Panel No. 4

Panel Title: The voice of Dalit in South Asian Literature

Convenor: Aswini Mishra, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India.

     Friday 9 July, 8–128

Panel Abstract: Manusmriti, the first document on jurisprudence in India strictly prohibits S.Cs (dalits) from going through Vedas or even listening to its recitation. The temples never welcome their steps. In spite of growing awareness of the constitutional provisions (art 15 of Indian Constitution) regarding bar on discretion basing on caste, religion, sex, race and place of birth, the Indian scenario is never in its full proof show so far to wipe out its stigma successfully from the society. It is a blatant violation of article 15 (2b) of the constitution which implies that caste shouldn’t serve as a plea for restricting entry to places of public resort dedicated to the cause of general public.
Silenced for ages together by social and economic exploitation the S.Cs have been denied as yet proper entry into the making of literature or of the performing arts. A life being disgraceful, they wished not to be stifled in it any more. L.S Rokade a Marathi poet from India came forward to speak candidly on this:

I spit on this great civilization
Is this land yours, mother
Because you were born here ?
Is it mine
Because I was born to you?

Another poet cries out ”in our nostrils, the smell of food. In our stomachs, darkness. from our eyes, welling up, streams of tears”. The struggle for human rights in South Asia may be either on economic political. or social fronts. Such exploited groups are there in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other places of this continent. In the past few years among the literary achievements of Asia, there has been rousing awareness of the emergence and assertion of the voice of S.Cs in Asian poetry. A continuing dialogue reflecting the progressive vision of Asian poetics may form the subject matter of discussion. The dalit writers have now become familiar with the Black literary movement in U.S.A, the voice of universal justice in the poems of leading poets in Africa, South America and other places of the world. The critics very often say ”thus society has become a vast congregation of mutually praising and mutually honouring members. Flatterers and sycophants have become entrenched in seats of Authority”. They searched deep for words powerful enough to shock and awaken the slumbering multitudes which out of selfish motives entered into a compromise with the vested interests.

      Extended panel abstract (by AK Mishra) to be downloaded (as a pdf-file)

Papers accepted for presentation in the panel:

Paper Giver 1: Heinz Werner Wessler, University of Bonn, Germany

Paper 1 Title: A Mlecch Perspective on Contemporary Hindi Dalit Literature
Paper Abstract: Current literary activity in the Hindi world may resemble what has happened in Marathi-literature thirty years ago. This presentation, starting from the perception of The Pariah in a German ballade written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe early in the 19th century, will relate to the following indicators of a recent blossoming, and mainstreaming of Hindi Dalit literature, parallel to political processes of representation coined by Christophe Jaffrelot culminating in a silent revolution:
- the publication of Hindi-Dalit literature and literary analysis relating to Dalit-issues in the most important literary Magazine Hans (published by Rajendr Yadav) since about 1995 and other magazines (like Katha, Desh), the growing number of Dalit sahitya special issues growing size and the creativity of the corpus of prose literature of this genre, particularly in the field of kahani

- the publication of at least four literary autobiographies, starting with Mohandas Naimishray‚s apne apne pinjre1995 (part 1)
- the publication of a Dalit sahitya annual bulletin by Jayprakash Ka dam since 1999
- the publication of several volumes of poetry collections by diverse authors (for example from prominent authors like Syauraj Singh Bechain, Rajat Rani and Sudesh Tanvir)
- the publication of the literary magazine Apeksha under the editorship of Tejsimh since October 2002
- the publication of at least one important novel Chappar by Jay Prakash Kardam in 1994 (revised edition:03)
- the discourse on Dalit identity and the recovery of the nirgun bhakti tradition in Hindi literature, particularly relating to sant and the search of a forgotten string of the history of religions in India going back as far as pre-vedic religion by Rajdev Simh and the Ajivika religion by Dharmvir

Academic scholars started to perceive the riches of classical Sanskrit and its literature and the relation between India and Europe through this language and the culture it once incorporated. The image of the untouchable as a backward, and at the same time an illiterate or at least less educated person, as somebody ascribed to and stubbornly absorbed by a subaltern manual occupation, perceived as his traditional and original profession according to some kind of dharma, is still dominating.

Paper Giver 2: Sarah Bethuf, Cambridge University, UK

Paper 2 Title: Dalit Autobiographies in Hindi: the transformation of pain into resistance

Paper Abstract: Dalit literary assertion in Hindi has been of recent origin when compared to the origin of Dalit literature in Maharashtra. However, since the early 1980s, Dalit literature, including autobiographies, short-stories, intellectual debates, literary criticism, and popular booklets, have been expanding with impressive momentum in the Hindi belt. This paper seeks to look more closely at one of the most important forms of Hindi Dalit literature ˆ Dalit autobiography. It first asks, what is the meaning of autobiography in Dalit literature ? How do Dalit autobiographies differ from other autobiographies, and how does the narrative agenda within the autobiography form an anti-caste narrative ? Secondly, this paper seeks to dissect threadbare Dalit autobiographies‚ engagement with identity politics in an attempt to understand the kind of Dalit identity asserted in these autobiographies as well as the boundaries of these identities. Lastly, this paper will show that Dalit autobiographies represent an attempt to assert a new form of socio-historical narrative ˆ regarding both Dalit socio-cultural traditions as well as the history of the larger Dalit assertion movement ˆ into the mainstream narrative of the nation.

      Full paper to be downloaded (as a pdf-file)

Paper Giver 3: Usha Rani Bansal, Banaras Hindu University, India

Paper 3 Title: –

Paper Abstract: Indian social polity consists of four varanas (castes). In the hierarchy of varanas, dalits are the lowest in the ladder. Their condition was very deplorable and pathetic beyond imagination. In the 20th century when India was swept by renaissance and the new wave of awakening, the dalits also saw a new dawn. They became conscious of their shockingly bad and inhumane living conditions. A dalit from the state of Bihar in Northern India wrote a peom ŒAchut ki shikayat‚ (meaning complaint of an untouchable) in local dialect bhojpuri. It was published in 1914 A.D. in a leading magazine Saraswati. This poem is regarded as the first subaltern poem written by a subaltern himself. The poem not only gave a picturesque idea of the conditions of dalits but also reflects the socio-economic and political environment of the country. The focus of the paper shall be to examine the conditions of the subalterns in India in the light of the poem written by Hira Dome.

Paper Giver 4: Jugal Kishore Mishra, Post-Doctoral scholar and Reader in political science
B.J.B.Jr college, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India

Paper 4 Title: A Critical study of Dalit Literature in India

Paper Abstract : Dalit (oppressed or broken) is not a new word. Apparently, it was used in the 1930s as a Hindi and Marathi translation of depressed classes‚ a term the British used for what are now called the Scheduled Castes. In 1070s the ŒDalit Panthers‚ revived the term and expanded its reference to include scheduled tribes, poor peasants, women and all those being exploited politically, economically.
The Primary motive of Dalit literature is the liberation of dalits. Dalit struggle against caste tradition has a long history. The 12th century Dalit saint Kalavve challenged the upper castes in the following words:

• Those who eat goats, foul and tiny fish:
Such, they call caste people.
Those who eat the Sacred Cow
That showers frothing milk for Shiva:
Such, they call outcastes.

In modern times, because of the legacy of Mahatma Phule and Babarao Ambedkar, Dalit literature got impetus in Maharastra.; But before the name came into being in the 1960s, such people as Baburao Bagul, Bandhu Madhav, Shankarao kharat were already creating Dalit literature. These Dalit youths found inspiration in the movement of blacks in the distant land of North America; their black literature and Black Panther became the role models of sorts for them.
Poems, short stories, novels and autobiographies written by Dalit writers provided useful insights on the question of Dalit identity. Now the subaltern communities found a new name by coming together with the perspective ŒDalit is dignified‚ thereby rejecting the sub-human status imposed on them by the Hindu social order.
While dealing with the trends of Dalit literature, there has been an humble attempt to point out the core issues of its ideology. In this context it can be said that Dalit literature questioned the mainstream literary theories and upper caste ideologies and explored the neglected aspects of life. This Œanubhava‚ (experience) takes precedence over Œanumana‚ (speculation). Thus to Dalit writers, history is not illusionary or unreal as Hindu metaphysical theory may make one to believe. That is why authenticity and liveliness have become hallmarks of Dalit literature.
Thus the contribution of Dalit literature has been immense:

i) First and foremost, it effectively threatened the Brahmanic hegemony from literature.
ii) Second, it conscientiously aroused Dalit masses for assertion, protest and mobilization.
iii) Third it stirred up thinking in Dalit intellectuals and catalyzed creation of organic intellectuals of Dalits
However, in the context of the increasing significance of Dalit literature there is a great need to address major theoretical issues connected with it. The important questions that will be addressed in this paper are the following.
i) How far and in what measure the Dalit writings have transformed the full dimension of the cruelties and humiliation they had suffered into literacy expression and experience?
ii) What are the similarities and differences between the efflorescence of Dalit literature in different languages ?
iii) How have the Dalit writings extended the scope of mainstream literature in terms of content?
iv) Where do the present trends in Dalit literature lead to ?
v) Are Dalit writings falling into a stereotype?

      Full paper to be downloaded (as a pdf-file)