Dalit Literature and Cultutre

Sita’s Curse, Shambuk’s Silence Understanding Caste by Gail Omvedt In this chapter, the author talks about the Hindu (brahminical) identity of India. She says this Hindu identity of India cannot be religious as there are other religions that reside in India and are distinct from Hinduism like Sikhism, Islam, Islam, etc. She says the other identity could that be of its population- The Hindu Civilization- the civilization living beyond Indus as Sindhu is the original pronunciation. She says this identity in itself is egalitarian and anti-Brahmanic as it encompasses diverse races, ethnicities and cultural groups. But today the identity of India is one that has been tailored by the Hindu Nationalist by conflating the pluralistic and territorial definition of Hindu with the religious one which gives dominance to a brahminic core. She says that the modern debate about the identity of India is much deeper than just the Hindu-Muslim debate. She is of the opinion that this debate is b...

Annihilation of Caste Annihilation of Caste was actually a speech written by Baba sahib as a speech that he was supposed to deliver at an anti-caste conference in Lahore. The reason why this speech was published as a booklet was that he was never able to deliver his speech at the conference because certain members of the conference thought that Baba sahib’s speech was very venomous and would mar the solidarity of the Hindus. The reason why this speech was never delivered and why and what Baba sahib wrote in his speech/book very closely concern each other. Baba sahib was of the opinion that Hinduism is plagued by the caste system. He was of the view that the caste system has lasted so long and suppressed one section of the society for so long because the vedas themselves sanction the caste system and justify the atrocities on the lower caste in the name of religion. Therefore, to end caste we need to annihilate Hinduism or “dynamite” the vedas. We all in our lifetime have heard ...

The Prisons We Broke by Baby Kamble. In this autobiography, Baby Kamble talks about her life and family as a Mahar. She starts off by talking about how her father was a contractor and at times there was a lot of money in the house and at times there was no money. This was because her father liked living on merit more than he liked living on money. This used to frustrate her mother a lot because there were times that they could not even eat one meal and lived in extreme poverty. Further, she also describes how people in the village would take a bath. they would chew up pieces of coconut and the mixture of the chewed up coconut and saliva was rubbed into the hair of the children and themselves. This mixture was washed off with extremely hot water which not only burned their scalps but also helped in killing off the lice on their heads. These procedures were extremely painful, especially for the young children and were a painful ordeal. Further, she also spoke about how the young girls...

Joothan- Omprakash Valmiki (Contd.) As Omprakash Valmiki goes on journaling his life in this autobiography, another incident in the book particularly stuck with me. this incident was when he and his 'chura' friend had gone to an upper caste man's house. Throughout their visit to his house, they were treated well by the upper caste man and his family and were even asked to eat in their house, using the same utensils. However, as soon as the upper caste man found out that they were 'churas' or 'chambers', he started beating them up. The author did not want to tell him that they were 'churas' or belonged to a lower caste but his friend went ahead and did so. This was because, for once in the author's life, he wanted to live without the burden of his caste and this incident just made him realise that he will never be able to escape that part of his identity. No matter how successful or educated e becomes, he will always be a 'chamaar' or a...

Abhinav Singh 20141297                                                                                UNTOUCHABLE TO DALIT In this week’s summary I would summarise  the chapter Dalit-New cultural context for an old Marathi word from the book Untouchable to Dalit, the most intriguing part of this chapter for me was how the writer drew similarities between the Black Literature and Dalit Literature. In the 1970s there were two major movements of the Dalit’s that gained prominence within the English press, which was named the Dalit Panthers and Dalit Literature, which were inspired by the American Black Panther and Black Literature. The Marathi word Dalit was chosen by the group itself and used proudly just like the word Black, this was their way ...

Aastha Bhardwaj Reflection Paper 5 March 3 rd 2020 A Brief History of the Dalit Memoir The article begins with an introduction to the stark reality by stating out the names that Dalits are called by, names that are reduce them down to being the ‘others’, a class of unimportant dirty individuals who come from dirt and are considered to be nothing more. The article then talks about the autobiography ‘Balut’ which was written originally in Marathi by Maruti Pawar. The article explains how these autobiographies written by Dalit writers are not just accounts of their lives but a look into the injustice that has been and that still is to the day inflicted upon an entire section of the Indian society. While most of them being general observations, one of the main points that stands out is that even though the stories are harrowing, it is possible for these accounts to be positive as well, this positive aspect is not meant to however, take away from the ground reality of their ...

Aastha Bhardwaj Reflection Paper 4 Feb 28 th 2020 Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki The history of India has wiped out the pages it did not want to come face to face with and Joothan provides a look, even if it’s us looking from the outside, into that part of history of the Indian social and culture post-independence. Valmiki is born not only into a ‘lower’ caste but also a lower class of the society which excludes him even further from being a respectable part of the said society. We are introduced to the struggles he faces along the road to being an educated playwright. Valmiki’s account of his life puts us within the perspective of the ground realities of the Indian societal structures that have been internalized for generations. Valmiki puts forth accounts that remain unknown to the world because of the systematic marginalization as well as the wiping out of the cultural and social presence of the lower castes. The system is systematic because it deprives the lower caste...