21 Dalit Writings and New Literatures

Md Hasanujjaman

About the chapter:

This module deals with the topic “DalitWritings and New Literatures”. In this module, the concept of caste/Dalit has been carefully looked into and the literatures which have been produced by the Dalits in India. The Dalits have produced wide ranges of the literary writings based on their own life experiences. Their experiences as Dalit have led them to depict their inhuman condition which is made by the infamous caste system prevailed in India since ages. The birth of caste system is accompanied with the genesis of Hindu religious theology wherein there are four stratifications/savarnas among the Hindu communities in India. The Dalits are at the fourth strata of life. As Dalit they are treated even less an animal. For ages they are denied their basic human rights and the dignity to live as human. They are subjected to all kinds of humiliation, torture, and slavery. They are denied their right to exist. This ages- long denial has forced the Dalit community of India to express their agony and sense of helplessness through different modes of their writings. Through their writings they have voiced against the brutal Hindu caste system which continues to subjugate them in all spheres of life. However, their writings have brought them some sense of dignity and freedom. The compilation of their writings thus constitutes the corpus of Dalit Literature which is the focus of this module. The module also tries to connect the Dalit Literature with the emerging new literatures as genres where the Dalit issues have been raised and dealt with in order to bring the caste system into the mainstream criticism.

Caste System in India

In that Country the laws of religion, the laws of the land, and the laws of honour, are all united and consolidated in one, and bind a man eternally to the rules of what is called his caste.

—Edmund Burke (qtd. Dirks 03)

Edmund Burke`s quote indicates that the very idea of the caste is very much synonymous with the idea of India. India is well known for being the most divided societies among all in human history. True to say, the caste system is a cenral feature of Indian society as it anchorages one of the greatest dividing forces that splits human beings into different castes such as higher castes, middle caste, and lower castes. This divisive hierarchybased on the notorious caste system is endorsed by certain religious sanctity, and that is the Hindu religious sanctity. This religious sanctity is based on the sociological concepts of the term ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’. These endorsements of religious sanctity allow the caste system to regenerate its legitimacy even though it is contested since few decades. For this ugly caste system, the Dalits are the victims in many ways and in all spheres of life such as in their rituals and cistoms, vices and virtues, faiths and unfaiths, occupations and protests and this persists with diverse dimensions of strigency, in all parts of India.

This inhuman caste system has been constantly and methodically neglecting and ostracising more than 220 million Dalits of India for centuries. The Dalits or the untouchables,who are variously recognized as ati-shudras, chandalas, panchamas,antyajas, harijans, depressed classes, and the Scheduled Castes in different periods of time in the history of Indian societies, still continue to bear the stigma of untouchability even though the constitution of India has declared caste discrimination as a serious offence under the law. The Dalits, as usual, are socially ostracised, economically backward and politically powerless. The fate of the Dalits of India has been such that when they have tried to achieve their social dignity, they have always been brutally ostracised and wiped out by the upper caste sections and also by the casteist state power. It is this state sponsored domination that subjugates the Dalits in all forms of life. To continue to subjugate the Dalits, the upper caste oppressors use varius means such as mob-plundering, massacre, arson and brutal rapes. Though the Dalits once have been designated as “broken men,” they are now well aware of their “self identity” and are prepared to question and challenge the hegemony of upper castes and classes.

This bold step of challenging and interrogating the upper caste hegemony has reflected, as a result of their consciousness, in the new emergence of Dalit Literature in recent times. The Dalit Literature also is an inevitable part of the Dalit liberation movement. Before discussing the various thematic concerns and different dimensions of Dalit Literature, it is important to briefly analyse the various aspects of the Indian caste system, particularly,the historical genesis, manyrebellious movements,its consequences in Indian society, which were, in sequene of time organized to eradicate the caste system. It is also necessary to discuss the various conditions, which have led to the emergence of Dalit Literature and finally Dalit autobiography as a distinct literary genre.

Defining Caste

To define ‘caste’, has always been very difficult, may bebecause of its intricate nature. The term ‘caste’ has also been variously understood in different ways as time passed by. However, some scholars have tried to define what ‘caste’ is from their own understading. Some of them have tried to understand caste in terms of ‘class’. Other scholars have defined caste as non-class divisions such as ‘race’ and ‘racism’. However, their definition of caste lacks the crux of the concept of caste because in actual sense, ‘caste’ surely does mean ‘race’, though the root word ‘caste’ comes from the Portuguese word ‘casta’ which denotes ‘lineage’ or ‘race’. Rather the concept of caste brings to mind the idea of a society which generates fixed categories or statuses of life and professions with firmly congealed by rules of endogamy. These features which define the caste are fundamentally sanctified by or based upon certain religiously-governed principles of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’ which automatically gives birth to a social system of hierarchy.

The Origin of Caste

Historically, it is said that the caste system began when the Aryans came to India around 1500 BC, from southern Europe and northern Asia. They had fair skin that contrasted with the indigenous natives in India. After coming to Indian continent, they conquered and subjugated the indigenous people. They destroyed the pre-existing Indus civilization. They considered themselves superior to the indigenous. As a result of their self proclaimed superiority, they declared themselves as the upper caste groups descended from their Aryan race. The lower castes, including Shudras and Dalits, descended from the darker skinned non-

Aryan. After settling down in India, the Aryans arranged themselves into the first three varnas calling them ‘dwijas’. Most of the occupational groups were probably encompassed under the Vaisya varna. Apart from the three varnas which they also created from their Aryan race, they created the fourth varna that is the Shudra varna. With this chaturvamic order Indian caste system was gradually fortified as religious sanctity and following this, the Brahmans laid out many different caste rules and prohibitions for excluding the Shudras from the so-called dwija society and push them to the condition of real slavery without the basic rights of residency. The Shudras were kept away from social precincts of education and any dignified status of life for quite a long time. This way, gradually, the caste rules and prohibitions became a normal system which became a very crucial means of controling and exploitating the Dalits.

It is believed that it was during Pushyamitra Sunga’s rule (187 B.C. onwards) that the practice of untouchability began. Pushyamitra was a Brahman and the commander-in-chief of the last Mauryan king, Bruhadatra belonged to the Shudra varna. Pushyamitra killed Bruhadatra and established Brahman rule which continued till 800 A.D. Fearing revenge on him by the Shudras, Pushyamitra asked a Brahman pundit namely Manu, to help him. In order to dismantle the potential revolution, Manu codified all inhuman and unethical laws against the Shudras as religious obligation. Manu`s codified work was later known as the Manushastra or Manusmriti. This was the Manusmriti that the full elaboration of the caste hierarchy can be seen. This was the dawn of the Brahmanic caste system. During this time Brahmans claimed the highest status in society and caste divisions were enforced by the kings. The role of the king was seen to be protecting ‘dharma’ and dharma was now interpreted as ‘varnashrama dharma’ or the law of the castes. To keep the upper caste interest unbroken, varnashrama dharma was often supported, propagated and reinterpreted through the Upanishads, the Sutras, the Smritis, and the Puranas, which are known in combination as the Dharma Shastra today.

Since ages, the ancient Dharma Shastra of the Hindus forced a series of social, political, economic and religious constraints on the lower castes, making the untouchables completely dependent on the upper castes. Due to this, the untouchables lived a life of physical degradation, insults, and personal and social humiliation for quite a long time. They were forced to do menial jobs only. They spent their life outside the village and fed on the leftovers of the high caste people. For the untouchables, coming close to the upper caste was considered to be ‘polluting’ and worse still and even their shadows were considered defiling. They were denied access to public facilities such as wells, rivers, roads, schools, markets, etc. Caste system was such a cruel practice that the untouchables were forced to tie an earthen pot around their neck so that their sputa should not fall to the earth and pollute others. These inhuman treatments made their conditions extremely destitute, deprived and made them the most depressed section of human beings. As a result, they remained socially ostracised, economically impoverished, and politically servants of the upper classes (ibid). The genesis of the caste, according to Ambedkar,goes to the Gupta period when the intensity of caste system was extreme and worse in history of Indian society. The caste system have survived through the Mughal periods and took concrete shape during the British colonial period and it perpetuates its presence even in today`s India which considers to be modern.

Dalit Literature

As time passed by since centuries, after endless suffering and utter dehumanization, the Dalits have become resistant and have assembled courage to challenge the upper caste Hindu hegemony. They have learnt to fight back the casteist forces and regain their self dignity as human beings. They have organized many liberation movements and protests in different forms. One of the forms is literature through which they have expressed their century long agony and degradation which they have been tolerating. They have expressed their voice for their basic human rights through their own writings. They adapted various forms of literary wrings such as poems, short stories, novels, paintings, memoirs, and most importantly, the autobiographies, which altogether have formed a literary canon known as Dalit Literature.

Depressed Class writing traditions from Phule to Ambedkar

The beginning of Dalit writing tradition which actually was the first non-Brahmin literary movement and was the anti-caste movement came from the literary consciousness of Jotiba Phule and Dr. B R Ambedkar. Phule came from Mali, a Shudra community lived in Maharastra. Being a Dalit he faced gruesome discriminatations in his life since his childhood. Beingdiscriminated and realising that caste is an unending processes of duhmanizing the lower castes, he determined to educate himself, which led him to be a social reformer and specially an icon for Dalit rights. He decided to educate the Dalits and specially the women by setting up widow marriage campaign, schools, and other missions such as Satya Shodak Samaj, Sarvajanik Dharma Pustak, and Victoria Orphanage. Most importantly, he brought the revolutionary Dalit consciousness among the Dalit communities by his revolutionary writings suhc as Trutiya Ratna, Gulmagiri, and Powada: Chatrapati Shivaji Bhonsle Yancha and many others.

Like him is also Ambedkar who came from the same state. His life was very dymanic. Since his childhood he also faced the cruel disricminitaions as a Dalit. He sturuggled and strived to get edcutaion which he finally attained. He even managed to goto foreign nations to get higher education which ultimately made him realize the dangerous consequences of the brutal caste system. He truly brought a revolution in the history of the anti-caste movement in India. His persistent struggle rewarded him with the position of being the founder of the Indian onstitution. He successfully brought anti-caste laws and provisions in the constition. His contribution in the anti-caste movement is also measuredthrough his wide range of literary writings which brought ultimate consciousness among the lower caste Dalits. He started a journal in Marathi called ‘Bahiscrit Bharat’, ‘the Janata’ and later established Samaj Samata Sangh to develop the lower caste people. He produced writings such as “Riddles of Hindusim”, “the Untouchables Who Were They And Why They Became Untouchables ?”, “the Annihilation of Caste”, “Pakistan or the Partition of India”, “The Buddha and His Dharma”, among others. Prominently, Ambedkar also struggled for political power as he realized that withour political power the Dalits are helpless to challenege the caste suytem which degrades their life.

The emergence of Dalit Politics and the coming of Dalit literature

The emergence of Dalit Politics and the coming of Dalit Literature came about in the modern times through the legacy ofMahatma Phule and Bheem Rao Ambedkar.Dalit Literature gained thrust in Maharashtra. Phule`s and Ambedkar`s political struggle was the beginning of the political revolution of the Dalits in India, through the eventual politicial revolutionary struggles such the Pnather Movemnet, struggle for separate electorate. The political consciousness was further consolidated by the emergence of the Dalit writers such as Baburao Bagul, Bandhu Madhav, and Shakarao Kharat who were already producing Dalit Literatures in the 1960s. In the initial phase of its formal development there was a progressive movement called Little Magazine which has a kind of rebellious manifestation of the educated youth of those days against the establishment. These Dalit youths found inspiration in the movement of American black movement and their black literature and Black Panther became the role models of sorts for them. This protest gained its first expression in the form of a new literature called Dalit Literature (Abedi 02). Thus, the Dalit politics achieved unprecedented impetus in the modern times also when the Dalit Literature as canon in itsef was thriving.

Since the 1970’s, a considerable number of Dalit poets and writers have been producing poems, short stories, novels and autobiographies dealing with the themes of cast oppression, question of identity, poverty, untouchability and revolution. Now, these subaltern communities are using the traditionally denied weapon of literacy by themselves, and are exposing the conditions under which they have survived as well as directly flouting the sub- human status imposed upon them by the Hindu social order. Dalit Literature questioned the mainstream literature which they call as ‘Hindu Literature’ and challenged its hegemony.

Dalit Poetry

The new generation of Dalit poetry emerged in the recent period as a protest or rebellion against the oppressive traditional restraints. Poetry was one of important genre of Dalit resistant literature. The mode of poetry stemmed out from the pain which can be heard and felt in the Dalit poems. Through the poems they have rebelled against the caste monosity. They have depicted their experiences of injury and insults and their labour. Almost in every poem, one can feel the pain coming from the Dalits as Arjun Dangle writes his poem ‘Revolution’ depicting the inhuman treatment meted out to the him.Narayan was one of the well-known poets in the early Dalit Literature. His renowned poem was ‘Vidhyapith’. The other poets like Keshav Meshram- “Utkhanan” (Excavation), Daya Pawar- ‘Kandwads’ (suffocating enclosure), Namedeo Dhasal- ‘Golpitha’ (The Red Light Zone) and so on.

Dalit Fictions 

The Dalit Literature also encompasses the genre of fiction.As the Dalits became prominenet in rasising the unheraed voices against the barbaric treatment by the uppert caste sections, they began to adapt the popular genres of literature such as novels and stories. Even the non- Dalit writes began to depict the suffering life of the Dalits and Mulk raj Aanad is one of  them. Anad wrote the ‘Untouchable’ where he portrayed the life of Bakha suffering from the inhuman practice of manula scavenging. The interesting graphic fiction,‘Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability’ by Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam depicts the untouchable life of Ambedkad since his childhood. ‘Samskara’ by U R Ananthamurthy also shows the degraded and himuliated life of the Dalits.

Dalit Stories and Essays

Stories also emerged as powerful genre of Dalit Literature. The prominent stories by Premchanda depict the stark realities of the Dalit community in rural India where caste discirminations are rampant. Ajay navaria`s Unclaimed Terrain is a collection of stories which depict the daily urban life of the Dalits. Gogu Shyamala`s ‘Father May Be an Elephant and Mother Only a Small Basket But…’ is also a collection of stories where the lives of the Madiga community have been portrayed. Besides, the novels and stories, the Dalit writers have also produced the critical essays critising the caaste system. Kancha Illaiha`s “Why I am not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy” isa critical essay dealing with the question as to why a Dalit should be a Hindu which is itself the main source of the entire caste system.Ambedkar also penned many essays such as “Caste in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development’ depicting the birth of caste system in India.

Dalit Autobiographies

The prominent genre of Dalit Literature is the autobiography. A large portion of Dalit writings are basically autobiographical becausethe Dalit writers have produced literature based on their own life experiences of humiliation, degradation, and inhuman treatment. While narrating their experiences they have dominantly adapted the atubiogarphical mode of narration. In all their writings, they have in common the true confessional experiences. Generally, theDalit writers do not register their protest against a particular group but they weave their struggle against the casteist social system and the government, which in their view keeps them debauched and deprived. In other words, the basic dynamism of Dalit Culture is the thirst for identity which they try to buid in the autobiographies. Like men, the Dalit women also wrote their autobiographies but in less number. The limitations of Dalit women autobiographies are: their autobiographies are not always translated into English from other regional languages; the voices of women still remain faceless and anonymous in the patriarchal society. Only recently, a few Dalit women autobiographies have been translated into English. Below are some of the Dalit literary works, written by Dalit men and women either in English or are available in English translation, are being discussed in the following sections.

Laxman Mane’s Upara

First published in 1984 in Marathi, Laxman Mane’s Uparagives a thorough account of the writer’s struggle in life because of the repressive caste system. In this autobiography though the protagonist succeeded to get an education, he could not fulfil his dream of securing a government job. This makes the story all the more different. Mane was the first person from the Kaikadi community, who got graduation. His community considered education as an abomination. That’s why when Mane was trying hard to become educated, the community imposed social boycott on his family. Later, Mane could not fulfil his dream of settling down in a place after even getting a permanent job. Thus Mane had to face two challenges: his own community and the upper caste – both of whom opposed his attempts.

Sharan Kumar Limbale`s The Outcaste

The autobiography of Shran Kumar Limbale,The Outcaste narrates how the mahar women were being sexually oppressed by the upper caste Marathas. In Maharashtra and other parts of India, there was the practice that the upper caste landlords kept the young Dalit girls to fulfil their lust. The Dalit families had to obey the customs of giving their daughters to the upper caste Patils and in return, these young Dalit women were given shelter with some provision to live in. These women were simply kept as their concubines and the children which they used to produce were considered illegitimates because the Patils never acknowledge fatherhood. The Dalit women also had to satisfy the lusts of many other landlords and as a result, they could not name the real fathers of their children. They were economically unsecure and live miserable lives. So, Limbale`s autobiography portrays how his mother and grandmother being Dalit were the victims of this social evil.

Vasant Moon’s Vasti: Growing up Untouchable in India

This autobiography of Vasant Moon is the narration of an untouchable boy who grows in a slum amidst poverty to become a self-built person and later to become a responsible leader of Dalit community in Maharashtra. He was an orphan since his early age and getting education was a very challenging task for him. He completed his graduation and then he became a civil servant in Maharashtra. Getting the government job helped him to fulfil his aspiration to  work for the disadvantageous community and specially the Dalits. For his activism and academia Moon was bestowed responsibility by the Maharashtra government to edit B.R. Ambedkar’s writings and speeches in English which he carried out quite elegantly. Though he had privileges, but the autobiography assiduously depicts his picture of life which is ridden caste discrimination and dehumanization.

Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan: A Dalit’s Life

Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan is written in Hindi and translated into English. Though the autobiography is a life story of an individual, it speaks about the entire Chuhra or Chamar community, who have been degraded and dehumanized by the caste system for ages. Valmiki disobeys his community rule at an early age by going to school. Constant humiliation and degradation by the upper caste teachers and students during his school and college life could not prevent him from his studies. His determination and hard labour finally got him the distinction of being the first graduate from his community and also the first person to get a government job. In his autobiography, he boldly writes how his family survived on the scrap of food given by the upper castes until he got the government job. Though getting the job his family might have not gone for the traditional scavenging duties, but Valmiki as a conscious Dalit never felt liberated. It was painful to see his fellow Dalit members obediently going for the same degraded traditional duties. Valmiki by composing his autobiography thus delivers a great service to the upliftment of his community.

This autobiography is collection of narratives of eight Dalit women who narrate their life- stories namely: Sangeeta, Chhaya, Rakhma, Rukmini, Mangala, Ashoka, Savitri and Leela. They belong to different family backgrounds and have difference in age, education, profession, religion, look, caste, taste, choice, and also life-experience. But they share a commonness of living in a slum in Bombay and in a sense they all represent slum culture. Many of them actually do not belong to Bombay. But they had migrated from rural areas for jobs and over the years embraced an urban way of life. Thus, the life-experiences of these women are mainly urban-centred and metropolitan in style and the narratives show how they face caste discrimination even in such urban or metropolitan spaces.

Bama’s Karukku

Bamaa’s autobiography raises multiple questions against the caste system. Being a Dalit woman Bama faces so many challenges and had always a struggling life. The autobiography begins with her story since her childhood when she starts working with her family members. After a long struggle she is able to complete her graduation and becomes a teacher at a convent. Influenced by Jesus Christ she becomes a catholic nun and devote herself to serve the poor and the needy. But gradually she realises that even in the Christian convent the  lower caste people face discrimination. She also realizes that most of the church authorities are from upper caste who deliberately discriminate against the lower caste people. Bama was herself humiliated in the convent because of her Dalit status. After a long enduring she could not continue anymore and therefore she resigned from the convent and went back to her community. But unfortunate, in her community she was considered an outsider and this made her felt more alienated and vulnerable. To get peace with herself and to alleviate her tension she began to write her life stories, which finally came to be the testimony of her life as a Dalit woman.

Urmila Pawar`sAmhihi Itihas Ghadawala

This is Urmila Pawar’s short autobiographical narrative named Amhihi Itihas Ghadawala or Urmila Pawar and the Making of History. This narrative is outcome of dialogues between the author and a group of students, teachers and activists at an oral history workshop held in Mumbai. The participants of the workshop were enthusiastic to learn about Urmila Pawar`s life-experiences as a Dalit woman writer. The dialogues were actually in Hindi but later transcribed into English. The themes of the narrative in the workshop were concerning Urmila`s childhood and growing up stages as adult, her married life, her occupation as a writer, discriminations in various phases of her life, etc.

While reading Dalit Literature, there always a debate comes up whether the Dalit Literature can be written only by the Dalits. The main objective of Dalit Literature is to demonstrate the inhuman and degraded condition of the Dalits in India. Many non-Dalit writers like Premchand, Mulk Raj Anand, T S Pillai, and V S Khandekar have produced works depicting the Dalit lives, which also comes under the fold of Dalit Literature. But since the Dalit Literature is meant to depict the lived experiences of the Dalit, the Dalit writers do not accept the writings depicting the Dalit issues by the non-Dalit writers. They argue that the Dalit Literature can only be written by the Dalit writers as they have their own lived experiences and they know what it means to be a Dalit and therefore, they can only show the truth of Dalitness in the writings. They also argue that the Dalit writings by the Dalit themselves bring out a revolution against the caste system and also it establishes aDalit identity. They accused the non-Dalit writers of superficiality in writings by the non-Dalit writers. TheDalit writers argue that they compose the writings with blood of pain and their natural feelings of being Dalit and living a life of untouchablity and dehumanizing and therefore, they have the exclusive right to create Dalit Literature on their own.

It is to be noted that the Dalit Literature is also connected to the domain of New Literatures which are emerging India. The study of New English Literatures is about colonial and postcolonial writings which emerge in former British colonies such as: parts of Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Caribbean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, islands in the South Pacific, and Sri Lanka. India being one of them produces the Literatures dealing with various themes and issues including the Dalit issues. In the age of decolonisation, postcolonial literature is seen as critical manifestation of colonial experience. The category of New Literatures shows how the issues of Dalit or untouchablity are entangled with the power-politics of British colonization and how they are critically analyzed and contested in the postcolonial situations. The new emerging Indian Dalit and non-Dalit writers demonstrate the conditions of the Dalits who had been further victimized by the British rule and thus, the New Literatures as genre also creates a domain of Dalit studies in Indian academia.

Conclusion

To conclude, the module deals with the topic related to the emergence of Dalit Literature and its presence in domain of emerging New Literatures in India. To define, Dalit Literature basically portrays the trials and hardships, humiliations, exploitations, pain and sufferings, dehumanization, scorn, and poverty faced by Dalits for centuries. The Dalit writers are determined to gain self-respect and identity. Today, Dalit Literature includes various issues. Many writers raise gender, class, religious issues. They even write about the internal conflicts of the Dalit communities. More and more Dalit Literature is being translated into English and it is gaining wide publicity and being introduced as course in many universities. By the entry of Dalit Literature into academia, the Dalits are increasingly gaining economical and political mileage. The Dalit writers are developing their own literary foundation with ideological and political recognition. Therefore, it is becoming a new and different stream of Indian literature which can be considered as New Literatures because of postcolonial perspective.

Reference

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