"The Daughter of Man” is by Lalithambika Antharjanam. You may recall her earlier story “In the Shroud” posted on June 16. This story shows the impact of the Land Reform Act enacted by the democratically elected Communist Government in Kerala and how it impoverished the wealthy land owners.
Based on the land relations and regulation under the British Raj, at the time of independence, India inherited a semi-feudal agrarian system, with ownership of land concentrated in the hands of a few individual landlords. The Land Reform Act set an absolute ceiling on the land a family could own. The tenants and hut dwellers received a claim in the excess land, on which they had worked for centuries.
The upper class land owners lived well from leasing land to people who cultivated it and paid the land owner a significant part of the income from their hard work. When the Reform Act took effect the size of the land a person could own was drastically reduced and leasing became unlawful. Tenants who lived and worked on the land got at least a tenth of an acre as their own. Land owners who considered the number of tenants as a sign of their status in society lost the most when each tenant had to be given a tenth of an acre.
The story is about a generous Nampoothiri woman who routinely feeds the hungry people around her house on a daily basis before she has her meal, while her family was rich. But after the Land Reform Act takes effect her family loses all the income. These upper class land owners know no other way of making a living other than leasing the land they owned. Slowly, they sell whatever land is left, piece by piece and in the end there is nothing left to sell. This generous woman and her family become so poor that she wants to send her grandson to school just for him to get the free lunch given there.
For getting him admitted to school she asks the help of a politician who practically grew up in her house, but has forgotten all about it. Hearing her request he realizes what an ungrateful man he has been. Kneeling before her he asks for her forgiveness for being an ungrateful, vicious man. He says, “We (the politicians) destroyed your house. We were the reason for your not getting rent. In our fight for the poor, we forgot the hands that fed them. … Even now you are showering blessings on us. They are more powerful than your curse….I have one request….Please pass on this love, affection and sincerity to the next generation. Only your heart is still filled with these qualities.”
He sends his apology to the organizers of a political meeting he was to attend saying, “There are some more important matters that I must finally deal with. I am the son of the Daughter of Man.”
The car that is waiting to take him to the meeting takes the woman back to her house.
Achamma Chandersekaran
Website: http://www.achammachander.com/
India Edition: www.rainbowbookpublishers@gmail.com
Kindle Edition of "Daughters of Kerala" on Amazon.com
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