E-42 : Sanatan

“I am not your data, nor am I your vote bankI am not your project, or any exotic museum objectI am not the soul waiting to be harvestedNor am I the lab where your theories are testedI am not your cannon fodder, or the invisble worker,Or your entertainment at India Habitat CenterI am not your field , your crowd, your historyYour help your guilt you medallions of your victory,I refuse reject resist your labelsYour judgements, documents, definitionsYour models, leaders and patronsBecause they deny me my existence my vision my spaceYour words, maps, figures, indicatorsThey all create illusions and put you on pedestalFrom where you look down upon meSo I draw my own picture, and invent my own grammarI make my own tools to fight my own battleFor me, my people, my world, and my Adivasi self!”Such a powerful poem by Abhay Xaxa, an Advasi Poet