My People ‘People’ in the title of the poem represents the Dalit community who have been oppressed by an oppressive social system in India. The poem highlights the miseries of the poet’s community. Hence, he describes the lives and his society through literature. This poem was published as Nanna Janagalu Mattu Itara Kavitegalu (My People and Other Poems) 2005. Siddalingaiah is the speaker of the poem. Dalits are the downtrodden community who have been socially marginalized, excluded, and exploited by the upper caste of the Indian social structure, and hence for ages, they have been deprived of basic education, health, and other social privileges. Siddalingaiah becomes important because he drew society’s attention to the plight of his people through his poetry which flamed a light and heat that was its own. But one of the Kannada cultural critics has called Siddalingaiah ‘the King of the exaggerated conceit.’ In this poem, the poet brings out themes of ‘resistance...