Social &Political Energy and Resistant Aesthetics in the Hindi Poems of Om Prakash Valmiki. (original) (raw)

2016, Dalit Literature Haunting Tragedies Manglam Publications, Delhi

Abstract

Voice acts as a central phenomenon that brings forth the connection between the self and the society. Foucault argued that discourse and Power are intimately related because those who have access to voice can wield power within a system. A writer of Dalit literature is a literary activist who through his work gives voice to his protest and in the process various hidden agendas, motives, truths, intentions, inordinate ambitions get a proper exposure and in this capacity the writer instills knowledge and fear in the audiences creating a possibility of collective awareness and timely action which help in sustenance of life. Valmiki through his poetry celebrates the tradition of resistance and joins the chorus of voices that argues that exploitation and misery are neither inevitable nor necessary. Valmiki’s poems discover energies of oppression and simultaneously energies of liberation. The poems show the social dynamics of a society that is deep-rooted in traditions, rituals, dragging its past memories in the shape of myths that are exploitative to the core. They bring forth a collision of societal custom and the individual will that being assertive demands positive change. The ‘silence’ of the ‘slain voice’ is linked to the public memory that needs to be broken. Key-Words: Social reality, Voice, Silence, Representation, Resistant Aesthetics, Consciousness-shift, Collective-Ethics, New-Humanism, Social Energy, Political Energy.

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