Week 5 - Samyuktha Rao

Week 5

The articles “A brief history of Dalit Memoirs” and “Autobiographies of Dalit writers are narratives of pain” were interestingly contrasting. As pointed out in the articles about Dalit memoirs, there are authors who have written their narrative  positively (by eliminating the injustices) and authors who have honestly penned down their honest experiences, which are indeed painful. I believe authors of both these kinds are required to both agitate young Dalits to join the revolution and also, to give them the hope that they are the achievers too and not just victims by showing bravery and resilience. The article also addressed about the intersection of gender and caste when it comes of Dalit women autobiographies. It is indeed true that the narrative depicted in women autobiographies is more painful to read. 

The article further addresses that the new media age and new writing mostly covers the Ambedkarite thought and leaves our the other ideologies. I believe this had to be rightly pointed out because there are different battles to be fought and people on the whole should have access to different schools of ideology that exist within the broader Dalit framework like Marxist-Dalit views, Gandhian school of ideology, etc.The article also addressed poetry as a strong tool for revolution in the 1970’s alongside the autobiographies.

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