Namdeo Dhasal: Street Fight Poet "Hurl Poems Like Stones"

Here's what poet Dilip Chitre has to say about poet Namdeo Dhasal in an interview first published in Tehelka (Street Fight Poet: navayana):

"Namdeo’s a lumpen, as he describes himself, with no assets except poetry — he sometimes says he hurls his poems like stones, so they’re a street-fighting weapon as well. To convey the idea that poets can come from anywhere, that they bring from wherever they come something to the surface of the world — that’s a role he plays exceptionally well. Namdeo’s also an activist, and he’s been a good activist. But like most Dalit leaders, small-time and big-time, he knows he lives in India where Dalits cannot, by themselves, form a government anywhere. They can only act as a pressure group…"