Subaltern Subjectivity and Resistance: Dalit Social History in Postcolonial Indian Fiction in English (original) (raw)
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ODISEA. Revista de estudios ingleses, 2018
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AMRJ PUBLICATION , 2021
The concept of caste Dalit ,as well as the literature created by Dalits in India, has been thoroughly examined in this paper. Dalits have written a diverse range of literary works based on their own personal experiences. The experiences of being a Dalit has inspired them to represent their inhuman situation ,which is exacerbated by India's infamous caste system, which has existed for centuries. The beginning of the caste system with beginning of Hindu religious theology, where in India are there stratification/Savarnas among Hindu communities. The Dalits are on the fourth rung of the social ladder. as a Dalit , they are treated even worse ,as if they were an animal. they have been denied their basic human rights and the dignity to live as human beings for many years, they have been subjected to various forms of humiliation, torture, and slavery, and they have been denied the right to live. This long standing denial has caused India's Dalit community to vent their anguish and sense powerlessness via various forms of writing. They have spoken out against the harsh Hindu caste system that continues to oppress them in all aspects of life through their micronarratives.
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Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research journal, 2014
The term ‘Dalit’ is synonymous with poor, exploited, oppressed and needy people. There is no universally acclaimed concept about the origin of Indian caste system. In every civilized society, there are some types of inequalities that lead to social discrimination. And in India, it comes in the garb of ‘Casteism’. The discourses catering to the gentry tastes did not include the subaltern literary voices of the tribals, Dalits and other minority people. The dalits are deprived of their fundamental rights of education, possession of assets and right to equality. Thus Dalit Literature emerges to voice for all those oppressed, exploited and marginalized communities who endured this social inequality and exploitation for so long. The major concern of Dalit Literature is the emancipation of Dalits from this ageless bondage of slavery. Dalits use their writings as a weapon to vent out their anger against the social hierarchy which is responsible for their degradation. After a so long slumber now, they have become conscious about their identity as a human being. This Dalit consciousness and self-realization about their identity has been centrally focused in various vibrant and multifarious creative writings and is also widely applauded in the works of Mahasweta Devi, Bama, Arjun Dangle, D. Gopi and in many more. The anguish represented by the Dalit writers is not that of an individual but of the whole outcast society. The primary concern of present paper is to show how Dalit writers shatter the silence surrounding the unheard exploitation of Dalits in our country in their writings? And how Dalit Literature has become a vehicle of explosion of these muffled voices. The paper makes an attempt to comprehend the vision and voice of the Dalits and their journey from voiceless and passive objects of history to self-conscious subject. The paper will also make a study of the reasons behind the development of Dalit Literature with its consequences on our society, social condition of Dalit in India and how they write their own history. Keywords: Self-realization, Identity, Exploitation, Caste, Subaltern
Good Dalits and Bad Brahmins: Melodramatic Realism in Dalit Short Stories
This article examines the literary strategies that shape contemporary Dalit fi ctional prose in Hindi. Based on the analysis of two short stories by the prolifi c Dalit writers Omprakash Valmiki and Jaiprakash Kardam, it is argued that the contributions of Dalit literature arise today not only in the context of a social movement, but are increasingly apparent through the development of a new, hybrid melodramatic-realist literary aesthetic. New critical scholarship of Dalit literature in India is therefore needed to appreciate the ongoing expansion of such forms of literature across linguistic and geographical regions in India as a postmodern sphere of subaltern social protest. Such fresh analytical attention to Dalit strategies of artistic expansion and literary growth will undoubtedly enliven the hitherto largely bland sociological conversations about Dalit literature.
Artha - Journal of Social Sciences, 2014
Literature about Dalits and by Dalits is a huge body of writing today. Autobiographical accounts as well as testimonies by Dalit writers from all over India have already been looked at as genres that locate personal as well as the suffering of a mass of people within the larger discourse of human rights. The present paper attempts to examine literary narratives by Dalits and place them as evidence of atrocities committed against them. The paper will also look closely at Dalit stories as typifying the Dalit lived experience. The stories also throw light on the rich and varied culture of these subaltern castes. It is worth noting that there seems to be a hierarchy even among the various kinds of Dalits. The literature analysed will cover stories that show the range of experiences and the cultural identity of the Dalits. The Dalit literary narrative will be looked at as a document that records the suffering of the marginalised and, therefore, as something that is different from a socio...
DALIT LITERATURE ACTS AS A MANEUVER FOR DALITS PERSPICACITY AND SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
Studies in Indian Place Names, 2020
India is well-known for its culture and traditions. It is one of the fastest emergent countries in the field of technologies and skills in the universe, yet, it is tarnished for its stubborn prevailing caste system. This paper proposes to examine the persisting socioeconomic condition of Dalits, and how it has been explicated by the Dalit writers through the genre of autobiographies. The study includes the scope of Dalit literature and how commendably they have attempted to achieve in uplifting their community. It discusses in detail, the socio-political experience and how the 'Varna System' functions in India. It also depicts a clear picture of Dalits' struggle for their basic human rights and liberation through autobiographies of eminent Dalit writers like Omprakash Valmiki, Bama, Daya Pawar, Baby Kamble and Urmila Pawar. This paper tries to show how Dalit writers throughout their writings bring to mind an imperative and frequent thematic alarm: a heedful protest against and refusal of the political and cultural supremacy of the caste Hindus. Dalit literature; openly investigates cultures and ideologies from a marginalized position and makes the voiceless to 'voice' on various issues like caste, class, race and gender.
Perspectives on Indian Dalit Literature: Critical Responses
Booksclinic Publishing, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, 2020
The book “Perspectives on Indian Dalit Literature: Critical Responses” is a volume of twenty six scholarly articles focusing on the theme of Dalit’s freedom and emancipation from traditional caste-stigmatised society which sacrifices the interest of Dalits on the altar of tradition. The book endeavours to articulate voices among this marginalized class of people to come in action from their passivity and stillness. The book also tries to cover almost all eminent Dalit writers of past and present century like Omprakash Valmiki, Baby Kamble, Bama Faustina Soosairaj, Meena Kandasamy, Namdeo Dhasal, Sharankumar Limbale, Bhimrao Shirwale, Hira Bansode etc. along with some non-Dalit wrters like Munshi Premchand, Mulk Raj Anand, Arvind Adiga etc. who have sought plea for this marginalized class of people with same ardour and passion as other Dalit writers through their write ups. Hopefully this anthology would serve for better humanity.
Dalit Literature: A Contemporary Perspective
International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences
As a major literary trend in India through Indian regional languages and translations. Dalit literature is marked for self-assertion of Dalits, subalterns, lower strata of Indian caste-class-religionlanguage-capital ridden society through poetry, plays, short stories, self-narratives, and oral performances challenging inhuman treatment, atrocities, inequality, and the so-called mainstream literary and critical conventions. Dalit literature is emerged as an outcome of the exploitative nature of Indian caste system.The ideology is drawn from Buddha, Charvak, Kabir, JyotiraoPhule, Karl Marx and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. At this stage, Dalit literature needs to be stabilized at theoretical and critical level, considering western critical approaches in order to explore the essence of Dalit literature on the contemporary literary and critical canvass. This paper attempts to focus onthe term 'Dalit', the elements of Dalit literature, Dalit literature in English, the term 'Dalit identity' and how it reflected in Dalit literature, theorizing Dalit literature and literary critical standards, précising Dalit literature in the recent literary trends in India, comparison and contrast of Dalit literature with the Anglo-American and third world literary tradition, the issues raised by Dalit literature and their validity in the present era, the sources and forces of Dalit literature and future course of Dalit literature.