31 July,2026 11:04 AM IST | Mumbai | Akshita Maheshwari
Abhijit Khandkar is a practising doctor and a poet. PIC/SHADAB KHAN
If you ask Mumbai what its poetry scene looks like, chances are it'll point you towards a cosy Bandra cafe, a dimly lit spoken word venue, or a packed auditorium where the same familiar names take the stage. Ask Dr Abhijit Khandkar the same question, however, and he'll ask a different one: Where are the poets from marginalised communities? It's a question that stayed with him for years.
Dr Khandkar is a doctor by profession and a poet by passion. For over a decade, he has written poetry and short stories on the side, some of which have found homes in national and international publications. "I had gotten deeply into Ambedkarite literature," he says, "I started looking around me to see how many openly Ambedkarite poets or writers who wrote in English from community spaces were part of these literary circles. To my surprise, there were barely any. There's a lot of work being done in regional languages but due to language and regional barriers it doesn't get a broader access."
That realisation became Reserved Compartment, a pan-India Ambedkarite anti-caste poetry collective that Dr Khandkar runs alongside poets Daniel Sukumar, Gautam Vegda, and Aleena S.
The name itself is deliberately provocative. "It's a tongue-in-cheek subversion on the whole reservation debate," he says, "We're owning it. There's assertion politics in that." In less than a year, the collective has travelled from Mumbai to Pune and Bengaluru, with Chennai next on the calendar. Every show begins with what they call the Opening Act, where the stage is reserved for lesser-known poets from marginalised communities, particularly those writing in regional languages and performing publicly for the first time.
"In Mumbai, we had Bhagyashree Boivad. It was her first time performing poetry on stage, in Marathi," he recalls, "In Bengaluru, we had a Kannada poet, Bharath R. In Chennai, we'll have a poet from the community performing in Tamil. We try to find people who haven't received that spotlight yet."
Without sponsors or institutional funding, every show funds the next one. The four founders juggle careers alongside organising performances across the country. The collective also introduced reserved community tickets, ensuring students and members of marginalised communities could attend regardless of cost. For Dr Khandkar, however, building community extends well beyond the stage.
Nearly two years ago, he helped start the Dr Ambedkar Reading Circle, Mumbai Chapter - a public reading collective dedicated to Ambedkarite and counter-literature. Participants gather in public spaces, often at the garden outside Chaityabhoomi in Dadar, spend the first half silently reading together, and the second half discussing everything from literature to lived experiences. "People begin sharing very personal stories - struggles, trauma, experiences."
Yet Mumbai, despite its contradictions, remains central to everything he's trying to build. The city's Ambedkarite legacy, he says, gives these conversations fertile ground. TRC's very first performance in Mumbai drew audiences spanning generations - from 20-year-olds attending their first poetry event to veterans of the Dalit Panther movement. "It wasn't just emotional," he says, "It was celebratory." They have their anniversary special show planned in Mumbai at the end of this year, he says, signing off with "Jai Bhim."
