LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Situating Dalit Literature in Indian Writing in English

S. Ramanathan, M.A., M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed.

Abstract

Etymologically speaking, the term dalit has originated from Sanskrit, dalita meaning ‘oppressed’. It seems to have been borrowed from Hindi recently. It means “(in the traditional Indian Caste System) a member of the caste that is considered the lowest and has the fewest advantages.” The origin of Dalits as a clan may be traced back to the Rigveda, the oldest Veda of Hindus. Four Varnas are identified in ancient classics and religious literature of the Hindus. The four varnas or castes are subdivided into many subcastes and there is a final stratum of this ethnic division known as the untouchables, the lowliest of all, so impure and despicable that they stood outside the caste and social structure of the Indian people altogether. This final stratum is known as ‘Dalits’ in modern linguistic terminology.

There is a general traditional assumption among the caste Hindus/upper caste Hindus that the Dalits did not have their own cultural institutions, arts and fine arts, etc. This paper focuses on the presentation of information which proves that the Dalits did and do have their own culture and have had their own traditions, music, rites of passage, worship of gods, and knowledge of many kinds of fine arts, handicrafts and so on. Many stories or books on them by well-meaning authors did not mention this cultural side of their miserable lives, and focussed on only the oppression and abuse perpetrated upon them by the upper caste Hindus, and so we had not heard of their cultural traditions. The paper presents the arguments and facts using information available from various sources such as Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable and describes the current state of Dalit literature with particular reference to Tamil literature.

Keywords: Dalit, Varnas, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras, Rig Veda, subaltern literature, Indian Writing in English, Modern Dalit literature

Introduction – Dalit Community

Etymologically speaking, the term dalit has originated from Sanskrit, dalita meaning ‘oppressed’. It seems to have been borrowed from Hindi recently. It means “(in the traditional Indian Caste System) a member of the caste that is considered the lowest and has the fewest advantages.” The origin of Dalits as a clan may be traced back to the Rigveda, the oldest Veda of Aryan supremacy. The celebration of “Purusa-Sukta” myth dictates the origin of the Indian Caste system. Purusa is described in the Rigveda as, “the man… with thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet… the ruler of immortality” (30), and it is said and believed by millions that all creatures are part of him; the human beings also are descended from his monstrous body. The Rigveda further enunciates, “His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms were made into the warrior, his thighs the business people and from his feet the servants were born”. (30) This forms the four Varnas: Brahmins (the learned men who become priests and religious leaders), the Kshatriyas (the strongmen who would be the warriors) the Vaisyas (the men of business acumen who ensure prosperity through commercial transaction), the shudras (the humble toilers who lacked the governing graces of the other three varnas). The four castes are subdivided into multitudinous subcastes and there is a final stratum of this ethnic division known as the untouchables, the lowliest of all, so impure and despicable that they stood outside the caste and social structure of the Indian people altogether. This final stratum is known as ‘Dalits’ in modern linguistic terminology.

Post-Colonial Literary Texts

Post-colonial literary texts eventually represent the culture of a particular land in which the text is produced, which is crushed, deteriorated as time passes and people turn to new fashions, industrial revolution, and science. So the literary texts, regardless of the genre are considered as a typical representation of the culture of the writer’s class. The colonial texts have an urge to represent or conceptualize colonialism and its effects and to re-establish the culture of the natives. It is viewed as a Cultural determinism. These texts seem to reject the master narratives that are produced under the impact of western influences. M. H. Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham say, “the major element of post colonial agenda is to disestablish Eurocentric norms of literary and artistic values, and to expand the literary canon to include colonial and post colonial writers”. (307)

The early stage postcolonial texts have foregrounded the differences in perception between the colonizer and the colonized and set up a plane of duality such as ruler/the ruled: “Foregrounding differences and diversity, celebrating hybridity, plurality and ‘otherness’ as potential sources of vitality and change and rejecting notions like standardisation, conformity, universalisation that are seen as sources of power, hegemony and colonialism—these notions are gaining ground. . .” (Krishnaswamy, Varghese and Mishra 93).

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S. Ramanathan, M.A., M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed.
Assistant Professor
Research Centre in English
VHNSN College (Autonomous)
Virudhunagar
Tamilnadu
India
theera1476@gmail.com

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