DALIT LITERATURE

Dalit literature is the forum and the medium of expression of the experiences of the
communities that have been excommunicated, marginalized, exploited and humiliated for ages in the
Indian caste-ridden Hindu society. (The term dalit literally means the downtrodden, depressed and
underprivileged.) Dalit literature reflects dalit experience and sensibility, attempting to define and
assert dalit identity from a primarily dalit point of view. In many ways, it is a protest literature which
faithfully mirrors the stark realities of the dalit situation and becomes an important weapon to
strengthen the dalit (political) movement. The dalit author Sharankumar Limbale calls it “the burning
cry of untouchables against the injustices of thousands of years.”

The first known dalit writer is the thirteenth century untouchable Bhakti poet of Maharashtra,
Chokkamela. The origins of dalit literature in the contremporary usage of the term, which is largely
written and published in regional Indian languages, are in the late nineteenth century. In modern
times, because of the legacy of Mahatma Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar, dalit literature got
impetus in Maharashtra and Ambedkarist thought is still the lifeblood of much dalit literature.
Although most of the pioneering works have been produced in Maharashtra and the adjacent Gujarat,
dalit literature has today taken substantial shape in a variety of Indian languages such as Kannada,
Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam. A large number of these texts are also available in English translations
for a wider audience.

Some of the most widely read writers of dalit literature available in English translation
include Laxman Gaekwad (The Branded), Bama (Karukku and Sangati), Naredra Jhadav
(Untouchables: My Family’s Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India),
Sharankumar Limbale (The Outside: Akkarmashi), Joseph Macwan (The Stepchild), Om Prakash
Valmiki (Joothan: A Dalit’s Life), Baby Kamble (Our Existence) and Imayam (Beats of Burden).
Kumud Pawde, Daya Pawar, Arjun Dangle, Sachi Rautray, Rabi Singh, Basudev Sunai, Namdeo
Dhasal, Lakshman Mane, Abhimani, Poomani, Marku, Mangal Rathod, Neerave Patel, Perumal
Murugan, Palamalai, Sudhakar, D. Gopi, T.K.C. Vaduthala (T.K.C. Vaduthalayude Kathakal) and
Narayan (Kocharayathi) are the other prominent dalit writers. (The identity of a dalit writer is a
highly debated one. Some dalit critics like Limbale argue that dalit literature is the exclusive forte of
writers who are by birth dalits and that upper caste writers like Mahasweta Devi (Breast stories), Sara
Joseph (Thaikulam), Kumaran Asan (Chandalabhikshuki), Mulkraj Anand (Untouchable) and
Premchand (Kafan), though chroniclers of the dalit experience, cannot be categorized as dalit writers
as they never undergo the trials and tribulations of dalit existence.

As Limbale has put it, dalit literature is “purposive”….revolutionary, liberational and

Further, dalit writers subvert the Brahmanical, universalist literary tradition, classical
aesthetics and the popular images that have been the hallmarks of Indian literature monopolized by
the upper castes and classes. Inauspicious images like that of the bat and unappealing colours like
black are positively interpreted in dalit literature. Images from classical literature are also adopted to
show how dalits have always been exploited. Thus, the character of Ekalavya from the Mahabharata
who was made to surrender his right thumb as gurudakshina by the Brahmanical guru, Drona
becomes a favourite in dalit writing.

Dalit literature also resists literary conventions and language rigidities and tries to create its
own poetics against the set politics of the classical literature of the upper castes. The reality of dalit
literature is distinct so is the language of this reality. It uses the uncouth, impolite spoken language,
the dialect that is specific to dalits of a region, wherever possible and emphasizes the faithful
reflection of the heartrending dalit experience in terms as simple as possible. Very often, dalit writing
prioritizes subjective narratives in contrast to the norms of the existing standard literature that
concentrates on the objectivity and the universality of literature.

Although dalit literature comes in all genres – poetry, fiction, and theatre – the
autobiographies are the most popular. Narendra Jadhav, a dalit author, traces this popularity to the
fact that when a group of people who have been denied a voice for centuries begin to talk, the natural
tendency is to tell their own stories. These autobiographies deal not only with the institution of caste
as a means of oppression, but also show how economic deprivation and poverty go hand in hand with
caste discriminations.

Sharankumar Limbale’s ‘The Outcaste’ (originally in Marathi titled Akkarmashi) shows how
much the caste-system and its attendant poverty and social stigma follow a dalit everywhere.
Unacknowledged by his high-caste Patil father, Sharan, the young protagonist is marginalized
because his mother, with whom he lives, is a low-caste Mahar. The agonizing poverty of his
childhood is described in simple, yet evocative language…..the most vivid being when his
grandmother eats bhakris made out of millets taken from cow dung, establishing economic
inadequacy as a handmaiden of caste hierardchies. Lakshman Gaekwad’s ‘The Branded’ contains
one of the most depressing illustrations of poverty; the author-protagonist eats gruel in which worms
wriggle. Other texts like Karuku, Koveruk Kazhudaigal and The Outcaste also delineate the
intractable poverty of dalit communities.

The condition of the dalit women protagonists is even worse – thrice alienated by class,
patriarchy and caste. Bama’s autobiography – novel Karukku deals with the experiences of a dalit
woman in a variety of social institutions like the village, the family, the educational system, the
church and the clergy. In this novel structured as a series of memories and recollections, the author
examines her own experiences first as Roman Catholic and then as a woman and as a dalit. This
novel does not follow the linear mode and often uses as its narrative strategy, the confessional mode.
The narrative is a polemic between the self and the community and deals with the issue of caste
oppression specifically within the Catholic Church and its institutions. Drawing form the oral
tradition of folk songs and work-chants, the novel uses colloquialisms to oppose the formalities of
the written language. Bama also breaks the rules of written grammar and spelling, demanding an
alternate way of understanding her polemical text.

What links the various dalit texts written in different languages is the sense of awareness of
the injustice of the caste system as well as of the social and political institutions that sustain it. These
books not only raise important questions but also narrate the ability of the people on the margins to
fight against all odds. In short, dalit literature expresses the anxiety, desire, and pain of centuries of
caste struggle, and the creative visions of social justice put forward by writers of the dalit movement
should inspire and shape the consciousness of local and transnational participants, in battles against
all oppressive and exploitative systems.

Dalit literature, however, has been criticized on several counts. It has been decried for being
“propagandist, univocal and negative”. Critics accuse this literature of getting carried away by the
‘frenzy of the movement’, without being objective or neutral so much so that it ends up being
propagandist. The expression of an ideological view common to all dalit writing has contributed to
the charge of this literature being univocal. The identical nature of the tyranny of untouchability
everywhere also leads to this monotony. Another charge is that the collective/social nature of the
experience presented often results in the erasure of the individual from dalit literature. And finally,
dalit literature has been accused of expressing resentment. However, it must be noted that it is
precisely these qualities that make dalit literature what it is – these are the qualities that make its
natural disposition; qualities which incline one to read dalit literature.