld’ is very appropriate to their ethos, and we share the same vision for the future of mankind.
This book was born from the story of two individuals, Charlotte and myself. We came from completely different backgrounds, from different continents and different worlds, which eventually became one world! I never dreamed that one day people would be inspired to write, publish and read a book about us.
I would like to thank my mother, who brought me into the world. Although she could not read or write, she was able to use her fingers to count the days, weeks and months, she kept track of Indian tribal festivals and understood the sun, moon and the movements of the planets. My mother taught me how to forgive and how to live in harmony, while my father taught me how to survive. As a child, I spent a lot of time wondering how I could make my mother happy. Today, I can feel her looking down at me from heaven, and I know she is glad that this book has been written about her son.
I am also indebted to Swedish author Per J Andersson and his beloved wife Pernilla for their relentless research over the last six years, during which time Per visited my village in East India and interviewed many of the people mentioned in the book. Special thanks are also due to Liselott and Adam at Forum, and all those involved. I would also like to thank Martin Fletcher for his editorial assistance, and for his postscript on the Indian caste system.
Very special thanks to my dear British friend Anne, who many years ago agreed to type out my old diaries on my typewriter. She felt a strong emotional attachment to my story and gave me a great deal of encouragement, and she is a very loyal friend to me and all my family.
Finally, neither this story nor the book would have been possible without Charlotte’s warmth and unconditional love. As well as my wife, life partner and best friend, she is my goddess – I not only love her, but I worship her.
I must also give my deepest thanks to my beloved wife for being infinitely patient with me, for letting me talk endlessly and for listening to all my ideas. Special thanks to our daughter Emelie, a sympathetic soul and a great flute player like my dad, for her true moral support, and to our son, the prince Karl Siddhartha – he is the real businessman of the family and has many other wonderful talents. I am also very grateful to Charlotte´s dear mother AnnMarie for her invaluable advice on how to live in the Swedish countryside in an eco-friendly way, and for affectionately calling me Mowgli for the last 40 years, just like my grandfather always did. I am also thankful to Charlotte´s sister Ulla who is an excellent horse rider, is always brutally honest, and who has been cutting my hair better than a professional barber since I arrived in Sweden.
Last but not the least, I beg the forgiveness of all those who helped me, fed me and gave me valuable advice during my long overland journey on the hippie trail from the east to the west and whose names I have failed to mention here.
Shridhar, PK’s father
PK, standing between his father and mother, with his younger brother Prabir and a cousin sitting in front
Kalabati, PK’s mother
Self-portrait entitled ‘Love to my Lotta’
A portrait of PK by his friend Tarique
PK doing portraits by Connaught Place in New Delhi
Drawing a Swedish lady
PK meeting the Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Teresjkova, whom he had just drawn
B.D. Jatti was the third president to be drawn by PK in just a few short years
Visiting Prime Minister Indira Ghandi with friends from Orissa
Lotta and a friend in Varanasi
The first photo of PK and Lotta together, taken in New Delhi in January 1976
PK in his home in New Delhi
PK and Lotta in Lodi Colony in New Delhi
Together again after the long bicycle ride
PK and Lotta’s wedding in Borås on 28 May 1979, exactly two years after they were reunited in Sweden
Upside-down yoga at a conference for the blind at Mullsjö College
A Mahanadia-von Schedvin family portrait taken at a studio in Sandared
The family: Emelie, Lotta, PK, Karl-Siddharta
PK and Lotta at home in Kroksjöås
Morning Prayer at a school in Baghmunda, where PK’s niece Ranjita is a teacher
PK talks to students at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Odisha
About PK and Lotta
PK and LOTTA have been happily married since 1979. They have two children and live in Borås, Sweden. PK is an Art and Culture Adviser for the Swedish Government, and also the Oriya Cultural Ambassador to Sweden.
About the Author
PER J ANDERSSON is a writer and journalist. He is the co-founder of
travel magazine Vagabond, and has been visiting India for the last 30 years.
About the Translator
ANNA HOLMWOOD translates literature from Swedish and Chinese to English.
A Oneworld book
First published in North America, Great Britain and Australia by Oneworld Publications, 2017
This ebook published by Oneworld Publications, 2017
Originally published in Swedish as New Delhi – Borås by Forum, 2014
Copyright © Per J Andersson, 2013, 2017 Translation copyright © Anna Holmwood, 2017
The moral right of Per J Andersson to be identified as the
Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78607-033-3 (US edition)
ISBN 978-1-78607-198-9 (UK edition)
ISBN 978-1-78607-207-8 (India edition)
ISBN 978-1-78607-034-0 (eBook edition)
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