For Devkota, the most essential role as a writer is to “maintain a high degree of candour in the expression of [his] personal observations and expressions of opinion” (“Pulling Down” 5), and to “exert” against all the “present day evils and limitations” (“Necessity” 18). Without such candour and exertion, he would find himself “unworthy of democracy” (“Electric Bulb” 22). The present essay no doubt exemplifies the same Devkotian mode of authorial responsibility, the same extent of candour in favour of general welfare against the social ills within an inefficient state. One finds such candour equally evident in the poems “The Lunatic,” “The Donkey Speaks” and “To a Beautiful Prostitute.” So, as a writer, he presents himself as a social critic, a master of invectives, in favor of human dignity against dehumanizing elements like ignorance, starvation and public neglect. In “An Apology . . . ,” he has brought forth a voice of alarm through the portrayal of conflict between individual human condition and ineffective state policy, the voice that urges the state to work for a social system where life of dignity gets greater value.
[Devkota Studies 2.1 (2007): 19-23. Available at < http://www.dsrc.org.np/publicatons/archives%20ds%202.php>.
