"The destruction of the reactionary forces in the twilight of the present day is inevitable and indisputable in the midst of revolutionary changes in Indian society, which are frantically struggling to delay their demise...... The purpose of our association is to bring literature and art from ...... Rescued from the control of the reactionary class, bringing literature closer to the people and becoming an effective way to reflect life and build the future......"

—From The Progressive Writers' Manifesto of India.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance, and this is a universal truth, and India is no exception.

Before the arrival of the British colonizers, "India" was only a geographical and religious term. This subcontinent is so full of states that it has never been truly united, let alone the concept of a state.

It was the British colonial rule that made the Indians gradually cohesive spiritually and ideologically, and began to identify themselves with the concept of "India" as a country and nation.

Britain also wants to divide and rule, such as deliberately creating regional and religious contradictions, so that the local Indians hate each other. However, with the brutal rule of the British, the national contradiction still rose to become the main contradiction, and a series of independence and liberation movements arose.

The most comical of all is the First Indian Revolt, although there are various deep-seated causes, but the direct cause is that there is butter and lard on the bullets, and the soldiers have to bite open with their teeth when reloading. This was humiliating for Hindus and Green believers, with a total of 85 soldiers refusing to use the bullets. The British officers tied them up, stuffed bullets into the soldiers' mouths, and ignited the flames of the Indian uprising.

The Indians also tried to resist many times, but unfortunately they were all put down by the British colonists. The huge disparity in strength between the two sides made Indian progressives feel hopeless, so the "non-violent non-cooperation movement" represented by Gandhi was born.

The Indian progressive literary movement of the 30s and 40s was very similar to the modern Chinese literary movement, and it was very revolutionary in its early days. This put the British colonizers on the verge of arresting more than 20 well-known writers within two or three years, and the literary revolution movement across India was at a low ebb.

The outbreak of World War II, the signing of the Joint Declaration of the United Nations, and Japan's rapid expansion in Asia gave Indian writers another opportunity, and they secretly discussed how to make a comeback.

The future India, Bangladesh and Pakistan were collectively referred to as British India at this time. More than a dozen progressive writers from all over the country quietly gathered in Calcutta, and some writers were arrested before they could board the train – they were under constant surveillance.

The meeting place was a manor on the outskirts of Calcutta, where Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Leyi took two days by train.

He was greeted at the station by a servant named Duwan Patida. From the surname "Patida" alone, it is known that he is the lowest ranking Shudra of the four castes in India, and he is dark and thin.

Pathida bowed and said in Indian English with a Bengali accent: "Your Excellency, great Mahatma, I am Patida, a servant of the old man Gauss, please allow me to guide you." ”

In India, "Mahatma" in a broad sense refers to a person with noble character and outstanding wisdom, and Zhou Hexuan did not expect that he would one day be called Mahatma.

"Thank you." Zhou Hexuan nodded and smiled.

Zhou Hexuan took Zhang Leyi's hand, and Patida led him out of the station, and soon saw a carriage.

Patida bowed her head and curtled her knees, "Please get in the car!" ”

A thin, ragged man passed them with a sack on his shoulder. At this time, it was close to evening, and the sun was skewed, pulling the shadow of the person long, and the person directly stepped on the shadows of Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Leyi.

"Stop!"

Patida, who had just shown great humility in front of Zhou Hexuan, suddenly looked like an angry lion, pointed at the man carrying the sack and said, "You have offended a Mahatma and you must pay the price!" ”

The man carrying the sack looked at his feet, then at Zhou Hexuan, suddenly threw away the sack and knelt on the ground, kowtowing like a chicken pecking rice.

"What's going on?" Zhang Leyi was taken aback.

"I don't know." Zhou Hexuan was also a little confused.

Patida kicked the man over and beat him wildly, oblivious to passers-by.

Zhou Hexuan hurriedly grabbed and asked, "Don't fight, what's going on?" ”

Patida pointed to the man lying on the ground and said, "Your Excellency Mahatma, this is a pariah, he has just stepped on the shadow of you and his wife. ”

Zhang Leyi couldn't bear it and persuaded: "It's nothing, it's just that I guessed the shadow." ”

"No, this is an unforgivable offense, please allow me to punish him!" Patida said and began to kick again.

The man curled up on the ground with his head in his hands, and from time to time his mouth let out cries of pain. But even this cry of pain, he is patient, and it seems that he is not even qualified to cry for mercy.

Zhou Hexuan really couldn't look at it, so he asked Sun Yongzhen to pull Patida aside, and then took out a 10 yuan pound sterling sheet, put it next to the man and said, "I'm really sorry, this is compensation for you." ”

The man didn't seem to understand English, and curled up there shivering.

"You are so merciful," Patida complimented, and said to the man, "you are lucky to have met a forgiving wise man today. ”

It wasn't until Zhou Hexuan and the others got into the carriage that the man picked up the pound, knelt down and bowed his head to kiss where Zhou Hexuan was standing just now.

In general, the highest way for a lower caste to pay homage to a higher caste is to kneel down and kiss the other person's shoes or toes. But the man was a pariah, an untouchable, and he could only kiss the ground to show respect and gratitude.

Zhang Leyi sat in the carriage, turned her head to look at the scene from afar, frowned and said: "This place in India is really scary, it is unreasonable. ”

"yes, unreasonable." Zhou Hexuan nodded.

The Patida, who was in charge of picking up the train, was the servant of the Indian philosopher Aurobindo Gauss, and he should have been so rude and discriminatory against the untouchables.

In India, there are also self-taught, fate-changing untouchables.

For example, Ambedkar, the "father of the Indian constitution", was born as a pariah and was the first untouchable in Indian history to have a university degree. He became the natural leader of the untouched people in India, opposing Gandhi's position on the caste system, and the two reached a compromise in 1932 to allow the untouchables to vote after the establishment of the country.

Even as the "father of the Indian Constitution", he should have an infinitely lofty status, but Ambedkar, who was born as a pariah, was still discriminated against. In outrage, he openly reneged from Hinduism and converted to Buddhism, and became an advocate of the revival of Buddhism in India.