Practical Criticism - I.A. Richards

This blog is a response to a task assigned by Dilip Barad sir, Department of English (MKBU). This blog is about the 'Practical Criticism' by I.A. Richards. Click here for more details.

In this blog I am going to problematize the poem finding its literal meaning and then try to justify the poem. Through doing such activities one can learn how can a artistic work be criticized without any biasness and prejudices about the writer.

The Poem: Operation Equality by Nirav Patel

Questions that arise in the first reading:

1. For whom does the poet use "ભોળા ભાઈ" ?

2.What does poet want to say through બેફામ અરાજકતાવાદી બનીને ?

3. What does poet want to convey by saying that "playing with a tribal boys in the school" ?

4. In this lines "સ્વતંત્રતા - સમાનતા - બંધુતાના આદર્શોના ધજાગરા ફરકાવતાં હતાં અંજારનાં ભોળાં ભૂલકાં" word "ધજાગરા" has two meaning; first is ruining or hosting flag.

5. "તું પાવન પ્રકોપથી એટલો પાગલ કે સાચું એપિસેન્ટર પણ ના ગોઠવી શક્યો" through these poet asks earthquake that it can't make even an epicenter. How can earthquake non-living thing arrange epicenter ?

6. What does poet mean by saying "અમે એક આંખ રાતી તો એક આંખ રોતી રાખીએ છીએ" ?

Now let's try to justify the above problems in literal reading.

In the first stanza poet says "ભોળા ભાઈ" to the earthquake because it can not change the people's mindset through the disaster. Poet says to the earthquake through satire that this easily people will not learn the lesson of equality.

By saying "બેફામ અરાજકતાવાદી બનીને'' poet says that by being a dictator, earthquake can't teach a lesson of equality to the people. By killing innocents with culprits, the earthquake is not bringing any justice, rather it is making it worse. 

The third question one can justify is that even school boys of tribal cast know what is wrong in the society, what type of injustice and discrimination they have to face. So the poet says that earthquake can learn those things from tribal school boys.

Finding the epicentre of an earthquake is a work of humans but by criticising that it occurred in Kutch, instead it should occurred in Gandhinagar or Delhi where all the political leaders are and it should affect them instead of innocent people of Kutch, earthquake made a mistake that poet wants to convey through these lines. 

Fourth question about the word "ધજાગરા" means here in the context that young students are singing the songs of independence, brotherhood and equality while hoisting the flag. But it also can be read that these words are just written in the constitution but in reality still people have to face discrimination.

Last question poet says "અમે એક આંખ રાતી તો એક આંખ રોતી રાખીએ છીએ" can be justified as that poet and people of his community are angry with people who discriminate on the basis of casteism and they are also unhappy because so many innocent people died in the earthquake.

The Aim of the Poem:

It is written to the reference to the 26th January 2001 in Bhuj. As the title suggests, ‘Operation Equality’ poet talks about equality. But the tone of the poem is rather satirical on the social structure. Through scolding the earthquake poet talks about the sad reality of tribal and scheduled caste. How they faced discrimination for many years. He says that it is not easy to change the mentality of the people, they still have the same views that they had a century before.