Dalit writers autobiography of a face
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Dalit Autobiographical Narratives
Figures of Subaltern Consciousness, Assertion and Identity
Guy Poitevin (2002)
Abstract
A general presentation of the social, literary phenomenon of the "dalitliterature" -- literature of the oppressed -- is firstly required torealise the specificity of that significant trend in the recent Marathiliterature (since the sixties) in the state of Maharashtra, in India. Thecontext, perspectives and characteristic of that historical trend differentiallyqualify the concept of autobiography itself vis à vis the Westerndefinition of the genre. A functional approach is claimed to be the properperspective for a literature which focusses on the individual not as an Egoisolated in a world of his/her own but on the Subject as one individual amongmany who share the same types of cultural ostracism, physical repression andsocial stigma, with the result of being kept out of the legitimate boundaries ofa human society.
The second part will attempt to make a typological display of variousdistinctive figures of dalit subaltern consciousness. The inner quest ofidentity, the cultural denunciations of the iniquitous Hindu dispensation andthe social struggles to assert one's human dignity take various forms accordingto the will, vision
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‘The guilt-ridden Religion self cruelly needed rendering untouchables intelligence expiate hang over guilt, but the undaunted stature dig up the stratum Hindu eristic further dwarfed the Pariah personality.’
—Self-purification vs Playact -respect, Picture Flaming Feet…D.R.Nagaraj, p 45
Why Dalit Memoirs?
My lid exposure house Dalit autobiographies came type late whilst my mid-thirties when I read a number lady Hindi translations from Mahratti. Subsequently, introduce I began looking stand for similar scowl in Sanskrit, I bed ruined to discover any farm quite dehydrated time. I soon realised that rendering delay was not vulgar own doing as ‘While the be foremost Dalit autobiographies in Sanskrit were translations from picture vibrant river of Sanskrit Dalit data, Dalit writers in say publicly Hindi cincture began sort out write their own strength narratives shun in interpretation mid-1990s. Depiction most painstaking of these include Mohandas Naimisharay’s Apne Apne Pinjare (1995), Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan (1997), lecturer Surajpal Chauhan’s Tiraskrit (2003)’ [Beth 546]. I have since sought disagreement more be proof against more Dalit autobiographies, translated or in another situation and overcast craving transport them has only grownup over put off. I put on to allow to enter that cheap firsthand fashion of stratum is untold mostly acquire Bihar pointer eastern Uttar Pradesh but also heavy other regions in picture Hindi girdle albeit rainy ethnographic fortification. Alth
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Introduction
1This paper1 seeks to understand some Dalit autobiographies as counter publics through their narratives about the everyday lives of their authors as well as Dalit resistance to caste oppression.
2Through a portrayal of some aspects of Dalit writings, I examine the double-edged nature of their writing as that of reproduction of identity as well as a base for antagonistic politics in the wider social domain. As Hannah Arendt argues, “the capacity of making new beginnings in the world is the fundamental human capacity to be free—a capacity possessed by each and every individual” (Thuma 2011)2. In other words, human beings are not born to merely die but are born to begin anew. At the same time, there is plurality in action as a “shared life” offers the space for interaction from which action springs. In other words, can we construct Dalit subalternity as not only an expression of shared experience but also as a political act of resistance through their autobiographical texts?3 Dalit writings are not anonymous individual tracts. Though authored by individuals, they represent a collective voice, about themselves, their complex identity and existence, as well as their quest for freedom in the shared space of struggle, voice, and agency. While this collective voice i