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Questions from the Dead<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by K. Satchidanandan<\/em><\/p>\n Which country\u2019s border was Hiuen Tsang crossing Whence came the races that spoke Where did the Bharatvarsha of Mahabharat and Meghdoot Where were the borders of the India of Fahien Who created India: the East India Company When did Earth come to be in the history I had been guarding the borders till yesterday. All My land, I do not loathe you, nor do I worship you. Today at last I am going to cross all the borders Today I know, we are a creation of coincidences, No one ceases to ask questions Translated from Malayalam by the poet. The image is Monument to International Socialism, Glenn Brown, 2009.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Questions from the Dead by K. Satchidanandan Which country\u2019s border was Hiuen Tsang crossing when, on a donkey, he crossed the Himalayan pass with a sack full…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":547,"featured_media":13255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
when, on a donkey, he crossed the Himalayan pass
with a sack full of Buddhist texts?<\/p>\n
Dravidian and Aryan tongues? Was there no one in India
when they landed here? Not even a tribal?<\/p>\n
began, where did it end? Did Bhasa and Kapilar
belong to the same country?<\/p>\n
and of Al-Biruni? Where was Taxila? Which was
the India Alexander set out to conquer? Which
country did Ashoka and Akbar rule?<\/p>\n
Or Mountbatten? Or was it Gandhi? When
Did \u2018Hindu\u2019 become the name of a religion?<\/p>\n
of the universe? When did nations come to be
in the history of Earth? How many nations
make a human body? What is the kinship between
human soul and nations\u2019 maps? Did all the births of
Bodhisattva take place in India? How many oceans
are there in each language? How many skies
in winds? How many seasons for love?<\/p>\n
my life I had arguments about borders. My living flesh
bled, caught in their barbed wire fencing. I went
to court in their name, killed many times, died many times.
They said I would become a martyr if I died
for the cause, that it would secure Heaven for me.<\/p>\n
Had I been born elsewhere I would have lived another
life; I would have needed a passport to enter you.<\/p>\n
and become part of the Earth. Do not cover me with flags.<\/p>\n
like our body, like the Solar System. We have
no scope for pride, and war does not have even
that scope. Bury me deep without an anthem.<\/p>\n
just because one is dead.<\/p>\n