A BRIEF STUDY OF DALIT LITERATURE IN

MARATHI

Dr. Samina Azhar (Assistant Prof Humanities Deptt. MANIT Bhopal)

Abstract

An attempt has been made in this paper to study Dalit literature of Maharashtra, with the

purpose to analyse the contribution of major Marathi Dalit writers to the literary

representation of Dalit problems.The paper also tries to the focus on the depiction of

anguish and pain of Dalit women and the influence that the Dalit literary movement

draws from Afro-American literature.

CONTRIBUTION OF MARATHI LITERATURE TO

THE LITERATURE OF MARGINALS IN INDIA

Dr. Samina Azhar (Assistant Prof Humanities Deptt. MANIT Bhopal)

Marathi, a language spoken by more than 50 million people in Western parts of

India, has played a significant role in contributing to the success story of Indian

Literature. Marathi Literature has dealt with all the facets of life and has established itself

as a flourishing art form, with it is associated Dalit Literature which even after more than

sixty years of independence is getting step motherly treatment. There are about 160

million Dalits in India constituting nearly 16% of the Indian population; they come from

the poor communities which under the Indian caste system used to be known as

untouchables.

The history of Dalit literary movement goes back to the 11th century, to the first Vachana

poet, Madara Chennaiah who was a cobbler. Dalit literary movement thus has a long

history which ideally unfolds the secret struggle against casteist tradition.In modern

India, Dalit literature got impetus in Maharastra due to the legacy of Jyotiba Phule(1828-

90), Prof. S.M. Mate (1886-1957) and Dr. Bheemrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956).

With the advent of leaders like Mahatma Phule and Ambedkar in Maharashtra, who

brought forth the issues of Dalits through their works and writings the Dalit movement

got a forceful representation. They started a new trend in Dalit writing and inspired many

Dalits to come forth with writings in Marathi. Although started in an unorganised way,

Dalit literary movement gained pace with the active support of B.R. Ambedkar’s

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revolutionary ideals which stirred into action all the Dalits of Maharashtra. His statue in

suit and tie, the dress of most of the educated, holding a book that represents the

constitution is a symbol of pride and inspiration for the coming generations. He inspired

and initiated the creative minds of India to enforce the socio-cultural upsurge for the total

emancipation of the Dalits.

If you are born here

You will have to become Ambedkar

Epoch making Ambedkar

Revolutionary Ambedkar

The sworn enemy of Manu

Such was the influence of Babasaheb. Dalit literary movement therefore is just not a

literal movement but is the logo of change and revolution where the primary aim was the

liberation of Dalits.

The word Dalit in Marathi literally means “broken”. It was first used by Jyotirao Phule in

the nineteenth century, in the context of the oppression faced by the erstwhile

"untouchable" castes of the twice-born Hindus. The term expresses weakness, poverty

and humiliation of a particular section of Indian society at the hands of the upper castes.

Dalit literature is nothing but the literary expression of this helplessness. The upper caste

Hindus treat them as untouchables and they are not allowed to enter a temple or any other

sacred place. In the 20th century, the term "Dalit literature" came into use in 1958, when

the first conference of Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha (Maharashtra Dalit Literature

Society) was held at Mumbai. Dalit literature, which looks at history and current events

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from a Dalit point of view, has come to occupy a niche in the body of Indian literary

expression. It forms an important and distinct part of Indian literature and politics. The

primary motive of Dalit literature is to give a voice to the relentless oppression of Dalits

in India's caste hierarchy and to inspire the possibility of their social, economic and

cultural development. Dalit literature has its roots in the lives of the people who are

suppressed, crushed, downtrodden or broken to pieces. The characters of its literary

pieces work as manual labourers cleaning streets, toilets, and sewers. Therefore the

primary motive of Dalit literature is the protest and liberation of Dalits.Atrocities on

Dalits goes back to the ancient times when Ekalavya a young prince of the Nishadha

tribes, and a member of a low caste, was asked to cut his right thumb as his Guru Drona

fee .the reason was not to let a low caste supersedes the royal blood.

Dalit Literature is mainly the result of socio- cultural changes that took place in

Maharasthra after independence. Silenced for centuries by caste prejudice and social

oppression, the Dalits of Maharashtra (formerly called untouchables) registered their

protest in the form of short stories, poetry, novels and autobiographies. The volatile

surroundings made writers like Annabhau Sathe (1920-1969) depict through realistic and

effective writing the inhumanity, lawlessness and cruelty. He wrote thirty five novels,

one among them was Fakira (1959). Sathe wrote directly from his experiences in life,

and his novels celebrate the fighting spirit in their characters who work against all odds in

life.

Dalit literature emerged into prominence and as a collective voice after 1960 a fresh crop

of new writers like Baburao Bagul, Bandhu Madhav and Shankarao Kharat, came into

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being with the Little Magazine Movement. They represent a new, direct, angry,

accusatory, and analytic voice in the literature. Baburao Ramchandra Bagul (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.

Baburao Bagul 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 Jaat

Chorli Hoti (When I robbed a caste) – 1963 Maran Swast 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 Dalit literature. Dalit writer Namdeo Dhasal has

compared him with Russian writer Dostoyevsky whose realistic portrayal of the common

man in his stories and novels was akin to the same humane approach that came through in

Bagul’s writings.

In the words of M. N. Wankhede he was the Dalit angry young man., considering the

revolutionary culture that he imbibed into Marathi literature and his image in literature

and contemplation. Bagul said that although he inherited his caste by virtue of his birth,

at the time of writing he felt one with all the downtrodden of the world. The sixties saw

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Bagul’s name synonymous with Marathi Dalit literature. His writings were par

excellence in comparison with other Dalit literateurs.

Arun Kamble, Shantabai Kamble, Krushna Kamble, Raja Dhale, Namdev Dhasal,

Bandhu Madhav, Laxman Mane, Laxman Gaikwad, Hari Narake, Sharankumar Limbale,

Waman Nibalkar, Bhimsen Dethe and Bhau Panchbhai all these people in their own

ways, capacities and capabilities advanced the work that Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar

started. Namdeo Dhasal Kamble and Raja Dhale formed Dalit Panther a social

organization. “Namdev Dhasal's works express the anguish and aspirations of Dalits in

India: the sense of having been the exploited and condemned builders of Indian

civilization. And the inherent, suppressed urge to emerge out of centuries of darkness and

suffering to claim their just heritage and space in society. The disapproval and rebellious

style of his poems show his extreme hatred for the system. “The system operates through

distrust: and a preconceived notion that we are not only low, but also evil,”

It is apparent that the persistent output of Dalit Literature by its representation of the lives

of the most marginalized shook the Marathi main- stream literary tradition to its core.

Great poets like Narayan Survey, Namdeo Dhasal, Daya Pawar, Arun Kamble, Josef

Macqwan, Saran Kumar Limbale, Arun Dangle, and many other poets wrote stunningly

new Indian poetry in the sixties and seventies. Many were inspired by their liberated

spirit, straight and strong style, and poignant poetic images. They portrayed the life and

struggles of the lowest strata, the low caste. The Dalit litterateurs think that so long as the

discriminative caste system exists there can never be complete freedom, brotherly feeling

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and justice established in the nation. The following lines depicts the anger and burning

desire for revenge among the writers

That some were high while others were low?

Well, all right, then this city deserved burying--

Why did they call it the machine age?

Seems like the Stone Age in the twentieth century.

('You Wrote From Los Angeles', by Daya Pawar)

Buddhism and Karl Marx shaped and influenced Dalit writers. Disillusion with Hinduism

is aptly expressed in the following lines, "if a religion can`t tolerate one human being

treating another simply as a human being, what`s the use of such an inhumane religion?"

Dr. Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism created a fascination for Buddhism among

Dalits. Some Dalit writers like Namdeo Dhasal opposed the theoretical variety of

Marxists revolutionaries as they cannot even imagine the predicament these wretched

people live in. :

This world's socialism,

This world's communism

And all those things of theirs,

We have put them to the test

And the implication is this--

Only our shadows can cover our own feet.

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Keshav Meshram challenges God in 'One Day I Cursed That...God', in these words:

Would you wipe the sweat from your bony body

With your mother's ragged sari?

Would you work as a pimp

To keep her in booze?

O, father, oh, god the father!

You could never do such things.

First you'd need a mother----

One no one honors,

One who toils in the dirt,

One who gives and gives of her love.

This lament questions the very existence of God. To achieve poetic beauty is not the aim

of Dalit poets as similes, metaphors and symbols are not important. The shocking reality

of life is their weapon to fight against the fantasy or imagination.

Arjun Dangle, editor of Poisoned Bread and a former Dalit Panther in Maharashtra,

asserts, "Dalit literature is not simply literature. Although today, most Dalit writers have

forgotten its origins, Dalit literature is associated with a movement to bring about

change." Dalit authors presently are able to show not only the hostile circumstances in

which Dalits live, but also their struggle for emancipation from caste. Contemporary

Dalit novelist Sheoraj Singh Bechain's autobiographical writings, especially his heart-

rending struggle as a child labourer, surviving in a small tenement with his cobbler

relative, is considered a milestone in modern Dalit literature. His writings describe his

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angst and resilience, and the transparent will to hope, against all social and economic

odds.Taral Antaral (1981), and Akkarmashi (Bastard) are the autobiographies of Kharat

and Sharankumbar Limbale. They tell us about the plight of Dalits and their quest for

self-respect. The marginalised and under-privileged rediscover their articulation and self

identity through autobiographies. Sharankumar Limbale's Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit

Literature: History, Controversies and Considerations, the first critical work by an

eminent Dalit writer to appear in English, is a provocative and thoughtful account of the

debates among Dalit writers on how Dalit literature should be read.

Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke” is the first work that comes in Dalit Literature

which is written by a woman. It is because of that itself, the book deals with the two

major problems of the society: firstly, the oppression and exploitation of the Dalit by the

upper class: secondly, the discrimination towards women in a patriarchal society. The

popularity of autobiographies of Dalit writers in Marathi influenced the writers of the

neighboring states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. Daya Pawar's Baluta

the first Dalit autobiography paved the way for other writers to share their pain and

agony. Urmila Pawar's The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs belongs to the

genre of autobiography, which is rarely practiced by Indians as. It presents the major

issues of class, caste, and gender in the Indian context. Apart from recording a woman's

discovery of selfhood and assertion of identity, it also offers a background picture of the

Indian (especially Maharashtrian) culture, including interpersonal and inter-communal

relations, clashes, and tolerances. According to Maya Pandit the two autobiographies,

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Baby Kamble’s Jina Amucha and Urmila Pawar’s Aaydan “speak not of a single person

but the struggles of the entire society”.

Dalits women are subjected to extreme forms of social, economic, physical and mental

torture and exploitations. According to the official figures three Dalit women are raped

every day. Probably one of the finest writings about Dalit women comes in the form of

Bagul’s Murali (Devdasis), it portrays that abuse and exploitation of marginalised

women. It is about prostitutes and women who fall prey to sexual exploitation. Though

dirty slums, their daily moral-immoral acts, and such other are subjects which repulse

one, the author successfully reaches the suffocation of the slum dwellers to the reader

almost as if the reality transmigrated itself into him.

Dalit women are victims of caste-based atrocities; they are raped when working in the

fields. They are casually stripped and molested and even invite death if they dare to

quench their thirst from a common well. The writings of Dalits women writers are based

on the lives, experiences and consciousness of Dalit women portraying their outburst for

justice. Their life is quite similar to their upper caste counterparts but the fact is that Dalit

women have been victims of patriarchal society for ages and still have very little right

over human rights. Their attempts to assert their rights are often met with strong

resistance from the higher castes, resulting in inhuman torture, rapes, massacres, and

other atrocities.The images of savage reality that emerge through Dalit stories; the level

of violence against Dalits women is quite similar to the ordeal of black women in the US.

This is hell

This is a swirling vortex

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This is an ugly agony

This is pain wearing a dancer’s anklets

Namdeo Dhasal: Kamatipura (Translation: Dilip Chitre)

It’s ironic that while the black Civil Rights Movement looked to Mahatma Gandhi as a

model of social change, Dalits look to African-American militant movements. Dalit

literature is often compared with the African-American literature especially in its

depiction of issues of racial segregation and injustice, as seen in Slave narratives. Like

Dalit writers in India, African-American writers in the US have given expression in their

writings to the protest against the established order of society that discriminates one man

from another on the basis of caste, colour and religion. The organization of young men

who called themselves Dalit Panthers in imitation of the Black Panthers in the United

States drew inspiration from black poets like Langston Hughes. The literature of the

oppressed or Dalits has now spread to almost every part of the country. But like the

African-American use of the word black, it is not a term indicative of victimization but a

proud term indicating that an untouchable is not polluting but oppressed by others. The

African Americans are victims of the capitalist mindset, as are also the Dalits of India.

Apartheid or Harlem Renaissance a representation of the slave in contemporary

American literature depicts the same pain and agony which a Dalit suffers. The following

lines echoes’ the rebellious outburst of an oppressed soul:

 

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

I move out to build your tombs.

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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"

Dalit Literature is not only a movement of protest or of awakening, because its subjects

are very different and contemporary. For example, the short story by Dr. Surendra

Barlinge, chairman of the Sahitya Sanskrit Mandal, 'Mepan Maze', deals with the topic of

sex change, a subject which could interest upper-class readers. It has definitely served the

purpose of awakening the consciousness of the downtrodden for forging their identities.

Though not completely but to some extent the age of globalization has changed the lives

of Dalits. The policies of the government to uplift the oppressed class have started

showing its results. They have shown an ability to inter-link, use the internet, and make

alliances with other oppressed groups like African Americans. Durban Conference on

racial discrimination and recently organised NRI Dalits International Conference in

Vancouver created awareness among the international community on the Dalit issue.

Shantabai Kale’s Against All Odds, Akkarmashi: The Outcaste, Sharankumar Limbale’s

life-story and Omprakash Valmiki’s Hindi autobiography Joothan: A Dalit’s Life were

recently published and appreciated. Dalit literature is slowly emerging as a discipline of

academic study as well. American universities offering South Asian Studies are thinking

positively about Dalits issues. Dalit Literature represents a powerful, emerging trend in

the Indian literary scene. Dalit and African American literature in a course entitled

‘Literature of Protest’ is introduced in various Indian Universities. Their stories earlier

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told in Marathi, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu are now being translated into English,

French and Spanish. With the growing translation of works by Dalit writers from various

regional languages into different languages, its reverberations are now being heard all

around the globe. Dalit literature is poised to acquire a national and an international

presence as well as to pose a major challenge to the established notions of what

constitutes literature indeed Dalit literature has blossomed and is in full stride.

References

Aston, N.M. Ed.Dalit literature and African-American literature. Prestige Books , New

Delhi. 2001. ISBN 81-7551-116-8.

Cooper, Desiree Dalits and African Americans in Detroit Diary.

Dangle, Arjun Poisoned Bread editor, Orient Longman Limited 1992

Dhasal, Namdeo Poet of the Underworld: Poems 1972-2006, Navayana (translated by

Dilip Chitre)

Limbale, Sharankumar Towards and Aesthetics of Dalit Literature in English Orient

Longman (translated by Alok Mukherje) 2004, ISBN 81-250-2656-8.

Mishra, Jugal Kishore A Critical study of Dalit Literature in India. Swedish South Asian

Natarajan, Nalini ed.A Handbook of Twentieth-Century Literatures of India.

Greenwood Press:Westport, CT. 1996.

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