Dalit literature: decoding voices of resistance and despair
In Dalit History Month, reading multiple Indian language writers who help us to understand the history of su ering of the marginalised people in their struggle for equality in a caste-ridden, deeply hierarchical society
aste discrimination and untouchability have run unchecked in our country for decades even though constitutional law provides for the protection of the most vulnerable people. If poverty, as often quoted, has made it easy for subjugation to continue, it also gave birth to people who have given themselves to struggles against race and ethnicity and championed civil rights movements.
Though limited within the form, the protest literature that emerged from the exploitation and exclusion of Dalit communities, lent a new voice and identity to the marginalised. Over the decades, Dalit literature has become an empowering case for social equality and human dignity, and enriched and diversied Indian literature, ushering in fresh perspectives.
CTowards inclusivity
Treated as a strong and separate category of literature in many Indian languages by literary associations, the documentation of Dalit history and experiences has contributed to a more inclusive understanding of the community.
The power of language of Dalit writers has challenged oppression, shaped consciousness, and sparked awareness and empathy. Small victories may have gained recognition, but it is pertinent to explore literature because it traces and enables connections with global histories of racism and social exclusion and unies the need for advocacy for change.
The writings of one of the most iconic Dalit writers in the history of India, B.R. Ambedkar, including his Annihilation of Caste (1936) and The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables (1948), are eye-openers. He explains caste is not simply a social evil, but a hierarchy, a system of persistent graded inequality, and that Dalit is not a caste but a realisation that is related to the experiences, sorrows and struggles of those in the lowest strata of society. The books provide instances of tyrannical practices against them (by upper caste Hindus) to awaken society to the caste system as Ambedkar always argued for social reforms over religion and politics.
Ambedkar: A Life (2022) by Shashi Tharoor is a deeply researched insight into Ambedkar’s birth into a family of Mahars, the humiliation and hurdles he overcame to ght the stigma against his community, his determination to make untouchability illegal and how he invested himself in an India with modern concepts of social justice.
Translated works have played a crucial role in making Dalit literature available to a wider audience. Gopinath Mohanty’s Harijan (1948) in Odiya is a radical novel of the 20th century featuring the life story of the Mehentars who lived in slums and were allowed to only do the job of cleaning latrines with bare hands. The hard-hitting story was translated into English by Bikram Das in 2021.
People on the margins
Baluta by Daya Pawar is said to be the rst Dalit autobiography published in Marathi in 1978. It caused a sensation as it was a rare documentation of life in rural Maharashtra and life in the slums, chawls and gambling dens of Bombay that gave shocking details of caste violence and untouchability practised in the 1940s and ’50s. A bestseller in Hindi and other major languages, it was also translated into English in 2015 by Jerry Pinto.
Three years later, he translated another revealing book, Jevha Mi Jaat Chorli Hoti (1963), a collection of short stories by Baburao Bagul in Marathi, that revolutionised Dalit literature. The author talked about the pain, rage and horror of people on the margins as it was, refusing to understate the vicious and inhumane centuries old caste system. In the English translation, When I Hid My Caste, Pinto carries the irony and melancholy of the original stories.
Jina Amucha (1986), the rst autobiography by a Dalit Woman, Baby Kamble, is also a powerful tale of redemption that reveals the inner world of Mahars, the oppressive caste and the prevalent patriarchal tenets. Translated into English by Maya Pandit in 2008, The Prisons We Broke is a feminist critique of Brahminical Hinduism and the memoir of cursed people. It unapologetically highlights the rituals and superstitions and the hard lives of women of Maharwada.
Bama’s Karukku (1992), chronicles her daily lived reality as a Tamil Dalit nun and is the rst autobiography by a Dalit woman in Tamil. Translated into English by Lakshmi Holmstrom (2000), it reveals her courage to take on shame and her constant search for a sense of belonging and a connection to something meaningful. Tamil author Perumal Murugan’s third novel Koolamaathaari
(2000) deals with the travails of a young Dalit goatherd who is bonded to work for a family to repay his father’s debts.
Manoranjan Byapari has written Chandal Jibon, a triology in Bengali, evocatively tracing the story of a Dalit boy who arrives at a refugee camp in Bengal with his parents as a toddler and grows up to lead a life of fear, grappling with disparities and the evastating realities of hunger, caste violence and communal hatred in mid-20th century Bengal. The rst two parts are translated into English by V. Ramaswamy as The Runaway Boy
and The Nemesis.
Life as an untouchable
In the Hindi book Joothan, Omprakash Valmiki describes his life as an untouchable in India of the 1950s, when he was forced to eat scraps of leftover food and faced ridicule and deprivation. A major contribution to the archives of Dalit history, the book has been translated into Seasons of the Palm by Anu Prabha Mukherjee.
Meena Kandasamy along with M. Nisar has translated the Malayalam book Ayyankali (2022) into English, which talks about the life of social reformer and Dalit leader Ayyankali from Kerala in 1863-1941 when he opposed caste practices and fought for the rights of the oppressed.
There is a rich tapestry of books available respecting Dalit rights. These books roar with the message of inclusivity and are relevant in present times when there seems to be a lack of understanding for the marginalised.