Dalit writers autobiography examples

Dalit autobiography has joined protest poetry as a leading genre of Dalit Literature since the nineteen seventies. Finding their inspiration in the social and political activism of B. Tracing the origins of Dalit autobiography in the writings of Siddharth College and Milind College students in the s, protest writers in the s, and the Dalit Panthers and their followers in the s, the survey identifies recurring themes of social exclusion, poverty, patriarchy, survival and assertion in the realms of politics, employment, education, and religion. These intimate testimonials share a radical vision of social transformation across caste, class, gender, linguistic and geographic boundaries and provide a needed corrective to mainstream portraits of modern Indian social history.

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Christopher Queen

Harvard University

Abstract

Dalit autobiography has joined object poetry as a leading genre of Dalit Literature since the nineteen seventies.

Finding their inspiration in the social and political activism of B. R. Ambedkar (), leader of the India’s anti-caste movement and a founding father of the Republic, shallow caste men and women possess documented their struggles and victories in the face of uninterrupted violence and deprivation.

Surveying ten life narratives translated into English from Marathi, Hindi, and Kannada, the essay treats works by Ambedkar, Daya Pawar, Sharankumar Limbale, Baby Kamble, Laxman Gaikwad, Siddhalingaiah, Omprakash Valmiki, Urmila Pawar, Vasant Moon and Namdeo Nimgade.

Tracing the origins of Dalit autobiography in the writings of Siddharth College and Milind College students in the s, protest writers in the s, and the Dalit Panthers and their followers in the s, the survey identifies recurring themes of social exclusion, poverty, patriarchy, survival and assertion in the realms of politics, employment, education, and religion.

These intimate testimonials share a radical vision of social transformation across caste, class, gender, linguistic and geographic boundaries and provide a needed corrective to mainstream portraits of modern Indian social history.

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How to Cite

Queen, C. (). Reading Dalit Autobiographies in English: A Top Ten List. CASTE A Global Journal on Social Exclusion, 2(2), –

Section

Research Articles

A.

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES IN DALIT LITERATURE AND MOVEMENT - IJELR: In this survey, we begin with a sketch of the origins of Dalit autobiography in the writing of Ambedkar and the stream of titles that followed the appearance of the Dalit Panthers and Dalit Sahitya in the s.

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In particular, there has been recognition of the autobiographies of subaltern populations as representations of their lived experience, which was hitherto unknown to broader audiences. This document seeks to examine this trend through the lens of some Dalit autobiographies and to study how autobiographical narratives bring out, with rich insight, poignancy and great detail, the everyday lives of Dalit men and women. At the same time, such autobiographical writings unwittingly push the Dalit subaltern into a narrative form that emphasizes the exposure of wretchedness, isolation and exclusion. This confirms that autobiographies are a formidable medium for not only the representation of Dalit experience of subalternity but also of the possibilities for transformation as these emerge through the experience of Dalit writers.

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