Dalit is a symbol of change and revolution (qtd. in Pujari 142). Above definition of dalits has been written in a letter to Zelliot by Gangadhar Pantawane. In this above citation Dalits and their positions have been beautifully explained. Dalits are the broken-down, depressed, oppressed and backward people.
They have several castes and follow them rigidly. Meanwhile, Buddhism have caste system too but they do not practice it nowadays. Priest plays an important role in Hinduism rituals. Their ritual basically followed by the Hindus vary from birth to death a person and more complex. Then, most of Hindus are more into asceticism and they extremely believe.
It is a village surrounded by beautiful mountains where people of different communities live for generations. The Parayars of the village are Christians and their Church is in the western part of the village. Next to the Parayar streets are the streets of Pallars who are also Dalits, but Hindus. Away from the Dalit streets are the streets of Naickers, Nadars, Thevars and Chettiars. Agricultural land owned by the landlords is in the western part of the village and therefore both Parayars and Pallars have to walk through the streets of the upper class to reach the
At the end of the preys, everyone goes to eat langer. Every Gurdwara has a Langar attached to it where food is served to anyone without charge. The term Langar is also used for the communal meal served at the Gurdwaras.Although Sikhs are not required to be vegetarian, only vegetarian food is served in the
Valmiky writes: While drinking my tea I noticed Kamble’s cup. It was different from the cups offered to the rest of us… on our way back, I asked Sudama patil he said, ‘Mahrashtrian Brahmins, that too from poona, they don’t allow Mahars to touch their dishes.’
Hindus claims that the caste system was divine in nature. On the other hand, Buddhism offered ordination openly to all people regardless of caste. In Buddhism, if any of the caste does deeds such as stealing, slandering, lying and practice wrong beliefs, they are considered to have done negative deeds and therefore are not worthy or deserving respect, whatever their caste. Buddhists also believe that anyone can achieve enlightenment, where Hindus believe one must be of the Brahmin caste in order to achieve enlightenment. Both Buddhism and Hinduism also varies on the concept of non-duality.
Caste and class are considered as the two most important yardsticks of social stratification as they are closely linked with each other. The term Dalits encompasses the helpless section of India who were made to lead an inhuman and sorrowful lives; and were deprived of the fundamental rights by the rigidity of traditional Indian caste system. The Dalits were socially, religiously and culturally suppressed and psychologically burdened. However, different forms of Dalit literature include poems, novels, biographies, short stories and autobiographies have appeared on the literary scene time to time to highlight the merits of Dalit literature. It is worth mentioning that Dalit literature is created in the social context generally and hence it should be examined from the sociological point of view.
Every caste is separate from each other with repulsion. The caste groups follow endogamy, restriction, contact and division of labour with a system of relations from highest to lowest. The lower castes always obeyed the ritual dominance of Brahmins and upper castes without demur. But the Dalit autobiographies discredit Dumont's assumption. They discard ritual dominance of caste relations or strive for ‘post-Dumonian approaches'.
Etymologically, the word Dalit derived from crushed grained and destroyed which leads to the meaning of depressed. The word Dalit comes from Sanskrit language, which means suppressed and broken to pieces. It has been used to include all those vast mass of people among the scheduled castes who have been traditionally subjected to invidious (unpleasant) discriminations on grounds of untouchability and categorized as the untouchables, the down-trodden, the exterior castes, the ex-untouchables depressed classes. Dalits are treated either as marginal people without a history of their own or as objects rather than as subjects. ‘Adi Dravides’ ‘Adi Karnataka’ ‘Adi Andhra’ and Adi Dharmi, these words have been used in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab to identify untouchables respectively.
Dalit writers do not look upon widows, prostitutes, depraved women, as Dalit, the exploited, with compassion alone; but they make them towards radiance. In the stories and novels of Annabhau, Shankar Rao Kharat, Baburao Bagul and others, though the nature of the struggle of woman in the beginning is individual, later it becomes class conflict… As a consequence of this, Dalit female characters end the journey of deep darkness and behold dreams of sunrise… They fight for truth and for themselves.They revolt to protect their self- respect… The revolt of Dalit women is not person-centered but society-centered… That is why Dalit writers do not portray Dalit women as hollow identities, overflowing with love as embodiments of sacrifice (Prasad 46). Unlike Dalit men, only a few Dalit women have written their autobiographies, their narratives of pain. Most of them write in regional languages and they have hardly been translated into English. The position of Dalit women is as marginalized in Dalit literature as they are in their community.