Subjugation and Hegemony as Reflected in Dalit Literature in India
Praveen Athota
MA (Eng Litt) Ph.D Scholar
Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur
Andhra Pradesh, India. athota19@gmail.com Abstract
My primary concern is to bring out the Voices of Subjugation and Hegemony in the works of Omprakash Valmiki, Sharan Kumar Limbale, Bhama and Baby Kamble. Dalit literature has occupied a significant role in the world literature. It has clearly exposed the torments faced dalits by so called upper caste people in the society. Dalits have undergone pain, humiliation, discrimination, subjugation and hegemonic control because of foolish customs laid by chaturvarna system in Hindu relilgion. Chaturvarna functioned on the basis of dividing people on caste and their occupation. The Chaturvarna system has caused discrimination among human beings because it has created a society that is based on cast hierarchy. The people who are in
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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 Dalits (vii, Author’s Preface).
Untouchability was so rampant even in post-independent era in India. The Dalits on the lowest rung of the social hierarchy were subjected to a great number of atrocities. The treatment given to them was worse than that to that of the animals. It was considered all right to touch dogs and cats, but if one happened to touch a “Chuhra” one got contaminated or polluted. They were never treated as humans. They were only ‘things’ to be thrown away after use. Valmiki underscores the rigors of the caste system, when he announces:
“One can somehow get past poverty and deprivation, but it is impossible to get past caste (2).” He feels greatly disturbed to note that even if the Dalits wanted to join the mainstream of society after getting education, the superior classes prevented them from such a
Thousands of years ago, Indian society developed into a complex system based on different classes. This system is known as the Caste System. It separated Indians into different castes based on what class they were born into. As thousands of years went by, this system grew larger and became further complex (Wadley 189). This system caused frustration for the Indian citizens because they were receiving inequality.
Education could help them; first, start from the poor kid and then to become a wealthy man. It is not only make people become rich, but it also makes students get more knowledge, feel smarter, and know what they suppose to do for their life and social. However, this author did not talk much of the affect of the country’s public school and opportunity to attain school. For example, when he discuses Retawadi, he neglects the public schools, the lack of attention of the apparatus government, and the dangers of day-to-day of each individual. Although he said “a hundred rupees for couple hours of each week for math lesson.”
Author McLeod finds to investigate the tightness between personal agency and structural barriers to social mobility. According to his own words, how “class based institutional mechanisms set limits on mobility, thereby ensuring social reproduction, while cultural innovations can be at once both functional of dysfunctional for social reproduction” (PN 152). He acknowledges that the society is structured in such a way that despite of personal ambitions and aspirations, “no matter how diligently they devote themselves to schools, they cannot escape the constraints of social class” (PN:
“Despite so many reforms, the idea of untouchability is still very much a part of Indian life." (doc A) There are hundreds of millions of people trapped under the poverty line in India, who can’t escape. They are kept in a cycle of poverty with no end. However, instead of getting the help that they need, they are being pushed further down into poverty, leading to generations of families trapped. The cycle of poverty in India is being pushed along by discrimination of the poor. The poor are discriminated against by being denied health care, pushed out of school, and targeted by officials, which leads to more poverty.
This contribution also heavily influences the order in a society, this is what the people see as right and wrong, laws to obey, elders to look up to, etc. Government is far from just the people in authority and laws to follow; it’s about socialization, trade, exchange, interactions with other countries, contradiction of what was thought to be right, justice, positions, jobs, skills, and so much more. In the 21st India there was a caste system in which created a “stable social order” (Document D). This system “dictated status and occupation” (Document D) and was not equal to all people but to only some of which are part of a higher class and social rank. There are many disadvantage for the ones who are on the lower end of the rank like less nutrition accessibility, lower education, and fewer relations or contacts to essential “social institutions” (Document D). This system of India is part of their government. It shows what they are like and how they want things to be and go according to. Their government is influencing their order by making things go a certain way. This government is making it where there are advantages for the high classes and not very many for the lower class. Making it almost impossible for someone to get themselves out of the lower class and move up into the higher class. There was also a system in Aryan society like this one but very different. This system also had
We are lucky, today, that the majority of the world’s nations are democracies. This has only been the case in very recent times. For the greater part of human history, society has subscribed to the belief that birth is the most important determinant of one’s future. In Elizabethan England, this was especially true. Those born into the nobility enjoyed a lifetime of privilege, while those born outside of their ranks mainly existed to serve them. A century later, the British encountered an even stricter form of this belief when they conquered India. The Hindu caste system, which dictated one’s future based on birth just as British society did, was deemed even by the English to be excessively restrictive. After gaining control of the Subcontinent, the conquerors attempted to supplant the caste system with the semblance of a meritocracy. The new subjects of the Empire, instead of embracing this imposition of a foreign culture’s values, responded with general unrest and discontent, showing that no society, no matter how unfair or prejudiced, tolerates interference well. Shakespeare’s King Lear demonstrates the same concept: that any violation of society’s conception of the natural order brings chaos, and that the only way to restore harmony is to conform to the expectations of that society.
The Portuguese word casta means race, or breed, and Hindus have traditionally interpreted this as different levels of society, known as the caste system used in India (“India caste system”). The caste placements are commonly associated with a specific occupation, for example, a priest is a member of the Brahmin caste, and a merchant is a member of the Vaishya caste (“BBC - The caste system”). A Hindu is born into the caste that their parents are ‘members’ of, and as a member of that caste, they must marry in the caste, perform the expected occupation of that caste and eventually die as a member of said caste. The lowest caste of the system are the Dalit, or ‘untouchables’ as they are more commonly known. Members of this caste are also born into it, but because of their extreme conditions of living in poverty, they were too despicable to be considered a part of the caste system. These ‘untouchables’ were usually found begging on the streets and did not have a job that fell into the categories of the caste system, therefore were severely looked down upon by all othe...
Owing to India’s diversity, these identities are determined by caste, ancestry, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation and geographic location, and play an important role in determining the social position of an individual (Anne, Callahan & Kang, 2011). Within this diversity, certain identities are privileged over others, due to social hierarchies and inequalities, whose roots are more than a thousand years old. These inequalities have marginalized groups and communities which is evident from their meagre participation in politics, access to health and education services and
From beginning to end, the novel, “The God of Small Things”, authored by Arundhati Roy, makes you very aware of a class system (caste) that separates people of India in many ways. This separation among each other is surprisingly so indoctrinated in everyone that many who are even disadvantaged by this way of thinking uphold its traditions, perhaps for fear of losing even more than they already have, or simply because they do not know any other way. What’s worse, people seen as the lowest of the low in a caste system are literally called “untouchable”, as described in Roy’s novel, allowing, according to Human Rights Watch:
Divided into four major social categories, the caste system categorizes Hindus, who act accordingly to their caste, into Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Sudra. Another class, the “untouchables,” is considered outside of the system. These five different classes of society define each person greatly. Castes are unchangeable and rarely intermarry. This social division is yet another example of how religion disbands organizations of people.
Of the themes which dominate the representative writings of the forth world literatures include the theme of resistance, rebellion, opposition, assertion, challenge, sacrifice, suffering and displacement. All these general ideas are interconnected with the common concept of ‘freedom’ and an aspiration for which is truly a driving force for the indigenous people. In this paper an attempt has been made to look into the theme of resistance and how it contributes to the development of the spirit of self-determinism as it is reflected and re-presented in the Fourth World literatures with special reference to dalits’ writings in India in order to appreciate and advance the common cause of freedom in the larger interest of Humanity.
The history of tribal oppression in India is an old one. “The Sanyasi Revolt”, “The Wahabi Movement”, and “The Naxalbari Rebellion”, are evidence of the tribal outcry that appropriately foregrounds their requirement for fundamental rights as citizens of the country. Even after sixty six years of independence, India’s rural poor and tribals are lamenting under the curbing effects of destitution, unemployment, undernourishment, illiteracy and human trafficking. For these people, the notions of liberty, equality and democracy have no meaning at all. Though the country is free from the bondage of foreign rule, their repression and prejudices still continue leaving them dependent on their new masters.
We need to study and understand the writings to Anand and Om Prakash Valmiki because their writings are an eye opener. We are able to precisely comprehend as to why our country’s caste system was one of the most evil systems in the whole world and the writings depict the ground reality that the Dalits were going through. Because of their eye opening accounts we get to realise how far we have moved forward from those dark ages and also how far we need to progress as a society in-order to eradicate the still existent evil practices which degrade the lives of Dalits (in/of) our country. These astonishing Dalit literatures are the reason why we as a citizen of this vast country got to realise that there exists an assortment of people who are depressed and oppressed living among us. Therefore there needs to be a mechanism where their voices are heard loud and clear. This in turn resulted in the creation sensitivity and empathy towards their lives which resulted in creating a genuine interest in the minds of people to work for these deprived people so that they can be brought up from the pit of deprivation and into the relm of quality living. Therefore, we can express with utmost conviction and vigour that Dalit literatures specifically by Anand and Om Prakash Valmiki paved the way in projecting
The current manifestations of the caste system are now far more generalized across the Indian subcontinent than was the case in former times. Caste as we now recognize has been endangered, shaped and perpetuated by comparatively recent political and social developments. This is evident even i...
The book begins with an almost too detailed and too accurate a description of the squalid living conditions in which the Untouchables are forced to reside in. Most have come to accept such an unpleasant and unhygienic location as their abode; but Bakha, a pioneer in his own right, is apparently the first individual to see his home, unobstructed by the veil which covers the sight of the majority of those of the exterior castes...