Sirgapoor Sahil Reddy- Week 5


READING SUMMARY WEEK 5
DALIT AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
Sirgapoor Sahil Reddy
JGU Id- 20161245

The Major difference between a Dali autobiography and other autobiographies is that the Dalit autobiographies contain no stories of self-achievement, but rather they are stories of denial of opportunities. The autobiographies are characterized as brazen, as most of them contain real-life encounters that the Dalits have faced. These autobiographies are important for us as they help to establish a Dalit hero in the community and bestow their struggles with validity. Their autobiographies also act as memoirs that help establish a Dalit history, as they also talk about the general feelings of the community towards the Dalits. For instance, the example from Joothan where the teacher asks Om Prakash Valmiki to clean the school purely based on his caste, helps us understand Dalit history.
With the advent of time, the Dalit autobiographies have changed over time. They have made a shift from “I the victim” to “I the achiever”, as they have transformed into stories of achievement even with the caste oppression against them. Additionally, the double discrimination faced by Dalit women has gained recognition through authors like Urmila Pawar. Throughout, she has explored the concept of double discrimination. At one point, she reminisces that her mother had banished her to a corner when she had started menstruating, with instructions to not touch anything, because it would “become impure". The young Urmila wondered at this concept of purity and thought “As if I wasn’t discriminated enough by others outside, now family too, has set rules for me."Dalit women have to suffer the consequences of patriarchy at home and the oppression of being lower a caste in society.


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