the previous life. They understand that poverty is their destiny and it cannot be changed. The only thing that they can do is to endure. Prodip Pal here also says that
he cannot change his destiny as poor people: “Then he heard the old peasant murmur as if to himself,” coal doesn’t change
its color when you wash it. What can’t be cured must be endured”.” p.6
4.2.1. The Influence of Karma on Life
In order to survive in poverty, Pals family and other poor farmers in India
must struggle. Actually, the Pals family is luckier than others because they have their own land, the prize from an old zamindar, which they cultivate for source income.
Generally other farmers in India do not have their own land. Most of them are only agricultural laborers or sharecroppers. But one day, a young zamindar confesses as
the old zamindar’s descent who has given the land to Prodip. The young zamindar demands Prodip Pal to turn the land back. From this point, the struggle of Pals family
is begun not only for enduring their right to the land but also struggle for survival. Prodip Pal, Hasari’s father, refuses to turn the land back. He decides to bring the case
to the court. Nonetheless, they get lose in court because the young zamindar gives a bribe to the judge. Here is one of the factors why the Pals get into the cycle of
poverty that is written by Lapierre in his novel: “The old man had been wrong in his expectations. That plot of ground had
been given to his father years ago by zamindar, a large landowner, in recognition of his devotion. One Day this benefactor’s heir laid claim to the
land. Prodip Pal refused to return it; the matter came before the courts. But the young zamindar had bought the judge and the peasant was obliged to
abandon his land and his house. To pay the legal costs, he even had to sacrifice the dowry saved for his last daughter and the plots of his two
youngest sons. “That dishonest landowner had a heart harder than a jackal’s,” he had remarked.” p.7
The quarrel with the young zamindar only leaves half an acre of good land for Pals family. It causes the production of the harvests will not be enough to feed the
whole family. Hence, Pals family has to find a way in order to make up the deficit. Every person in this family starts to work harder than before because there are
sixteen people who have to be fed in the family. In order to make up the deficit, other sons of Prodip Pal become sharecroppers, while Hasari and his father cultivate their
rest of their land. When they are waiting for the next harvest, these farmers work for zamindar.
Here is the statement from Lapierre: “While they waited for the next harvest the men would have to hire out their
services to the zamindar, a very aleatory employment, which provided at best four or five days of work per month, but most of the time only a few hours.
Such labor then earned only three rupees about thirty U.S cents a day plus a portion puffed rice and six bidis-these very slim cigarettes made out of a
pinch of tobacco rolled up in a kendu leaf.” p.15 The wives and the children in Pals family also take part in the struggle for
survival. The wives manage the harvest so that it will be enough for the whole family until the next harvest. While the children go around the village to find anything that
can be sold, everyone in the Pals takes part to earn money. Each person in the family will do everything in order to survive. The statement below is Lapierre explanation
about the children who take part in the struggle for survival: “From dawn to dusk, Amrita’s brothers scoured the countryside, with their
elder cousins, in search of anything to eat or turn into cash. They picked fruits and wild berries. They collected dead wood and acacia twigs which Indians
use to clean their teeth. They caught fish in the pools. They made garlands of wild flower. And they took these meager treasures to the market which was
held three times a week, seven miles from their house.” p.10
However, their hard work and also other farmers work to cultivate the farmlands become useless when the disasters come in turns so the crops fail to grow.
Due to the disasters, Indian farmers plant other crops beside rice. They plant coconuts and vegetables so that they will have another foodstuff if the rice fails to
grow. However, the storm which strikes Bengali cause the life of those farmers gets worse than before. After the storm they do not have foodstuffs and rice seeds for next
cultivating season. In this situation, Pals family and other farmers have got into the condition that is mentioned by Laiperre in his novel as the cycle of poverty. Here is
Lapierre’s explanation about the cycle of poverty: “Yet further terrible trials lay in store for Prodip Pal and his family just as ten
or twelve million other Bengali peasants during this second half of the twentieth century, they were to become the victims of that endemic
phenomenon known to economist as the cycle of poverty-that unavoidable process of descending along the social ladder by which the farmer became a
sharecropper, then a peasant without land, then an agricultural laborer, then, eventually forced into exile.”p.8
All life difficulties that have to be faced by most farmers in India do not
cause them surrender. When the condition begins worse, the government starts to give food to the villagers. However, they refuse it because their dignity as peasants.
These villagers do not want to accept charity. Although in hard condition, they still want to fight. They want to do something to get food but they do not want to be a
beggar. Finally, the government announces a plan called “work for food” In which the farmers are asked to work in order to get two pounds of rice for each day worked
for the whole family. By working and not begging, they can get a good karma. This belief motivates them to keep struggle although life difficulties seem not to go from
their life. The statement below is the condition in which West Bengal’s people get starvation:
“At the beginning of January villagers heard that food was being given out in the district capital, about twenty miles away. At first no one wanted to go.
“We were peasants, not beggars,” Hasari Pal was later say. “But for the sake of the women and children we had to resign ourselves to accepting charity.”
Later the government officials went through the villages announcing a relief operation called “Work for Food.” Work sites were opened up in the area to
deepen the canals, mend the roads, increase the size of the water reservoirs, raise the dikes, clear the undergrowth, and dig holes for trees to be planted.
“We were given two pounds of rice for each day worked, a handout that was supposed to feed an entire family, and all country the silos were full of grain.”
p.19-20 Karma motivates them to work hard because work is one of good deeds
which can make them gain good karma in their future life. They gain it in future life because Hindus believe in the law of reincarnation. The law of karma automatically
postulates the law of reincarnation as a necessity, because human being must pay the consequences of his action Lemaitre, 1959: 74. Hindus think that in this present
life, they cannot change their destiny as poor people. Hence, they have to do many good deeds in order to get good karma in the future life.
4.2.2. The Influence of Karma on Custom
