Essay On Dalit Literature

Dalit Literature: Writings of Revolt and Assertion

I 'm now the sea; I soar, I surge,

I move out to build your tombs.

The winds, storms, sky, earth,

Now all are mine.

In every inch of the rising struggle,

I stand erect.

(J.V Pawar" I have Become the Tide")

The above lines by J.V Pawar echo the rebellious outburst of an oppressed soul. There is a projection of the feeling of resentment and a desire for equality which form the most integral part of Dalit writings. The new Dalit writing is ready to demolish the unequal and unjust social order and it is replacing the humble urge for acceptance found in early Dailt literature with an angry assertion.Sharan Kumar Limbale writes that 'rejection ' and 'revolt ' in Dalit literature have been birthed

They represent a new, direct, angry, accusatory, and analytic voice in the literature. BaburaoRamchandraBagul (1930-2008) the Father of Dalit literature touched people’s mind through his revolutionary literature. As an architect of Dalit literature he has made a valuable contribution to Indian literature. BaburaoBagul was the main exponent of Dalit (low caste) literature in Maharashtra. Bagul’s writings started an era of revolutionary writing in Marathi literature. His writings were influenced by the writers like Marx, Lenin, Gorki and Chekov Apart from these writers he was influenced by the thoughts and writings of Gautam Buddha, Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar. The extreme poverty, misery and oppression that he experienced in his childhood are evident in his works. His collection of short stories Jevah Mi JaatçhorliHoti (When I robbed a caste) — 1963 MaranSwast Hot Aahe-1969 (Death is becoming cheap) broke all norms of conventional story writing in Marathi and altered the face of short- story writing.Sood (Revenge) — 1970 and two novels Aghori— 1980 and Kondi — 2000 are depiction of the miseries, frustrations and struggles of the downtrodden. He was the first writer who associated Dalit literature with African American literature and initiated the internationalisation of

The writers of this literature have pondered about their problems not only in poetry but also in fictional works. Omprakash and KeshavMeshram are the finest examples for it. His Joothan, first published in Hindi in 1997 and translated into English by ArunPrabhaMukherjee in 2003, is an autobiographical novel which explainsDalit life in north India from an insider’s perspective. Joothan deals with Dalit history and revolutionary changes in the society. Joothan literally means scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or for the family pet in a middle-class urban home. It is related to the word joothanwhich means polluted and such scraps are characterized as joothanonly if someone else eats them. The novel pushes the people into a deep thinking towards thejoothanand it tells Dalit that it is not good to depend on joothan.Humiliated people are humiliated again and again so it tries to say that not to be humiliated. Though many well known people like Ambedkar and Gandhi advised untouchables to stop acceptingjoothan it is notyet ended. Valmiki thinks that the Dalit literature can bring the changes in the society. His community looked forward to marriage feasts in the village when they would gather outside with big baskets. After the guests had eaten, the dirty pattals, or leaf platesare put in the Chuhras’ baskets, which they took home, to save the joothansticking to