Dalit Chetna By Dalibale Analysis

Identity creation—social or political, individual or communitarian, has always taken place through the selective use of material, from the past and the discursive fields which surround it within a given political economy. The use of the word “creation” instead of “formation” is a conscious one and suitable to the context in which it is sought to be applied. It is meant to highlight the self-conscious modes of fashioning that have been adopted by the Dalit community in the post-independence era with the aim of political subject-formation. Various material and symbolic sources have been put to use for the purpose of “existential, political and ethical reordering of the Indian society” which has as its goal the emancipation of the Dalit subject.

Due to its potency, a literary piece is considered as an intervention in the field and there is a constant call for life-affirming and engaged literature. The concept of a Dalit chetna or consciousness has become an integral aspect of Dalit critical analysis for determining whether a particular work belongs to the category of Dalit literature or not. “By Dalit literature, I mean writing about Dalits by Dalit writers with a Dalit consciousness,” is SharankumarLimbale’s formulation in his Dalit SahityacheSaundaryashastra. Deeply immersed in Ambedkarite philosophy, Limbale’s conceptualization of Dalit aesthetics lays emphasis on a kind of experiential epistemology. As another critic has expressed it, “anubhava” (experience) takes precedence over “anuman” (speculation) serving as an “aesthetic corollary to the claims of social justice.” As a result of this emphasis on the particularity of experience, most of the corpus of Dalit literature is seen as mimetic and consisting largely of life-writing. The articulation of individual experiences of subjugation is seen as subversive but also representational for the entire community. However, the use of the notion of the “aesthetic” for Dalit writing has troubled many critics who view them simply as testimonies rather than works of imagination, chronicles rather than artistically conceived texts, lived experience

A 13th-14th century saint in the Bhakti tradition, he is a revered figure in the WarkariSampradaya, which is connected with the tradition of pilgrimage to Pandhapur, the holy temple of Vithoba. Chokhamela’sabhangs are highly devotional poems expressing his deep devotion and love for Lord Vithhal but are also read as registers of protest against untouchability. In Abhanga 52 he