Precarity Redefined:A Reading of Bama‟s Karukku and Gaikwad‟s Uchalya: The Branded (original) (raw)
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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.
Giving Voice to Voiceless: A Study of Dalit Literature
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
Dalit Subjectivity and Class Struggle
2019
We make sense of our lives through the narratives our particular space and time have made available to us- of which we are also part of; and that opens up conflict between the narratives, from which, the popular narrative shapes the flow of our lives. This dissertation follows a narrative or is trying to build a narrative grounded on difference, seeing the complexity, the mixture and inter-penetration of things as primary, as the fundamental basis on which we live. As Deleuze says, “the emphasis was altogether different: a system of relays within a larger sphere, within a multiplicity of parts that are both theoretical and practical”. The author is no longer a subject, nor a consciousness. “Those who act and struggle are no longer represented, either by a group or a union that appropriates the right to stand as their conscience. Who speaks and acts? It is always a multiplicity, even within the person who speaks and acts. All of us are ‘groupuscules’”. Sometimes all of us are monsters too. “Representation no longer exists; there's only action- theoretical action and practical action which serve as relays and form networks”. It is not about applying a theory or theorizing a practice; emphasis is altogether different: words are passing through a system of relays, within a multiplicity of parts that are both theoretical and practical. Theory and practice can’t be separated, in fact the general abstract theoretical concepts are often not particularly useful once the analysis moves to the specifics of a particular time and place. Situating the Marxist conception of history in Indian society, might appears like ignoring the multitude of struggles and the forms of life. But the understanding of class will open up the possibilities of (or for) entanglement. As Zizek says, the question to ask is always: Is this truly Copernicanrevolution or merely a Ptolemization of the old paradigm? The second chapter will explore the same question, through the framework of rhizome, and the base of difference. Rhizome grow horizontally; when cut from the parent plant, the rhizome forms a new plant, unlike many roots that die. “When a tree is a single vector aimed at a specific goal, the rhizome expands endlessly in any number of directions, without a center”. In the first chapter, I’ll be exploring various notions of subjectivity- 1) I and the Other 2) Politico-legal subject 3) anti-Caste subject 4) anti-Class subject and 5) anti-Subject and the Rhizome; all of this will be studied in the context of Una movement and Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh rally, through a critical inquiry into the class-caste paradox revealed in the contemporary struggles and the history of Indian society, which will be the ingredients of second chapter.
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 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.
DALIT WRITINGS: RECONSTRUCTING MEMORY FROM THE MARGINS
Dalit writing, embraces the social & cultural functionality of the changing metaphors of 'Caste' in Contemporary India. Caste has continued to slip the collective nationalist(s) memory, where writing from the margins seems to convince the global consequences for all the marginalized groups, around the world, contesting and resisting the varied strategies of domination and discrimination, through the medium of writing across the various disciplines of social sciences. Dalit writing embraces the complexity of the sociology of cultures, even sub-cultural and regional variants dealing with the legacy of Pain and Humiliation, reconsidered for the readerly experiences. The paper strives to examine the role of the marginal writings, bonding the Dalit identity among the various writers across different Indian laguages and regions. The paper also examines the foundational legacy of the humiliation, entrenched in the socio-cultural metaphors, icons of marginalization, and the symbols of Dalit subordination, since scores of centuries. It traces the development of the extraordinary repertoire of stereotypical Caste-idioms across various regional and lingustic Regions, Caste-symbols, and Casteist gestures of verbal and physical denigration of the Dalits over centuries. Dalit writing restructures the mainstream sociological and cultural aesthetics, exploring the constructedness of the negated 'self' of a lived social community. Dalit conciousness in the wake of Contemporary Indian reality, results out of the myriad challenges registered through the modules of the contestations, discourses through the writing by margins, such as translations, literary and cultural approaches, involving the various Indian langauges, restoring the growth of the awakened Dalit conciousness in the post-globalized ambience. Dalit writing, embraces the social & cultural functionality of the element of the changing metaphors of 'Caste' in Contemporary India.
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.
VEDA PUBLICATIONS, 2022
Dalit literature is a literature by Dalit writer or any other writer with Dalit consciousness. Most of the Dalit writers and critics are of the opinion that Dalit consciousness is an exclusive experience of the person born into Dalit community. However, many writers belonging to Upper caste communities like Munshi Premchand, Mulk Raj Anand and Arundhati Roy etc. wrote on Dalit lives with Dalit consciousness throwing light on the plight of Dalits. When we read the novel The Victim by Vibhavari Shirurkar and Laxman Gaikwad's autobiography The Branded the live picture of the branded communities appears before our eyes. The present paper aims at in-depth study and the analysis of Dalit consciousness found in these two works and the similarity of experiences portrayed by the writers.
Marginality, Suffering, Justice Questions of Dalit Dignity in Cultural Texts
eSocial Sciences, 2017
Dalit dignity is organized around caste-determined labour that fits them into hierarchies of social dignity but which, in savage irony, renders them undignified as humans through social death. Second, the self-conscious, agential narrative enactment of life-as-death and the performance of death enables the Dalit text to establish the dignity of the Dalit body. This essay assumes that representations of marginality, suffering and social injustice in cultural texts dealing with Dalit lives in contemporary India raise questions of dignity. Thus, while they do address concerns of social inequality, historical wrongs and the failure of the juridical apparatus, they also examine the idea of Dalit dignity. Etymologically the word dignity comes from the Latin word for 'worthiness'. Obviously, the idea implies a dual meaning: worthiness in one's own eyes, and a social evaluation of worthiness. The second meaning is linked to another etymological origin of 'dignity': 'worthy, proper, fitting' and 'to accept'. This is our cue to examine the question of dignity and cultural discourses around it. My thesis is twofold. First, Dalit dignity is organized around caste-determined labour that fits them into hierarchies of social dignity but which, in savage irony, renders them undignified as humans through social death. Thus, the Dalit can only acquire dignity through acts of non-agential, undignified labour over which they had no choice, and for which their bodies are only to be used by others in order to safeguard the interests of others. Second, the self-conscious, agential narrative enactment of life-as-death and the performance of death enables the Dalit text to establish the dignity of the Dalit body.
Neo Dalitism: A New Approach to Dalit Literature
Dalit literature is the saga of resistance against the hegemony of Brahmanic literature which pretends to be omniscient and all-encompassing while presenting a narrow, one sided, twisted and biased view of reality. Society is changing. So it is obvious that the role of literature and expression must be changed accordingly. An inferiority complex attached with ‘being Dalit’ is reduced considerably. It is time taking process and will go with time. So it is essential that our approach towards Dalit literature must be changed. There is a drastic change in dalit consciousness in last decades. The depressed consciousness of dalits is changing. It is replaced by asserting themselves in every field. Dalits, who were practically invisible from socio-political arena, are making their presence everywhere. They are giving their contribution to society. So our literature must encompass the changing role of dalits. In the present paper we propose the concept New Dalitism as a changed way of expression in the current and emerging socio-political milieu. This is required to differentiate it with the previous approach. Contrary to the Dalitism which is to highlight the disabilities and difficulties and seek sympathy, Neo Dalitism is to question the very literature which justifies this caste hierarchy. It is to develop not only a healthy (not sympathy) image for dalit but an image of appreciation for the people who have been unjustly victimised over the centuries and endured it. It is not to artistically portray the sorrows, tribulations, slavery, degradation and poverty endured by Dalits, but question them and rewrite them from dalit points of view. It is critically examining and pointing out the flaws on the basis of which this caste system is based.