RAACHI

Short Introduction to My Novel RAACHI

M C Raj

This novel is based on the true story of a Dalit but written in realistic fiction style. It is about a Dalit belonging to the Unseeable people in India. The hero of the novel, RAACHI is the son of totally illiterate parents and their family lives below poverty line. Through sheer hard work RAACHI self-actualizes himself. He discovers his latent strength and transforms himself into an excellent human being. Life is not easy for a Dalit in India and it starts for him already from the first year in school where the caste students nickname him “Kakapee”. It means the shit of a crow. This novel is a saga of how RAACHI with his Kakapee identity slowly transforms himself into a human being. In this process of self-actualization he also transforms many situations in the lives of Dalit people. The story ends with the hero going to the US on one of his many international lecture trips and on his return the plane in which he travels nosedives into the earth. Down under the earth he encounters the spirits of the ancestors of indigenous communities and merges with them. His energy waves cannot remain in the womb of Mother Earth and he comes out as waves and fills all those who are in a resurgence to establish dignity and peace on earth.

The first chapter starts with a bang. It is a success story of RAACHI and his indomitable wife Deepa who together declare this Millennium as the Ambedkar Era. It is achieved through heavy odds including threats to their life from caste forces. But the Dalit people stand solidly with the duo and make the event a grand success. This leads to a flashback on the origins of the hero. His unseeable ancestry is traced also scientifically to give a picture of what it means to the international readers. His family is helped by European missionaries in a leprosy hospital and the family converts itself to Christianity. He also develops compulsive anger and many other compulsions that operate subconsciously in him. The sisters in the hospital motivate and help him to join the seminary. He faces caste discrimination in the school as well as in the seminary. He puts up a stiff challenge through his enormous potential and energy level. He excels in studies, sports, music and drama.

He is promoted to distant places for his studies and joins an Ashram. With contemplation and reading he becomes a philosopher of sorts and gains international recognition already at a young age. He is sent to Kerala for his theology studies where he become familiar with Marxism. His worldview becomes radical and his interpretation of the Bible becomes controversial. He becomes a priest but within six months obtains permission from Rome to live in a slum, works and earns his living and does his secular studies. He becomes very popular among the slum people but is haunted by Church authorities as they see his new existence as a judgment on them. The Church bans him.

Against formidable odds RAACHI marries Deepa, a woman with radical views. Together they start a Dalit Movement and establish a saga of success. But local politicians and some international forces are up against them. He takes on the mighty international groups and both of them march ahead with their achievements for the removal of untouchability practices in their area of operation. They create new models of rights and dignity. In this whole process RAACHI becomes a prolific writer and philosopher. His many sexual encounters that are narrated in the novel will provide a juicy stuff to the readers.

After a course in Thailand he begins to develop his personality in a very positive way and works on himself consistently to remove all his compulsive anger and subconscious operations in him. He becomes very positive and creative. RAACHI and Deepa become very popular among Dalit people and create the first ever Dalit Ashram in India. He is also invited to the Netherlands to address a large public gathering with the Prime Minister. He is featured in the Newsweek magazine. The way he turns all his difficulties into great opportunities for his people is a real treat for those who are struggling in their lives.

It is in his attempt to establish solidarity for dignity and peace that he merges with the cosmos and assumes a new form of life.