Chapter II

The Dalit Societies

Writing is not simply writing, it is an act, and in man’s

continual fight against evil, writing must be deliberately used

as a weapon. It is necessary that he understands this.

(Sartre What is Literature? 233)

India, from time immemorial, has remained a fragmented society owing to the

caste system. Almost one-fourth of the country‟s population constitutes what Dr. B.R.

Ambedkar called the "depressed classes". Though there have been many saints and

social reformers who castigated the caste system in India since medieval times, their

overall impact has been peripheral. Only in 20th century Ambedkar was able to

sharpen the consciousness of the "untouchables" as a "class" and groom them as a

powerful constituent of the present-day political system.

Dalits, who constitute one-sixth of India's one billion people, have for

centuries been at the lowest rung of the social ladder. They are kept outside and

subservient to the four-tier hierarchical caste structure sanctified by Varnasrama

Dharma. Mahatma Jotirao Phule was the first to use the word Dalit in connection

with caste. The Dalits are those who were referred to as the Chandalas, Ati Shudras,

Avarnas, Panchamas, Antayas and Antayavas in the Hindu religious scriptures:

They were „broken men‟ and „Protestant Hindus‟ to Dr.Ambedkar and

„Harijans‟ to Gandhi. To the Britishers they were the „untouchables

12

and depressed‟ classes. They were referred to as the „scheduled castes‟

in the constitution of India. „Dalit‟ is a recent term adopted by the

Dalits themselves to indicate the fact that they are the most oppressed,

exploited and dehumanized section of Indian culture.

(Massey Indigenous People: Dalits 81)

Caste permeates every aspect of our lives. Dalits have been victims of class-

related economic exploitation by upper-caste landholders. They remain as landless

agricultural workers and do menial jobs for the rest of society. Contrary to the

expectations generated among people during the freedom struggle, Independence has

not brought any significant change in their lives. Atrocities against the Dalits continue

unabated.

In recent times there has been a host of publications mainly dealing with the

Dalit situation in India. A parallel body of literature called Dalit literature has

appeared on the literary horizon that perceives the world from the Dalit angle. There

are quite a few Dalit ideologies and theoreticians. Many universities have Ambedkar

Chairs dealing with the theoretical aspect of Dalit consciousness.

Dalit Literature is not only a literature of protest and rejection but also a

literature of reconstruction of the past. Dalit consciousness has inspired intellectuals

to probe the entire Indian history and culture from below. This Subaltern historical

approach has set in motion a process for the true discovery of India. One of the most

significant features of the postmodernist movement in India is literature dealing with

13

the social outcast or Dalits. Like Black Literature, Dalit writing was characterized by

a new level of pride, militancy, sophisticated creativity and above all sought to use

writing as a weapon.

The recent spurt in Dalit literature in India is an attempt to bring to the

forefront the experiences of discrimination, violence, and poverty of the Dalit. This

phenomenal growth in Dalit writing is part of a growing need of the Dalits themselves

to articulate their experiences. These voices question the institutions and ideologies

that have placed them at the margins. As Arjun Dangle observes:

Dalit Literature is one, which acquaints people with the caste system

and untouchability in India, its appalling nature and its system of

exploitation. In other words, Dalit is not a caste but a realization and is

related to the experiences, joys and sorrows, and struggles of those in

the lowest stratum of society. […] 'Dalit' means masses exploited and

oppressed economically, socially, culturally, in the name of religion

and other factors. Dalit writers hope that this exploited group of people

will bring about a revolution in this country. (264-65)

Dalit Literature introduces a new world of experience in Indian literature. It

widens the range of expression and makes use of the language of the outcasts and

underprivileged in Indian society. Both novels GB and GUI voice against

humiliation, subjugation, and call for implementation of social justice. Both the

novels interrogate and deconstruct caste supremacy. Their works reflect the

14

frequently turbulent developments specific to Indian society and their lasting appeal

lies in their talent for exploring the condition of Dalits with such grace and dexterity.

Today's Dalit Literature that occupies a pride of place is actually born out of

the heinous system of untouchability and caste discrimination that have been

practiced in India for the past millennia. Outside the caste-Hindu chaturvarna-order

came the „untouchables,‟ or the Panchamas, who are the present-day Dalits. The

concepts of purity and pollution, dreamed to their logical extremes, made life a living

hell for some people of the same land. This religiously sanctioned inequality called

the caste system, in the words of Ambedkar, was not just a division of labour, it was a

division of labourers. For ages, they have been peddling a complacent justification of

the caste system through the belief in karma and sins of the previous births. In fact,

the Hindu tale of the creation of human beings and castes shows the oppressive

workings of the system. The gods are not only content with creating a society, but

they create a wretched social order too. In other words, as Dangle in his discourse on

Dalit literature observes, “religion and the state joined hands and bound the lowest

class namely the shudras into mental, cultural and social slavery and later into

untouchability” (235).

Recently a few Dalit writers have published their autobiographies that dilate

on the Dalit situation and the process leading to the emergence for a distinct Dalit

consciousness as a parallel ideology. Dalit autobiographies are sites of anger and

protest conveyed through a specific locale and language. A central incident of atrocity

inflicted upon a powerless Dalit by an upper caste Hindu, the rural locale of a 'vas'

15

(separate quarters for untouchables) and dialects stand as hallmarks of a good,

authentic Dalit autobiography. With that cultural and aesthetic mapping in mind, the

researcher tries to look at the preoccupations of Dalit autobiographies.

Marathi Dalit literature is the forerunner of all modern Dalit literature. It was

essentially against exploitation, and made use of writing as a method of propaganda

for the movement. It was not immediately recognized by the mainstream which was

obsessed with middle class issues. Dalit literature too has an excess of

autobiographies. Critics condemn these literatures of lament, but they too have a

central place within the creative core. Dalit literature is characterized by the call for

self-identity and assertion. It tramples all conventions with its intensely personal

expression; is concerned with the life of the subaltern, and deals with a stark brutality.

This literature should be viewed not as a literature of vengeance or a literature of

hatred, but a literature of freedom and greatness.

Both Vasant Moon‟s GUI and Aravind Malagatti‟s GB are social critiques of

the caste condition in their states-Maharashtra and Karnataka respectively. The Dalit

experience portrayed in the autobiographies of Vasant Moon and Aravind Malagatti

can hardly be considered as complete. It is at best fragments of total reality. Both the

novelists incidentally belong to one gender that is male. Moon belongs to the

predominant Mahar caste which is at the top of the Dalit pyramid and Malagatti hails

from Holeya community. Any assessment of Dalit literature would have to take into

account a complex web of social, political and economic contexts.

16

Dalit Autobiographies in India can be interpreted as the transformation of pain

into resistance. Both Moon and Malagatti try to assert that Dalit life is excruciatingly

painful, charred by experiences and Dalit autobiographies are „narratives of pain‟. It

is pain which strings one narrative event to the next, and it is pain that binds

individual Dalits together into an „imagined community‟ of fellow sufferers. Yet the

experience of oppression does not imprison Dalits in eternal victimhood, but rather

used by the authors as a tool mobilized against the cruel and inhuman social order

which supports caste-based discrimination.

Dalit autobiographies transform an experience of pain into a narrative of

resistance. This is especially important because, as a marginalized community, Dalits

have previously been excluded from participating in mainstream public debate.

However, beginning in the late-1980s, Dalit literary expression has shown a dramatic

increase throughout the nation. Within this larger trend of literary assertion,

autobiography in particular has been one of the most important genres since many

Dalit writers have launched their literary careers by first narrating their life-story,

making autobiography an institutional space through which Dalit writers can first

enter the literary public sphere. The dissertation attempts to understand how Dalits

have used autobiography as a means of assertion against untouchability by looking at

two well-known Dalit autobiographies of Aravind Malagatti and Vasant Moon.

The researcher elucidates the powerful narrative agenda of Dalit

autobiography which contests both the basis of caste- discrimination as well as the

17

institutional claim that caste no longer functions as a social force in modern India.

Delving straight into GB and GUI, the dissertation looks at the way this agenda of

contesting untouchability is expressed within the narrative, specifically regarding the

construction of Dalit subjectivity and the flow of narrative events. Then, Dalit Hindi

autobiographies are contextualized within certain larger socio-historical processes,

including as well the influence of the Dalit autobiographer‟s own status as an urban-

dwelling member of the middle class. Dalit writers have used autobiographical

narratives as a form of political assertion by providing entrance the public sphere and

a reassertion of control over the construction of Dalit selfhood. Moreover it has given

Dalit writers a way of uniting with a larger Dalit community to create a powerful

group which can be used to fight against caste discrimination.

A dalit writer, avowedly, speaks, not as an individual but as a member of a

community and must therefore avoid individualized expression. The 'sociology' of

Dalit literature, which according to Manilal Patel, a Dalit critic, is a meaningful way

of examining Dalit literature (25). The researcher now turns to an examination of

emerging sociological contexts or signs of social activity underlying Marathi and

Kannada Dalit writings. Like Moon, Malagatti too seeks to transcend all barriers,

aims to break all shackles, and promises liberation. Hence, a brief account of the

social milieu of both Malagatti and Moon becomes inevitable.

Unlike the autobiographies of famous individuals, autobiographies of

marginalized groups differ as they are usually written by anonymous individuals who

18

emphasize the ordinariness of their life rather than their uniqueness in order to

establish themselves as representative of their community. Subjectivity in these

autobiographies is thus complicated by the deep connection between the individual

self and the communal self. The autobiographical narrative is perceived as the actual

site of the power struggle, where the voice of the marginalized individual contests the

institutionalized narrative of the dominant group.

Since authenticity and liveliness are the hallmarks of Dalit literature, both

Moon and Malagatti make use of the language of the out-castes and under-privileged

in Indian society. Shame, anger, sorrow and indomitable hope are the stuff of their

autobiographies. The expressions of these writers have become sharp because of their

anger against the age-old oppression. In their search for alternatives, they have

rediscovered the low caste saint poets of the Bhakti movement. Even they found

relevance in Buddhism. Referring to folk lore, they make an assertion that Dalits

were members of an ancient primitive society and were uprooted by the alien

Brahminical civilization.

Both Moon and Malagatti make a fervent plea for a complete overhaul of

society. As Dangle puts it, “Even the Sun needs to be changed.” Thus the contribution

of their autobiographies to Dalit literature has been immense. First and foremost, they

effectively threaten the Brahmanical hegemony from literature. They try to mobilize

Dalit masses for assertion, protest and positive action. They also stir up thinking in

Dalit intellectuals and catalyze creation of organic intellectuals of Dalits.

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Certainly, the strength of Dalit autobiographies has been their act of exposing

the continuation of caste-based discrimination and the power structures and belief

systems that support the practice of untouchability. The power of Dalit

autobiography‟s narrative agenda is its use of the author‟s life-experiences of pain as

a means of political assertion. By writing about their own experiences as a Dalit,

Moon and Malagatti reveal two objectives in their autobiographies. One is to contest

the basis of caste discrimination. For example, in GB, Malagatti asserts, "While

carrying the corpse, I think, they used to observe us just as keenly as we did them.

They would lift the corpse only after confirming our presence. Once the money

thrown on the corpse fell on the ground, it was the job of the Dalits to fight among

themselves to pick up the coins. If there were no dalits, what worth would their coins

have?”(7)

The narrative agenda of these Dalit autobiographies is to expose the reality

behind the institutional narrative that caste no longer functions as a significant force

in the public sphere of modern India. In other words, the mainstream narrative

disseminates that untouchability was abolished by the Constitution of India in 1950,

and consequently, there is no longer caste-based discrimination in government jobs,

public schools, transportation, etc. Moon addresses this issue in his autobiography:

“Pundalik got the most marks of any Untouchable student, and won the Behere

Award. After Inter, Pundalik wanted to complete B. A.(Honors), which took three

years. But only selected students got admission. And when Sinha, the principal,

20

interviewed Pundalik, he told him in bad English, "How do you Scheduled Caste

peope aspire for Honors? You be a graduate and just do your M. A."

When Pundalik came out of the principal`s room and met me, he told me

about this. The scorching blast of caste hatred left a sear on our minds. There was no

question but that Pundalik was intelligent and that he had the command of English

required for Honors.”(133-134)

Thus, Dalit autobiographies constitute a challenge to this institutional

narrative by presenting what they claim are „factual‟ experiences of untouchability

from the writer‟s own life. Malagatti, for instance, does this by repeatedly narrating

his experiences of pain as exclusion due to the continued practice of untouchability.

He writes,

Accustomed to such punishments, our bodies lost all sensation and

turned into logs. When it was time for punishment, we assumed the

posture even before he could say the words. A slight delay in assuming

the punishment posture- there would be beatings. And if we were

quick about it, he would remark „Look at the bastard`s zeal!‟ and there

would be beatings! But we untouchable lot never had the good fortune

of receiving slaps from his hands! (13-14)

In another instance, Malagatti relates how he was continually punished in his

school: “Do you know what the offences were that deserved such severe

punishments? Not that we did not do our homework; nor were we untidy. The reason

was that we skipped sweeping the classroom sometimes before the morning prayers at

21

school. It was mandatory that we, friends from the lane, should come early to the

school and sweep it fully!”(14). Simon Charles reiterates the same point in

Challenging Untouchability,

Although Untouchability is legally forbidden, Holeyas and Madigas

are subjected to it in several ways in Rahapura, as elsewhere in

Karnataka. First, they are not permitted entry into the houses of most

other castes, particularly of Lingayats and Okkaligas, though some of

the latter make a distinction in this regard: they permit entry to the

outer but not inner parts. The main living area is still inaccessible to

them. (85-86)

There is a tension between the institutional ideology of meritocracy and

Moon‟s own experiences as a Dalit student. He laments, “There were no other boys

from our community in the normal School. I was the only Mahar. The boys and girls

of Maharpura used to go to the city primary school. In my class, all except me were

Brahmans”. (14) According to Charles, “Educationally, one person has been able to

reach post-graduate level and was pursuing doctoral studies in history, but no other

has gone beyond the tenth standard.” (83) Thus, pain, whether experienced as

humiliation, or as exclusion, or as actual physical violence, all serve a similar purpose

in the narrative, that is to expose the contemporary occurrence of untouchability,

which is otherwise ignored in the public discourse. For the Dalit readers, pain is a

uniting phenomenon, as they will see their own pain in the pages of the

autobiographies. For the non-Dalit reader, this pain and the social reality it exposes

22

means something different all together—shame, accusation, and hopefully an

invitation for change.

Through the process of narrating their life-story with a focus on their Dalit

identity, Dalit writers are able to come together into a powerful group which can then

assert itself against the main obstacles they still face—the continued practice of

untouchability. Corresponding to the narrative agenda of contesting untouchability,

the narrative of these autobiographies focus on events that highlight the pain of

experiencing caste discrimination and expose its continued practice in modern India.

Thus, the autobiographers value events that reinforce the 'reality' of the continuation

of untouchability, and consequently, most of the narrative time focuses on these

events.

GUI begins in a small town during Moon`s childhood, but its narrative moves

slowly from the town to other areas of Nagpur city. But GB begins in the village

during autobiographer`s childhood, and the narrative of this novel follows the

protaganist`s gradual move to the city—seen at first as a space of modernity,

anonymity, and thus new freedom from untouchability. This is originally reflected in

the protagonist‟s experience of pain. In the village, where caste identity is openly

known and acknowledged, pain is experienced bluntly, as forced exclusion or even as

physical violence (getting beaten by peers on the way to school or getting hit with a

stick for coming up to the shop counter instead of remaining on the street are

common examples).

Moon explains the way a Mahar leader was treated quite shabbily by the caste

23

Hindus when he tries to rebel against the established norms:

Around 1930 Dasharath Patil gave a call for reform, and Mahars for

miles around stopped carrying away dead animals. In every village

boycotts were imposed on these rebels by caste Hindus. Mahars who

went to the market could not make purchases. Mills in the villages

were closed to them; beatings began. Dasharath Patil proclaimed, „Let

us have our own markets‟. […] Babalya, the village watchman, came

with a message. „Master, all your goods were looted by Hindus on the

way. Murderers are hiding to kill you. Don`t go to the village‟. (12)

Along with all the adverse situations, poverty plays a key role in the Dalits`s

life. Both Malagatti and Moon suffered a lot because of a lack of money. In GBI,

Moon points out that most Dalit students have to discontinue their education. “Now I

began to live in Patil`s house. When the results of the fourth grade examination came,

Mother went to Patil and said, "Brother, Vasant has passed.” "Good," Patil replied.

"Educate him." "What can I do? I don‟t even have a penny."(34) Because of the

parents` ignorance the Dalit children are employed since their childhood itself for

menial works. So, they are thousands of miles away from the thought of education.

Their life has become only suffering without education.

On the account of caste discrimination, Malagatti suffered more than Moon.

Because Malagatti lived his childhood in his village. Moon lived his almost life in

cities. These two autobiographies show that city life is better than the village one. But

cities are not completely free from the caste discrimination. Moon says that being a

24

Dalit his mother could not get any job in the houses of Brahmins. Consequently, she

had to wander on empty stomach since morning to evening from one house to another

in search of household works.

However in the city, pain is subtler. When the experience of „passing‟ ends in

the revelation of the protagonist‟s untouchable identity, pain is often experienced as

humiliation. Again, the narrative itself is driven through consecutive experiences of

caste discrimination as well as by the protagonist‟s struggle to gain an education and

increase in political consciousness—a process which leads to the realization of his

Dalit identity.

A sense of progress through education and to the city, however, is not

interpreted as a fundamental move away from the community, despite the sense of

alienation expressed in the narrative. Instead, it is understood by the autobiographer

as a process realization of one‟s communal „Dalit‟ identity, which then incites him to

fight to regain the rights and self- respect for him and his community. Life events not

related to experiences of caste discrimination or to education and the development of

the protagonist‟s political consciousness, events such as marriage or the death of

parents, are quickly passed over with a few paragraphs. However, the idea of

„progress‟ from the superstitious village to the „enlightened‟ city emerges towards the

end of the narrative.

The Dalit autobiographers, who have escaped poverty, rural superstitions, and

ignorance to join the educated, economically stable, urban middle class feel very

strongly that they have been unable to escape their caste. Having escaped the confines

25

of the village, availed of reservation, and experienced a rise in their class status, these

writers continued to experience caste-based discrimination despite their many

„successes‟. In the face of this sense of disillusionment, several needs arose for the

Dalit writer. One was a need arose to expose the myth that untouchability was no

longer practiced in modern India, and autobiography institutionalized as a „truth-

telling‟ genre based on the „facts‟ of one‟s life provided an excellent outlet for these

individuals to raise their voices in protest.

Moon portrays the pathetic and miserable condition of the Dalits in terms of

poverty. As a boy, he was left with no other option than to steal a bunch of bananas in

order to gratify his hunger. He gives a moving account:

Now our days of hunger began. We started going hungry for two days

at a time. At first we were troubled by pangs of starvation. However,

once the body gets in [sik] the habit of fasting, hunger is not felt.

Hunger slowly begins to die. With it, the flowing spirit begins to dry

up, free laughter vanishes. We began to put whatever we could get into

our stomachs. While I was coming back from school one day, I started

brooding about what to eat. An idea came to me. An old woman was

selling bananas. I went over and stood in front of her. I asked the price

of the bananas, taking a dozen in my hand. I made a show of taking

money out of my pocket. And seeing that the old woman‟s attention

was elsewhere, I started running. (75)

26

Shantabai Kamble, another noted Dalit writer records her own childhood

experiences quite amply, “I remember those days. When I was in school in the

monsoon there would not be any work for the adults. Mother said to us, „Today we

have nothing for eating, children, let us sleep now on empty-stomach‟.”(Translation

mine) (137)

Ramanathan notes that, "From the psychological point of view, conversion

has divergent effects. When adoption of a new religion provides satisfaction of

material and psychic needs which affiliation to the older religion could not give, it

seems to strengthen faith, and consequently, identity" (Ramanathan 65). The largest

number of Gujarati dalit authors is from the vankar community of which some are

Christians. At this point it must be noted that Christian dalit authors map their literary

worlds as pre-Christian, Hindu ones.

Another need resulted from the paradox these writers experiences at being

continually oppressed and obstructed in the own lives by their caste identity, while at

the same time feeling significantly distanced from their caste community which they

had left behind in the village. Thus, autobiography also serves this second purpose of

re-establishing a link between the middle class Dalit individual and his community

through the process of narrating his life with a focus on his Dalit identity.

Dalit autobiographies like the autobiographies of other marginalized groups

are the outcome of the difficult struggle the Dalit writers face to gain the right to

27

speak. The „right‟ or „ability‟ of the marginalized group to write literature comes

under immediate contestation, and Dalit writers have likewise been forced to fight for

the right to speak as well as to redefine the boundaries of what can be said. Dalit

writers have attempted to negotiate this challenge of securing narrative authority by

emphasizing the „experience of discrimination‟ and „Dalit identity‟ as two necessary

criteria for both writing and criticizing Dalit autobiography. Phrases such as “only he

or she who has suffered this anguish knows its sting” clearly delineate narrative

authority for the Dalit writer. Autobiography is an especially valued form of Dalit

literature since unlike poems, novels or short-stories, it can only be written by a Dalit.

It is through the politics of identity that Dalits have—at least for the genre of

autobiography—successfully re-negotiated narrative authority since the nature of

autobiography itself means that Dalit identity confers on the autobiographer a kind of

uncontestable authority to speak. Dalit autobiographers also negotiate the issue of

authority to represent the Dalit community by presenting their autobiography not as a

result of their desire for personal recognition, but as a response to the pleas from

the Dalit community for representation.

Dalit autobiographies are not simply the narration of a Dalit‟s life-story. They

are also used as a means of political assertion. These autobiographies serve as a

dissident space within the literary public in which the Dalit writer can speak out

against untouchability and contest the institutional narrative that caste no longer

functions as a social force in modern India. They are the result of the process of „self-

emancipation‟ in the creation of a „dissident space‟ within the public sphere.

28

Dalit autobiographies also serve as means for Dalit writers to reclaim

narrative authority over the construction of the „Dalit self‟. Dalit autobiographers „re-

write‟ history that Dalit society is not inferior, as is claimed by the upper castes, but is

„different‟, or „oppressed‟ or „inventive in the face of extreme exploitation‟. Thus,

rather than describing their life as one of „victimhood‟, pain becomes transformed

into a uniting, „enlightening‟ experience in which an assertive Dalit identity is

realized and incites the individual to action and political struggle. Watching their

community continually oppressed by the upper castes, the protagonist of the Dalit

autobiography does not experience his pain „lying down‟, but rather pain incites him

to unite with his community in a fight against caste discrimination. Towards this

effort of strengthening the unity of the Dalit community, these autobiographies serve

as a socio- cultural record of the Dalit community providing alternative meanings to

their social traditions.

The presence of the Dalit voice in the public arena is one of the most

important contributions of Dalit autobiography and it has been a presence long

overdue. Their narrative agenda is to expose the continuation of caste discrimination,

even in modern times, and even in the urban centers of India. It attacks the basis of

this caste discrimination in a variety of ways, but especially through a stable focus on

the „factual‟ recounting of experiences of discrimination. In the autobiographical

form, these „facts‟ become uncontestable truth, since no one knows more about an

individual‟s life experiences than the individual himself.

29

Furthermore, the autobiography serves the additional function of re-affirming

and strengthening the link between the individual Dalit writer and the larger Dalit

community. Through this union comes the „strength in numbers‟ needed to contest

the institutionalized social order of caste in India. An increasing understanding and

awareness of these contributions of Dalit autobiography must also take into account

the cultural and historical processes under which they arose. Dalit autobiography is

considered a form of political assertion for a number of reasons. Besides giving Dalit

entrance into a public space through identity-based narrative authority, autobiography

provides a space for Dalit writers to regain control over the constitution and meaning

of Dalit selfhood and join in a show of strength with the larger „Dalit community‟.