Narrating Oppression,
Asserting Identity: Dalit Autobiographical Narratives as Counter-Narratives
Dr. Amit Narula,
Assistant professor
in English,
D. A. V. College
Chandigarh,
Chandigarh,
India.
Abstract: The DALIT writings
record the trauma of Dalits in such a very straightforward way that these
writings become a tool of resistance. Through Dalit narratives, the writers
have very clearly exposed flaws and inhuman character of social system that
perpetuates exclusion and untouchability even today. Various Dalit
autobiographical narratives represent and problematize the different dimensions
and aspects of Dalits consciousness that make Dalit identity , a site of
contestation and conflict. The Dalit narratives critique some of the potent
paradoxes emerging within the domain of Dalit discourses itself. The project
will highlight how autobiographical narratives have been used by Dalit writer's
as a form of political assertion by providing entrance into public sphere and a
reassertion of control over the construction of Dalit selfhood.
Keywords: Dalit, Identity, History, Autobiography,
Resistance
Autobiographical
narratives constitute a significant segment of Dalit literature. The Dalit
writers termed these narratives as self-stories and self- reportings. Most of
these narratives are tales of personal sufferings of the Dalit writers fused
with their interpersonal responses and community feelings which they experience
in a Hindu society. On the face of several oppressive social forces, these
writers, with their growing perceptions and mature imagination, capture the
tensions which grow out of a continuous battle between ‘loss of identity’ and
‘asserting of self’. Thus, the very process of writing autobiography by the
Dalits is a form of resistance against various forms of oppression. It is in
this sense that these autobiographical narratives invoke a pain that is mostly
personal, and yet they narrate their stories with a realisation that the other
members of their community also suffer in the same way.
The
emergence of Dalit personal narratives is a historic break-through because
Dalits in India, till very recently, were voiceless. Education was hardly
available to them until independence and therefore they were completely silent
all through these years. It was only after independence that a few among them
who tasted the fruit of modern education started articulating their
experiences. Thus, the very emergence of Dalit autobiographical narratives is
an act of resistance becauseDalits are using this opportunity to assert their
identities through their writings. The growing number of Dalit autobiographies
today is a clear instance of how Dalits have been breaking down an age-old
barrier of silence forced on them through caste-system.
Through
struggle and resistance, Dalit writings have tried to throw away the yoke of
their enslavement. The pain of Dalits is expressed so delicately and clearly in
a very straight forward way that these writings become a tool of resistance.
Through the Dalit writings the authors have very clearly exposed the
irrationality of those who believed in the theory of casteism and
untouchability. The degradation and horrendous misbehavior is resisted through
Dalit writings. Besides, Dalit expectations are profoundly expressed and it is
the plea of the Dalits that they should be treated as human beings.
“Dalit
life” is excruciatingly painful, charred by experiences. Experiences that did
not manage to find room in literary creations they have grown up in a social
order that is extremely cruel and inhuman and compassionless towards them. They
have harbored the desire to put the narrative of their pain into writings for a
long time. In Joothan, Valmiki
writes:
We need an ongoing struggle, and a
consciousness of struggle, a consciousness that brings revolutionary change
both in the outside world and in our hearts, a consciousness that leads the
process of social change. (Valmiki 2003:132)
The struggle of Dalitsis against physical
violence, mass killings and rapes, injustice through political as well as
cultural means. Dalit literature is one of the major tools of their resistance
and creativity. Untouchables expressed their experiences while confronting with
their agony born out of exploitation.
In The First Question of the Untouchable Boy
Marathi’s first major modern poet, Keshavsut wrote at the end, after a Mahar
child’s mother has explained to him that the Brahmin boy cursed him, because We Are Low And They Are High.
How would she know
that highness in this world is built
on sin and glory on
the degradation of others. (Anand and Zelliot 1992:122)
Dalit literature is a protest against all forms of
exploitation based on class, race, gender, caste or community. Valmiki knows
the importance of education and he writes his stories according to a set
formula to enforce a moral learning for
society. Perhaps the most touching realization of the need for the
education is expressed in Joothan
where Valmiki cries for the need of education to do away with the stigma of
untouchability. Seeds of rebel can be seen in Joothan. Om Prakash Valmiki’s father saw his son sweeping the
school compound. He got angry and he snatched the broom from Valmiki’s hand and
threw it away. His eyes were blazed and he was so angry that his dense
moustache was fluttering. On that day, he was filled with courage and the
fortitude with which he confronted the headmaster. All this, shows that Dalits
have learnt to resist against the wrongs done to them. They have become aware
of their rights and want to fight out their battles. The sweeping episode stirs
Om Prakash Valmiki’s consciousness to such an extent that he dared to raise his
voice against the ill-treatment meted out to his son. He says :
Chowdhri
sahib, you say that the government has opened the doors of the schools for the
children of Chuhras and Chamars. And that headmaster makes this child of mine
to come out of the class and sweep all day instead of teaching him. If he has
to sweep all day, then you tell me when he is going to study? (Valmiki 2003:7)
This seed of ‘Revolution’, concept of purity and
pollution, dream to their logical extremes, made life a living hell for some
people of the same land and due to this treatment their anger exposes in terms
of a “volcano”. Education is a significant instrument to upgrade the identity
and self respect of the socially deprived sections of the society. Educated
people irrespective of their caste and creed become capable of contributing
towards national development in many ways through their knowledge and
intellectual resources. Swami Vivekananda, who after having travelled
throughout the country as a “Parbrajka” having seen the abject poverty of the
masses, came to the conclusion that want of education is at the root of the
country’s present degradation. The only services to be done for our deprived classes
are to give them education to enable them develop their lost individuality.
It is education that enables one to resist.
Om Prakash Valmiki’s father in Joothanstruggles
hard to get his son educated. First, he faces many problems to get his son
admitted in a school and later when the teachers humiliate his son in school,
he protests. He knows that it is education that can help his son achieve some
position and respect in society. That is why he always encourages his son and
keeps saying that he has to improve his caste by studying. This resolve to get
education is the resolve to fight against ill-treatment, humiliation and
injustice. Nothing but education can enable one to do so. In an incidence, in Joothan, when Fauza Singh Tyagi forcibly
held Om Prakash Valmiki by the elbow and dragged him to Fauza’s fields. Valmiki
writes :
A
fire had engulfed his innards that day and after some time when Fauza’s mother
dropped the rotis into his hands from way above, lest her hand touch him, he
threw those rotis in front of her and ran towards his home. (58)
It shows Om Prakash’s opposition to the behavior
exhibited by the upper-caste woman. When he told the whole incident to his
father, he had been “infuriated” because he wanted Valmiki to be able to focus
single mindedly on his education and on the very next day was his tenth class
board exam. Valmiki writes that his father had picked up a stick to go and
fight with Fauza. However, others stopped him with great difficulty.
Joothan has a reference to a tradition
known as “Salaam” in which the Dalit brides and bridegrooms have to go around
the village asking for something at the doors of upper caste family. In this
way they perform “Salaam”. It really shatters the Dalits’ self respect into
fragments as this custom reduces their status to the level of a beggar. The
autobiographical narrative does reflect how some Dalit educated youth have
become aware of their self-respect in society and hence they dare to challenge
such abominable customs. Om Prakash Valmiki resists against performing “salaam”
and asks his father in a protesting tone that is it right to go for ‘Salaam’?
His father listens to him quietly and says:
Munshi
Ji, sending you to school has been a success… I, too, have understood your
point … We will now break this custom. (32)
His father has really broken the custom of “Salaam” in
his house because it is traditional custom which requires the bridegroom to go
to the house of their clients and receive clothes and utensils. Here, Om
Prakash Valmiki’s father proves his point in sending his child to school. It is
only due to education that Valmiki is able to resist against the age-old
useless tradition. It is hence clear that honour cannot be bestowed upon them.
It has to be earned with the help of education. Until or unless one starts
resisting, such type of customs can never be ended. So, one can improve one’s
caste by studying, as the author’s father says time and again.
It is in the house of the author that the
seeds of resistance and struggle against the social evil of untouchability,
maltreatment and manhandling sprout. In an another incident Valmiki’s mother
overturns a basket full of Joothan,
before the high caste Mr. tyagi who humiliates her. Valmiki’s mother finds it
difficult to bear the humiliation with which she is treated by Tyagi. So, she
refuses to accept the basketful of leftovers saying:
Pick
it up and put it inside your house. Feed it to the ‘baraties’ tomorrow morning.
(11)
This throwing of basket is one form of resistance that
conveys a message to Dalit community that they will never accomplish
respectable status in society unless they resist against all the wrongs done to
them. How Dalits have started resisting against the wrong attitude of
upper-caste people finds expression in an incident that takes place in the
classroom. All the students in a class tear apart some pages of their books at
the behest of their brahmin teacher only because those pages comprise a chapter
on Ambedkar. The element of resistance is found among some mahar students who do
not like this act of tearing apart the pages on Ambedkar. This makes it clear
that education has at least taught them to raise their voice against the wrong
behavior shown by others. The students like Eklavya gave their compliance to
the commands of others only because they were lacking in education. Their mind
and spirit of these lower caste people were enslaved by those from the upper
caste who made them slave to their wishes.
The
ending of Joothan expresses the anger
and bitterness of Valmiki who protests against the behavior of one and all who
breed bias against Dalit. He feels bad to think that nothing has changed for
Dalits so far. They are still bearing the brunt of being Dalits. He writes volubly
and states angrily:
Times have changed. But there is something
somewhere that continues to irk. I have asked many scholars to tell me why
Savarnas hate Dalits and Shudras so much? The Hindus who worship trees and
plants, beasts and birds, why are they so intolerant of Dalits? Today caste
remains a pre-eminent factor in social life. As long as people don’t know that
you are a Dalit, things are fine. The moment they find out you caste,
everything changes. The whispers slash your veins like knives. Poverty,
illiteracy, broken lives, the pain of standing outside the door how would the
civilized Savarna Hindus know it? (134)
The above lines authenticate the reality that
Valmiki is so angry with the social system based on casteism that he resolves
to resist with the help of his writings. And his writings are the evidence of
his irk against the present set up. It is through his autobiographical
narrative that he concentrates his attention to the prejudice of those infested
with the caste ridden mindset. He writes :
Why is my caste my only identity? Many
friends hint at the loudness and arrogance of my writings. They insinuate that I have imprisoned myself
in a narrow circle. They say that literary expression should be focused on the
universal; a writer ought not to limit himself to a narrow, confined terrain of
life. That is my being Dalit and arriving at apoint of view according to my
environment and my socio-economic situation is being arrogant. Because in their
eyes. I am only an SC, the one who stands outside the door. (134)
Dalit literature has voiced their anger
against the prejudice they have been suffering for centuries. The writers of
Dalit literature decries that nothing has changed for them for centuries though
big claims are made in their favour. That is why there is a deep anger in their
hearts. The beautiful poem The City
by Daya Pawar clearly presents the picture of their plight :
One day someone dug up a twentieth century city.
…
Here’s an interesting inscription:
This water tap is open to all caste and religions
What could it have meant:
That this society was divided?
That some were high while others were low?
Well, all right, then this city deserved burning
Why did they call it machine age?
Seems like the Stone Age in the twentieth century. (Anand
and Zelliot 1992:129)
Similar element of resistance and struggle is
also clearly noticeable in The Branded.
The autobiography by LaxmanGaikwad lays before us the desire to remove poverty
from uchalya community as it makes LaxmanGaikwad restless. It is the sheer
misery and poverty that has impelled the downtrodden like the author to raise
his voice against this trouble. He wrote a letter to Indira Gandhi the then
Prime Minister. He wrote in the letter:
Mahatma Gandhi did not wear clothes so that
the poor would be benefitted, they would get clothes. When is Gandhi Ji’s dream
going to be fulfilled? Please take steps to see that the poor get one square
meal a day at least. (Gaikwad 2005:40)
The incident of writing a letter to Prime
Minister symbolizes the Gaikwad’s resistance against poverty. However, nothing
came of it. Here we cannot brush aside the contribution of Ambedkar who kept on
struggling for the rights of Dalits till his last days. His contribution
through his mighty pen cannot be ignored. To achieve this end he made a good
use of many tactics. In the religious field he at first encouraged the Dalit
brethren to make attempts to join religious festival to enter temples, to
perform marriages with Vedic rites. After Mahad Conference held in 1927 at
Mahad in Bombay, in pursuance of this resolution, Mahad Municipal Council
declared that the Mahad tank, a natural rain water tank, which was first
restricted for Dalits is open to all communities. It was a big achievement that
could be owed to nothing else but the power to resist.
The
untouchable of Maharastra made three attempts at temple entry in order to
assert their religious equality with Hindus. The temple entry programme at
Amaravati in 1927 was a futile one. In 1929-30, there was another violent,
strong attempt made by the untouchables along with another reforms to climb the
Parvati Hill in Pune, which was considered a sacred one. Several volunteers had
to be hospitalized due to an attack by the Hindus. But the most important of
such attempts was the Satyagraha at Kala Ram temple in Nasik, which served as a
platform for unifying and mobilizing the untouchables. It was a five year long
Satyagraha which ended in 1935. It is really a great matter of concern that
even today lower caste people are not allowed entry into some of the temples.
Such resistance finds an expression in the following lines by Kisan
FagoBansode,
Why do you endure curses?
Chokha went into the temple resolutely,
Why do you ashamed, stay away?
You are the descendants of Chokha.
Why do you fear to enter the temple?
Brace yourself like a wrestler, come,
Together let us conquer pollution. (Anand &Zelliot
1992:07)
Not only person of high status like Ambedkar
but also others of low stature wrote about the sufferings and resistance. Daya
Pawar equally shows light to others in his poetry. In Sanskriti (Culture) he wrote:
In hut after hut, total darkness.
Then the siren went off.
From the fourteen story Damodar
Comes ― what’s this?― a gleam of light.
What do you say?
They’ve got a permit for light. (135)
TryambakSapkalein his poem Day opines that days full of hope will
be blossomed soon. He writes:
Don’t despair, my girl.
Even these days will pass.
This day’s day will pass.
This day’s day will soon be done.
Our day is not far off .
Look the day is with child. (154)
Resistance against untouchability is
essential both for Dalit community as well as for non-Dalit community because
this resistance paves the way of progress of a country like India where
untouchability still prevails and causes a sort of rift among different
communities based on various castes. Louis Fischer has rightly said in his book
The Life of Mahatma Gandhi:
Untouchability is segregation gone mad. Theoretically a
device against contamination, it actually contaminates the country that allows
it. (Kishore 2003:118)
Today it is the need of the hour to resist
and struggle against the man made odds against the Dalit community. The
condition of Dalits will start improving once they learn to resist. Besides, no
law can change the mindset of caste ridden Indians until or unless the high
caste people show the will power to do so.
It is
the ill treatment and step motherly behavior of upper caste people that forces
the low caste people to cry for justice. It not only heightens their pain and
trauma but also forces them to stand and protest. A moment in their life comes
when the torture becomes so painful and abominable that it becomes intolerable
and the resistance overstuffed with bitter emotions takes the form of volcanic
outburst as is evident from the following lines of Pralhad Chandwankar in Empty Advice:
This Country which demands
a pot of blood
for a swallow of water
how can I call it mine
though it gives the world
the (empty) advice of peace. (Anand & Zelliot
1992:37)
And in another poem, I have become the Tide another
rebellious soul J.V. Pawar sighs:
As the sand soaks up the water at the shore,
So my great sorrow.
How long with it be like the sand?
How long will it cry out because of its obstinate wish to
exit? (141)
Hence the literature written by Dalits voices
against the society that treats human being in a beastly manner only because
they are born in low caste. This literature has shown a ray of hope for the
Dalit brethren who can stand erect and give voice to their sufferings. The
Dalit literature, thus, becomes a mouthpiece of the suffering lot of this land
without whom, otherwise, the fabric of this country is incomplete and will
remain so for the ages to come.
The
thought of Dr. Ambedkar, the ideals of Buddhism and the struggle of
JyotibaPhule against caste domination provided the theoretical foundation to
the Dalit literature. Dalit literature now is the apparatus of their identity.
Their identity is painful to seek and difficult to find. Dalits lived quite
pitiable life. They were worse than animals. Arjun Dangle in his essay-Dalit Literature Past, Present and Future
states:
Treated
like animals they lived apart from the villages and had to eat the leftovers
from the higher caste people in return for their endless toil. (Dangle
1992:235)
Dalit literature is a mirror of the oppressed. It
reflects their pain, their suffering and their hope for liberation. The
ultimate function of Dalit theology is two- fold: to act in solidarity and to
act for liberation. Liberation is envisaged as liberation of Dalits from the
historically oppressive structures, religious, cultural and socio-economic.
Dalit literature as a product of seventies is written literature to give voice
to their oppressed feelings and non-human treatment meted to them in the Indian
hierarchical society. It directly or indirectly searched Dalit realities in a
cultural manner. It is neither easy nor necessary to locate exact origin of the
Dalit literature after Phule and Ambedkar. Before 1960, BaburaoBagul, Bandhu
Madhav, ShankarraoKharat were writing Dalit literature. They drew their
inspiration from the movement of blacks in the distant land of North America.
Dalit literature has brought a consciousness
among Dalits to free themselves from the hegemonic hold of Brahmanic literature
and culture. This consciousness came in Indian English fiction also after
independence. This paved the way for social justice. The word social justice
may have been coined in recent times as a populist slogan by the politicians
but its idea as a valuable virtue or ideal for the society had always existed
and stirred the noble minds in all the ages. Thus, the treatment of Dalits and
concern for social justice can be found in the works of many novelists. The
novels of Mulk Raj Anand are a good example. Seeing the miserable condition of
Dalits in Indian society, Anand felt that India’s basic challenge in modern
times is the changing of her social institutions. Through his writings, Mulk
Raj anand has contributed to Indian awareness of this need for social change.
His first novel Untouchable is a fine
illustration. Like Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan has also depicted Dalit
consciousness in his novels. Narayan’s mother-tongue is Tamil, he settled down
in Mysore, where the regional language is Kannada, and he writes in English.
Apparently his novels explore the human relationship and focus on the
particular characters but like a detached observer Narayan does not fail to
describe the pitiable condition of downtrodden people both in villages and
towns. Roughly contemporary with Mulk Raj Anand and R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao
makes with them a remarkable triad, affiliated with them in time and sometimes
in the choice of themes but not in his art as a novelist or in his enchanting
prose style. A novelist and a short story writer, he too is a child of the
Gandhian Age and reveals in his work his sensitive awareness of the forces let
loose by the Gandhian Revolution as also of the thwarting or steadying pulls of
past tradition. Raja Rao’s heart is effectively tethered to his immutable
ancient moorings with the strong invisible strings of his traditional Hindu
culture. But he does not fail to describe the hellish life of poor people
basically untouchables in villages.
Arundhati Roy concentrates on the plight of defenseless Dalits in
her novel The God of Small Things. She means to say that a Dalit is a
Dalit by low birth like Velutha, or by gender identity like Ammu. She opines
that birth makes one a low caste Dalit and sometimes gender identity of a woman
makes her a subaltern. Moreover the novel also analyzes the condition of
Paravans in Kerala’s religious communities, their atrocity and brutality. Thus
we see that Roy’s novel portrays the Dalit consciousness. Dalit literature in
Marathi is popular in form of autobiographical narratives. In their
autobiographical narratives authors presents accounts of what they lived
through. These autobiographical narratives stimulats the conscience of all
kinds of readers. The most genuine autobiographical masterpieces in Dalit
literature are: N.S. Suryavanshi’s Things I Never Imagined, Sharankumar Limbale’s
Akkarmashi, RE.
Sonkamble’s Athavaniche Pakshi,
Kumud Pawde’s Antasphot etc.
This element of newness makes them
revolutionary also. But afterwards their ideas are accepted by the society. In the
same way Dalit literature is an eye-opener for the Indian society which is
divided into different castes and sub- castes. The political leaders in
particular and Indian people in 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 but autobiographical narratives 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 not only deal 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. SharankumarLimbale’s The Outcaste shows how 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
languages 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 hierarchies. LaxmanGaikwad’s The
Branded contains one of the most depressing illustrations of poverty; the
author-protagonist eats gruel in which worms wriggle. Other texts like Karukku, Koveruk Kazhudaigal and The Outcaste also delineate the
intractable poverty of Dalit communities.
The condition of the Dalit women protagonists
is even worse because they are thrice alienated by class, patriarchy and caste.
Bama’s autobiographical narrative 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 narrative 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 autobiographical narrative 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 from the oral tradition of folk songs and work-chants,
the narrative 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.
In short, we can say how Dalit writers in
their autobiographical narratives represent and critique the condition of Dalit
communities and highlight their collective resistance to reconstruct a new
social-order based on the Ambedkarite vision of liberty, equality and
fraternity.
Works
Cited
Anand, Mulk Raj and
Eleanor Zelliot (eds.). An Anthology of
Dalit Literature. (poetry) New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 1992.
Dangle, Arjun (ed.) Poisoned Bread: Translations from Marathi
Dalit Literature. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1992.
Gaikwad, Laxman. The Branded (Uchalya). (Trans by P.A.
Kalharkar). New Delhi : Sahitya Academy, 2005.
Kishore, Giriraj. Dalit Vimarsh(Hindi) (own translation).
Shimla : IIAS, 2003.
Valmiki, Om Prakash. Dalit Sahitya kaSaundaryaShastra (self
translated). New Delhi: Radha Krishan Prakashan, 2001.
Valmiki, Om Prakash. Joothan: A Dalit’s Life. Translated by
Arun Prabha Mukherjee. Kolkata: Samya and New York: Columbia University Press,
2003.