Review of "No Alphabet in Sight" and "Oxford India Anthology of Tamil Dalit Writing" (original) (raw)
Related papers
Caste is interpreted in different schools of thought in different ways; except Ambedkar and some other Dalit writings, many scholars have looked at caste from a traditional approach. But the recently published book 'No Alphabet in sight' is filling that gap in academic writings on caste. The book 'No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing fom South India' is a compilation of Dalit writings from Tamil Nadu and Kerala; initially they were all published in their own regional languages in little magazines and newspapers. They were all gathered, translated and published as a dossier – I, by Penguin in 2011. K Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu edited and introduced 'No Alphabet in Sight'.
Dalit Subaltern : Revolutionary Literature in India
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.
Dalit Writing in English: A Dalitification of the History of Indian Writing
Ariel, 2024
This essay makes a pedagogical intervention in the theo- risation of Indian writing in English (IWE). It asserts that postco- lonial studies and anthologies of IWE have deliberately excluded Dalit writing, which narrates the caste discrimination experienced by the majority of the Indian population. It proves the discipline of IWE—the writing and its study—has been hegemonised by upper-caste writers and academics who disregard the historical presence and literary worth of Dalit writing. This essay proposes that Dalit writing in English (DWE) should be viewed as an inde- pendent area of study. It traces the history of Dalit writing through three waves in conjunction with Indian politics and argues that DWE achieved the “Dalitification” of English by challenging Brahmanical control over the language and introducing caste into the reading and writing of English from a Dalit perspective.
Politics of Writing: A Study of Dalits in Odia Literature
Authorspress , 2016
Every writing is a political act with a clear purpose, objective and agenda. therefore several questions arise in one's mind- who writes, what, for whom and why? Writings in India are built around the caste system. The Dalits in India have remained merely the object of the writings by the upper caste Hindus. This book is a critique of the history of literature which is primarily written and interpreted from a view point of the upper caste Hindus. It attempts to reread and revisit the writings on Dalits in India in general and Dalits in Odisha in particular and rewrite their history and their literature from their perspective. This book is an endeavor to provide a monograph of Dalit writings and writers in Odisha. For the first time one sees a host of Dalit writers and their writings brought to the limelight. They not only contest the Brahmanical hegemony but also strive towards creating an egalitarian society.
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: An Intervention in ‘Caste’and ‘Literary Aesthetics’
2017
In the contemporary socio-cultural and political scenario, ‘caste’ has taken the centre stage in critical analysis. Writings on caste and about those suffering as the result of this hierarchical and discriminatory system have entered the mainstream academia under the rubric of ‘Dalit Literature.’ These writings have not only challenged caste system, but have provided a new dimension to the understanding of the aesthetic value of literature. Noted Dalit writers such as Om Prakash Valmiki, NamdeoDhasal, and BaburaoBagul have broken the conventional understandings of ‘literature’ by including disturbing images and languages in their writing. Most importantly, they have portrayed the Dalits as subjects of analysis rather than objects of interpretation. Studies have been conducted on the thematic and structural aspects of Dalit literature, and a major attraction about Dalit literature has remained its ‘activism’ aspect. But how far has it influenced our views about caste and about litera...
Dalits, aboriginals, subalterns, slaves, serviles, tribals, etc., are connected with an umbilical cord of the same section of the hapless society. Dalits and subalterns in India, aboriginals in Australia and Canada, Afro-Asians in the UK and the USA have sprouted and taken full-fledged areas of creative aesthetics in literature. A plethora of articles, books, monographs, autobiographies, memoirs, novels and poems have emerged as powerful visible forms of protest against the prolonged and chequered history of agony, anguish, exploitation, cruelty, maltreatment, malice and malevolence. Migration from one place to another has taken place to protect themselves from and protest against the sovereign/superior/colonizing and consumerist class. Earlier, misuse and mishandling of the marginalized communities became the subject matter of literary practices by few including the widely accepted 'holy trinity', M. R. Anand, R. K. Narayan and Raja Rao, who penned down and set the milestones in the literary sphere. With the passage of time, people from the beleaguered and subjugated class came forward to protest their subdued status in the society. They professed their creative articulations avowedly and started writing in the indigenous languages in several regions of India. Since they confined their writings in a particular language/dialect, the readership, therefore, was restricted to the speakers of the same language or was cramped in the same territory. Thanks to the translation studies in India which emerged from the late nineteenth century, the original texts in Hindi, Braj, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Haryanvi, Rajasthani in northern India and Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam in south India received recognition by the academicians, researchers and creative writers. Thus, the need of translation came to the fore to get wider readership. When many bilingual writers began writing both in their native languages and in English, the publishers, too, came forward to encourage them. The writers, poets and playwrights-cum-activists, such as Ananthamurthy, Ramanujan, Karnad, Manoj Das, Niranjan Mohanty, and Arun Kolatkar, Kamla Das and Mamta Kalia, carried forward the legacy of bi/multilingualism of Tagore, Firaq Gorakhpuri and Bachchan. But there is a brigade of authors, poets, novelists, travel writers, especially from pre-colonial India, who originally wrote and published in their native languages. Afterwards, there emerged a line of academicians who attempted in translation to get esteemed degrees, fellowships and certificates of appreciation. Few institutions of high approbation like Sahitya Akademy, New Delhi, were founded to promote and promulgate vernacular works in translation. Some publishers, such as the Writers Workshop, Seagull Books, Samya, Zubaan, Harper Perennial, Penguin