Dalit Literature Essay

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Dalit literature represents an influential, rising trend in the Indian literary scene. Dalit writing is a post-independence literary phenomenon. The emergence of Dalit literature has a great historical significance. It has served the purpose of awakening the consciousness of the downtrodden for forging their identities. The recent surge in Dalit literature in India is an attempt to being to the forefront the experiences of discrimination, violence and poverty of the Dalits. The emergence of low-caste literature has taken place alongside a broader growth of consciousness and activism, particularly in urban India. As an individual a dalit cannot forget his past. The humiliation tries to remember his past.
Dalit autobiographies are meant to be …show more content…

As soon as a person is born, ‘caste, being born is not in the control of a person. If it were in one’s control, then why would I have been born in a Bhangi household? Those who call themselves the standard- bearers of this country’s cultural heritage, did they decided which homes they would be born into?’ Albeit they turn to scriptures to justify their position, the scriptures that establish feudal values instead of promoting equality and freedom'.

Omprakash Valmiki's Joothan, an autobiographical account of his birth and upbringing as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the1950s, is one of the first portrayals of Dalit life in India from an insider's perspective. The title of the book, ‘Joothan’ encapsulates the pain, humiliation and oppression suffered by the Dalit community as a whole, which has been relegated to the bottom of India’s social pyramid for years. Valmiki starts out his life story by insisting that:

Dalit life is excruciatingly painful, charred by experiences. Experiences that did not manage to find room in literary creation. We have grown up in a social order that is extremely cruel and inhuman and compassionless towards …show more content…

But the relevance of this work is beyond the boundary of an autobiography since it stands as a symbol for the untouchable or Dalit community. As a result it could be placed on the high pedestal of Indian literature. Valmiki’s struggle described so graphically is symptomatic of the extent of the challenges involved in the process of reclaiming dignity for himself and his community. Om Prakash Valmiki, through this work presents himself not as a writer, but as a member of Dalit community who makes the unheard voice of these suppressed people echo in this world of

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