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Have Nots’ Helplessness in Haves’ Land: An Existential Approach to

Benyamin’s Diasporic Novel Goat Days (Aadujeevitham)
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K. J. Joseph
II MA English, St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli
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Introduction
The ambiguity and the abstract nature of the term diaspora is defined by Martin
Bauman as, expressing notions of hybridity, heterogeneity, identity,
fragmentation and (re)construction, double consciousness, fractures of memory,
ambivalence, roots and routes, discrepant cosmopolitanism, multi-locationality
and so forth. One cannot assure that these common characteristics of diaspora
are available in all the works of diasporic writers, but usually some will be
there. As Susan Koshy says in his book The Making of a Neo Diaspora, the
recent interest in diaspora exceeds academy and become a major preoccupation
of politicians, policy makers and the public. Benyamin’s novel Goat Days is a
revelation about the lamentations of labour migrants in Gulf countries from
India, who reached there with the dreams of better employment and monetary
avenues. Haves have notes but have nots have no notes. This paper explores the
problems faced by have nots at the hands of haves who have notes in their
hands. The paper brings out the lamentations of the protagonist Najeeb
Muhammad (have not), in the land of Arabs (haves). It also discloses the
pitiable condition of Indian labourers or migrants in economically booming
nations.
Diaspora Literature
The immigrants who have access to education and literacy register their
everyday experiences and plights in their works. In general, diaspora literature
discusses the problems the migrants face in the new land. Amitav Gosh points
out that “It is the imaginary relationship between the Indian diaspora and India
that has been the most creative site for theoretical reflection in literature”.
Based on the theme of writing, diaspora writers can be divided into two types:
writers whose works focus on their home country and writers whose works talk
about the settled country. The first type of writers locates their work in their
home country in order to criticise it or to portray their home country and its
culture to the foreign readers or use their work as a tool to remember their home
country. The second type of writers locates their works in the settled countries
to reflect the changes they undergo or to tear the mask of multicultural nations,
by portraying its discrimination towards them, or to show their developed
condition in the settled countries.
Brian Keely in his article “International Migration: The Human Face of
Globalisation Discourse” analyses how diaspora becomes a new form of

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slavery. He examines how a number of indentured labourers in different parts of

the world are suffering nothing less than the fate of slaves. Goat Days echoes
with reflections of similar brutality that was experienced by innumerable blacks
during the Trans Atlantic slave trade in the west. Though legally the institution
of slavery was abolished, yet human trade in form of labour migration
continued. In the era of British territorial expansion it was practiced in form of
indentured labour, however, currently it is practiced as the ‘Kafala’
Benyamin and His Diasporic Novel Goat Days
Benny Benjamin is an Immigrant Novelist, a native of Kulanada, in Kerala.
Born in the year 1971, with the birth name Benny Daniel, he writes under the
pseudonym ‘Benyamin’ which he himself calls as a mask. He moved to the
Kingdom of Bahrain in 1992 and has been living there ever since as an
engineer. Benyamin’s first story “Satru” was published in 1999. His short story
collections include Euthanasia (Mercy Killing), Penmarattam (Ladies Sex) and
EMSum Penkuttiyum (EMS and the Girl).Benyamin’s other novels were
Abeesagin (a name from the Old Testament), Pravacakanmarude Randam
Pustakam (The Second Book of Prophets), Akkapporinte Irupatu Nasrani
Varshangal (Twenty Years of Christian Quarrels) and ManjaVeyil Maranangal
(Yellow Lights of Death). He has also written notes like “Irunda Vanasthalikal”
(“Dark Forest Places”) and “Anubhavam, Ormma, Yaathra” (“Experience,
Memories & Travel”). Many awards and honours that he was credited show
how he influenced the literary world within a few years of his literary career. It
includes Abu Dhabi Malayali Samajam Short story Award for Euthanasia
(Mercy Killing), Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award, 2009 Kerala SahityaAkademi
Award winner, 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize long list and 2013 DSC Prize for
South Asian Literature short list for Goat Days.
Benyamin’s novel, Aadujeevitham was first published in 2008, and won the
Kerala SahityaAkademi Award in 2009. He wrote the novel originally for
Matrubhumi Magazine. Translated into English as Goat Days by Joseph
Koyippally in 2012, it was received with great acclaim by a wider readership,
and reached the long list of the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012.
The story focuses on the hardships of Najeeb Muhammad's life. The story is
based on true events. The book is divided into four parts—Prison, Desert,
Escape, and Refuge, with forty three chapters and an author’s note. From the
beginning itself the narrative points to the hard experiences the narrator had
endured till that moment. The novel begins and ends in Sumesi prison. The
second part begins in a rural village in Kerala, the native place of the
protagonist Najeeb. He and Hakeem goes to Gulf with a lot of dreams, but get
abducted by an arbab, originally an animal farm owner. He made them slaves in
his masaras in desert where they were forced to live a life like goats but in a
more pitiable condition than them. With the help of a Somalian Ibrahim
Khadiri, they escape from there after more than three years. Get lost in desert
for days. Hakeem dies out of thirst and Ibrahim disappears in the end. Somehow
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with the help of a rich Arab, Najeeb reaches the Malabar Restaurant run by
Kunjikka, a refuge for Malayalis in Batha market. From there he got another
victim like him, Hameed who also escaped from his arbab’s house. They
together with much difficulty get themselves arrested in a hope to reach Kerala
with the help of Embassies. But before the arrival of the officers Hameed was
dragged away by his master. Najeeb’s arbab also came there, but spared him for
he was not really under his visa. This was the real shock to Najeeb that he
realized that what he had endured was the fate of some other man. From there,
he was deported to India as a part of a government project to deport
unauthorized residents to the countries of their origin.
Haves and Have Nots
The concept of “haves and have nots” appears in the writings of Marx. He
believed that there were two types of people that existed historically. The
“haves” were called “capitalists” because they had all the money”. The
capitalists would then force the “have nots,” whom he called as the “proletariats
(working class),” to work for them. This situation was unfair in the distribution
of wealth within a society that would cause problems. Problems emerge when
capitalists pay the working classes very low wages while keeping the profits for
themselves. In this manner the rich would become richer and the poor would
become poorer. This situation would lead to the working class becoming
frustrated and helpless. This novel portrays the pathetic situation of Najeeb, The
have not, in the hands of Arabs, the haves.
Have Nots’ Helplessness in the Land of Haves
After translation to English, Benyamin’s Malayalam novel Aadujeevitham,
acquired enormous critical acclaim. Goat Days makes the peripheral voices of
labour migrants audible across globe. It diligently explores the diasporic
elements of the protagonist’s journey. The novel is an eye opener for people
across globe who desire to migrate to foreign lands in search of better monetary
conditions. The poverty and lack of employment in our country must be
eradicated to avoid the drain of Indian workforce to other economically
booming nations. Goat Days navigates across barriers of time and space to
bring to light the desolation and helplessness of the people who have been
trapped in the nexus of this contemporary labour trade. The following points
explains the helplessness of have nots in the land of haves.
Haves’ Visa; a Via to Make Slaves or Have Nots
Najeeb’s homeland did not offer him any monitory elevation or job
opportunities, so he convinced himself for this migration. Under this modern-
day inhuman institution of slavery millions of people are exploited and
tormented, their passports are confiscated by their masters and they are forced
into rigorous servitude. Najeeb dreamt of travelling to Gulf like many of his
fellow Malayalis. After getting married he decided to revise his economic
condition. He thought, “Can one go hungry?” (35), and pledged to travel to Gulf
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to undertake better livelihood opportunities for his family. He mortgaged his

house, his wife’s jewellery, borrowed money and boarded the “Jayanti Janata”
(39), train from Kayamkulam to Bombay. He began his journey without
knowing the truth that Haves’ visa is a via to make slaves.
Under the Custody of the Custodian of His Dreams
The Gulf dream has sown the seeds of dreams of an ideal land in him and his
travel companion Hakeem’s mind. But everything turns upside down when they
are taken from the airport to be slaves. Najeeb and Hakeem are forcibly
transported to a goat shed in an unfamiliar desert landscape by a stinking local
Arab. Najeeb’s distress and perplexed mindset is revealed in his words, “From
that moment, like the maniyan fly, an unknown fear began to envelop my mind,
An irrational doubt began to grip me, a feeling that this journey was not leading
me to the Gulf life that I had been dreaming about and craving for”(52).
Like Pinnocchio, a character from children’s fiction, Najeeb and Hakeem are
driven and lured to the ‘Land of Toys’ here Riyadh, the land of dreams, which
indeed is a farce. The inhospitable treatment that the narrator receives at the
hands of the man who abducted him from the airport, locally known as ‘arbab’
was extremely frustrating. In desperate agony Najeeb surrenders all hope of any
generosity from his arbab. The word ‘arbab’ is a Persian word meaning
“master” or “owner”.
Najeeb’s agony did not affect his arbab as he was least bothered about Najeeb’s
thirst and hunger. Najeeb questioned the tradition of Arabian hospitality and
expressed his diminishing hope questioning, “Is this the legendary Arab
hospitality that I have heard about? What kind of arbab are you, my arbab?
Don’t deceive me. In you rest my future. In you rest my dreams. In you rest my
hopes” (59). Najeeb tells “the one who walks in front of me is the custodian of
all my dreams, the visible god who would fulfil all my ambitions”.
Have Nots Journey to Darkness
Najeeb had left home for making money in Gulf, but very soon he learned that
his aspirations were nothing more than a mirage. They were taken in an old
vehicle. He remembers that the unending jolts and the growl of the vehicle
entwined composing a lullaby for his fatigued ears and he fell asleep. And it
was only when the arbab shook him that he awoke to eye-piercing darkness.
The arbab growled like an angry wildcat. The darkness represents the darkness
that have nots is going to face in the haves’ land.
Have Nots’ Sympathy for Have Nots
Only the have nots can understand the pathetic situation of other have nots. As
Najeeb reaches in the Masara, he finds a scary figure. He had matted hair like
that of a savage who had been living in forest for years. His beard touched his
belly. He was a slave of the arbab. He began to speak to Najeeb in Hindi. There

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was pity in those words, and also sadness, resentment etc. And Najeeb writes,
“Today I understand he was lamenting my fate and wailing” (61).
Have Nots’ Tears Before Haves’ Cheers
“All the grief he had been retraining gushed forth as tears. He howled loudly in
front of the arbab”.(65) It was the over flow of the sorrow and hunger that filled
the have nots mind. The tears of the have nots fell on the foot of the haves who
was in cheers. He expected pity on him by seeing him cry. But the arbab angrily
pushed him out of the tent. The tears of have nots fall only outside the tents of
haves’ cheers.
Have Nots’ Hunger Wins Over His Habits
The arbab told him that he should eat. If he was in his home he wouldn’t even
drink coffee without first ducking into the river. He would not eat without
brushing his teeth and doing his morning rituals. But that day, for the first time,
he violated all his hygienic rules. He had drunk milk without brushing his teeth.
Hunger for one and a half days forced him to ignore his habits. Hunger will win
over the habits in the case of have nots.
Have Not’s Initiation to be Haves’ Slave
The arbab gave him a thobe- the dress of the typical Saudi Arab man, a long,
white, shirt like garment, loose fitting, long sleeved and extending to the ankle,
usually made out of cotton and a pair of shoes, then the arbab came over and
handed him a long stick and he understood that it was his initiation to become
another scary figure. Haves give gift to have nots to make them slaves.
Have Nots Under Haves’ Surveillance
Najeeb was introduced to the hostility of his arbab when he displayed his
authority over Najeeb by means of his binoculars and double barrelled gun.
Arbab used his binoculars to captivate the labourers who tried to flee from his
vicinity, and the gun was used to kill them if they tried to raise their voice. Have
nots always live under the surveillance of haves.
Have Nots’ Sighs in Signs
Najeeb was unable to communicate with his arbab or the “scary figure” (81),
because they spoke languages he did not know. The “scary figure” was a weird
looking man who like Najeeb served the arbab. This lack of communication
fuelled Najeeb’s adversity. Though by means of non-verbal gestures he tried to
communicate, yet he failed to fetch his master’s generosity. He philosophizes
on one occasion saying that, “After all, compassion doesn’t require any
language” (61). Haves fail to read the sighs in the signs of have nots.
Have Nots’ Lives Have No Value
The wretched condition of his life is again emphasised when Najeeb describes
an incident, when he has been dead tired and stops to drink some water, the

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arbab hits on him hard and has snatched the cup of water from him just to fling
it away. He has been forced to return to work thirsty and panting. The
‘usefulness’ versus ‘uselessness’ of the individual is evident in the novel. His
physical work is wanted to look after the sheep; whereas he is unwanted as an
individual who talks, feels or who has emotions. He has to do the back-breaking
work and is not supported with enough food for carrying out the works, or even
water at least for washing.
Have Nots’ Have No Sanitation
There were restrictions on sanitation due to shortage of water. He cleaned
himself with stones after defecation. Najeeb angrily asserts that, “I had never
faced such a predicament in my life.... The harshest for me was this ban on
sanitation” (78). He was being physically reprimanded by these regulations. It
was in wake of these bitter circumstances that Najeeb pondered over the look of
the camels living in the shed. He says, “I would like to describe the camel as the
personification of detachment” (79).
Have Nots’ Killed by Haves
An arbab can kill him or beat him and no one would question the arbab; Najeeb
lived in such a pathetic condition. When ‘the scary figure’, another immigrant
labourer, tried to escape from the masara, he was killed and buried in the desert
by the arbab. No one realises or values the life or the death of these immigrants.
No master would bother whether the slave knows the work or not, but he is
expected to do it without any talk voice. Even though the given duties were
strange to Najeeb, he was tamed by his master and is forced to do the works.
Najeeb says, “The arbab cared only about my work, not my discomforts” (94).
He is willing to adjust a lot to survive in a new situation and yet the arbab
persecutes him as if to discipline him to be an obedient servant.
Have Nots’ Loneliness in the Land of Haves
Najeeb lived isolated from other people in a ‘masara’ a place he understood to
be a goat shed. He verbalizes his plight by saying that, “I lived on an alien
planet inhabited by some goats, my arbab and me” (125). To him all human
company was forbidden, and he could only interact with the goats around him.
He gradually develops a strong familial bond with the goats. He assigned
human characteristics to these goats who shared his loneliness. He scolded the
goats, cuddled them and adored them like his family. In an incident in the novel
Najeeb embraced the sheep to shield him from extreme cold and confessed that,
“I spent the winter as a sheep among the sheep” (140). Later when his arbab
locks him in a masara, he survives by consuming “unhusked wheat” that
belonged to the goats. The protagonist is an alienated character amidst the harsh
desert environment. He calls himself an “orphan’s corpse”, when he cannot
withhold his anguish. Even the enticing serenity of the desert sunset cannot
fetch him any solace, on the contrary it arouses in him extreme sorrow and
longing. He vents his agony saying that, “One of the greatest sorrows in the
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world is to not have someone to share a beautiful sight” (159). He is a lonely

man who has no control over his life. He surrendered all hopes of freeing
himself and agreed to stay with animals as one of them.
Have Not’s Choiceless Helplessness
The humiliating conditions and the beatings he receives, subject to the mood of
the arbab, are terrible. He is left without any choice and cannot help obeying the
arbab. The title of the novel Goat Days itself suggests the animal-like life the
protagonist has in the desert, which is completely controlled by the arbab’s gun
and binoculars. His life in the masara hence becomes a big challenge for him.
The only human being he sees every day is the cruel arbab, who is tough like a
thunder, and his only friends are the sheep. The restriction and repression that is
imposed upon him using the gun and binoculars limit him even from seeing
Hakeem, who is also working for another arbab under similar condition. So, his
life becomes apparently meaningless and is left without any freedom of choice.
He obeys the arbab like a faithful and fearful dog and like a machine.
Unquestionable Haves and Voiceless Have Nots
Whatever is done by the arbab is to be accepted because he belongs to the haves
and whatever is done to the have nots is to be accepted voicelessly and blindly
because they are have nots. Once when Najeeb was physically too weak, he
went near the arbab crying and begging him, to be taken to some hospital; it
was not only that he didn’t not pay any attention but also the very next day
asked him to milk the goats. In another instance, Najeeb talks about the reaction
of arbab when he showed his injured hand, “I got a smack on my head as a
reply” (120). Like this there are number of instances in the novel that show how
he is unheard, unnoticed, exploited and persecuted in the work place. It was not
only the arbab but the desert, the physical space, also drained away their energy
The indifferent desert crushed and gobbled the slaves. The long weary journey
of escape, through the desert without any water or food pushes Hakeem into the
hands of death.
Have Nots in the Iron Bars of Freedom
As the French linguist Saussure emphasised that the meaning of a word is
relational, Najeeb’s idea of freedom is also purely relational. Thus his idea of
freedom is just the freedom to talk, walk, to have good food and the chance to
meet other people. The novel opens in a prison raising, at the outset, questions
that will be resolved later. An aura of dismay and intrigue is generated by the
narrator when he says, “Why is it that even misfortune hesitates to visit us when
we need it desperately” (5). The narrator, Najeeb Muhammad along with his
companion Hameed tries to enrol themselves voluntarily into the prison. He
gives the description of a large country prison called “Sumesi” prison. The
prison blocks were divided on grounds of nationality, “One block for each
nationality - Arabs, Pakistanis, Sudanese, Ethiopians, Bangladeshis, Filipinos,
Moroccans, Sri Lankans and then, finally, Indians. Most of the Indians were
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surely Malayalis. Naturally we were taken to the Indian block” (11). The
catastrophic life that Najeeb had escaped converted the prison into nothing less
than a sanctuary where he could recuperate. He justifies his act of voluntary
prison enrolment by dropping a clue regarding his horrifying past for the reader,
“Can you imagine how much suffering I must have endured to voluntarily
choose imprisonment!” (12).
Conclusion
The author emphatically asserts that Najeeb’s catastrophic journey cannot be
tampered with, or redesigned for securing popularity or critical acclaim. He
says, “I didn’t sugar-coat Najeeb’s story or fluff it up to please the reader. Even
without that, Najeeb’s story deserves to be read. This is not just Najeeb’s story,
it is real life. A goat’s life” (255). Authenticity of narration and explicit
portrayal of Najeeb’s fiasco in Gulf lent this troubling study of Indian labour
migrants an extraordinary literary charisma. This novel also provides an insight
into the lives of many suppressed people who suffer in countries other than their
homeland and throws light on the have nots’ helplessness in haves’ land in a
realistic way.
Works Cited
1. Daniel, Benyamin. Goat Days. Trans. Joseph Koyippally. India: Penguin, 2012.
Print.
2. Daston, Lorraine, and Gregg Mitman, eds. Thinking with Animals: New
Perspectives on Anthropomorphism. New York: Columbia UP, 2005. Print.
3. “Aadujeevitham’ of Benyamin transforms to English as ‘Goat Days’.” The
Caravan A Journal of Politics and Culture 2014. Web
4. "Koyippally's Benyamin, an intelligent work of translation - IBN Live".
ibnlive.in.com.
5. Benyamin. “EzhuthinteVazhikal”. Sathyadeepam Mar. 2014. Print.
6. Susan Koshy and R. Radhakrishnan, The Making of a Neo-Diaspora. New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.

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