Dalit: Making of a Political Subject

CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion

SOUTH INDIA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, 2023

This analysis explores the political legacy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a prominent figure in the Dalit community in India. The paper examines the historical context in which Ambedkar emerged as a leader, his role in drafting the Indian Constitution, and his contributions to the struggle for Dalit rights. The analysis also evaluates the contemporary Dalit political landscape and how Ambedkar's legacy has influenced the present-day Dalit politics. The study finds that while Ambedkar's ideas and principles continue to shape Dalit politics, there have been significant changes in the way Dalit movements and leaders approach their struggles. The paper concludes by suggesting that a nuanced understanding of Ambedkar's legacy is essential for a deeper understanding of the Dalit political landscape in India.

Dept of English, Kakatiya University, 2014

The extent of social transformation of any socially discriminated people may be better judged from the social philosophies propounded by their great leaders like Gandhi and Ambedkar in modern India. Gandhi is dead, so are Ambedkar and Marx. However, neither their philosophies-Gandhism, Ambedkarism and Marxism are dead nor could they posthumously suppress to one another. Their philosophical axis-may be different and dialectical such as for example absolutism versus relativism, positivism versus phenomenalism and theological versus metaphysical but remain the far sighted discourse for the liberation and emancipation of dalit in India. Our study also reveals that the protagonists of Gandhism, Ambedkarism and Marxism are either eating their humble pie in the circumstances of their failures or feeling like fishes out of water in the company of other outdated philosophies for the cause of dalit at present. Further, the change agents like heart, mind, conscience, science, violence, non-violence, constitutionalism, religion, state and village perceived in Gandhism, Ambedkarism and Marxism could not break loose the thread of casteism.

International journal of English research , 2016

Dalit literature is after a long time emerged as one of the famous literary representation of Post-colonial writings in India for Dalits for their rights and equality and freedom. There is a force behind the creation of all these writings. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is the sole inspiration behind the creation of dalit writing. Dalit panthers also drew their inspiration from Ambedakr's writings speeches and his movement. Today number of dalit writers composing their works centering the ideas of Ambedkar where every human is being treated equal. In this paper I tried to portray Dr. Ambedkar as the ultimate inspiration for Dalit literature.

New Man Publication, Mumbai, 2016

Today, the untouchables have been termed as Dalits and the evil practice of untouchability has been abolished by the Indian Constitution. But, before its abolishment, it had forced the Dalit community to live a life worse than animals. The origin and causes of untouchability are still in controversial talks. The untouchability has its roots in Hindu Caste System, which is supposed to be more than 1500 years old; it is associated with the times when the Aryans invaded India. The advent of the fifth Varna laid foundation to the untouchability; the community that was categorized as untouchables is now know as Dalit Community. The questions like who were Dalits (Ati-shudras) and how really the evil practice of untouchability was begun are matter of investigation. In this paper, I have tried my best to investigate these questions. I have investigated about meaning of historiography, origin of untouchability and meaning and origin and signification of term Dalit.

Literary journal, Cultural ministry, 2018

Oxford Bibliographies in Literary and Critical Theory, 2021

Dalit Literature is at once the expression of a “Dalit consciousness” about identity (both individual and communal), human rights and human dignity, and the community, as well as the discursive supplement to a ground-level sociopolitical movement that seeks redress for historically persistent oppression and social justice in the present. While its origins are often deemed to be coterminous with the movement dating back to the reformist campaigns in several parts of India during the 19th century, contemporary researchers have found precursors to both the Dalit consciousness and literary expressions in poets and thinkers of earlier eras, such as the saint-poets in the Punjab. Dalit literature’s later development has also run alongside political movements such as the Indian freedom struggle, even as B. R. Ambedkar’s campaign on behalf of what were then called the “depressed classes” intersected, sometimes fractiously, with the Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi, and others in the struggle. Ambedkar’s own voluminous writings and speeches, tracts of various social and reformer organizations, debates, and letters also stimulated the literary. This bibliography includes primary texts in terms of foundational writings by B. R. Ambedkar, Jotirao Phule. and Periyar, followed by select examples of Dalit life writing, fiction, poetry, and anthologies that have brought together some of these texts. Later sections include critical-academic texts that cover some of the contexts, history, and development of Dalit literature. With more poetry, autobiographies, commentaries, anthologies, and compilations of Dalit texts appearing through the 20th century, the foundation for academic studies of the field of Dalit literature were also laid. Contextualizing Dalit texts in many cases, the essays and books listed here represent a wide variety of approaches. The contexts invariably involve the Dalit movement; the campaigns from the late 19th century; the various social, cultural, and political associations; the rise of Ambedkar and his influence; and other subjects. Many link Dalit narratives to other cultural productions, iconography, and practices. Others focus on the intersection of caste and class/political economy and capitalist modernity in the postcolonial state, or caste and patriarchy. And some others, working with Dalit literature from particular languages, offer a history of Dalit literature in that language. The role of this literature in shaping not only political mobilization but also the social imaginary of the Dalit communities and the public sphere are also key components of the protocols of reading and receiving Dalit texts engendered in the academic and cultural discussions around the domain. Aesthetics, politics, genre conventions, influences and the “voice” of resistance, anger, and despair are part of the discussion in many essays. Others offer comparative studies of Dalit texts. Read variously as the literature of protest, sympathy, solidarity, and resistance, Dalit literature thrives in Indian languages, and in multiple forms, although oral narratives and stories that are popular in gatherings and meetings remain largely uncollected. New forms such as the graphic novel have energized the field in recent years.

The contributors to this major intervention into Indian historiography trace the strategies through which Dalits have been marginalized as well as the ways Dalit intellectuals and leaders have shaped emancipatory politics in modern India. Moving beyond the anticolonialism/nationalism binary that dominates the study of India, the contributors assess the benefits of colonial modernity and place humiliation, dignity, and spatial exclusion at the center of Indian historiography. Several essays discuss the ways Dalits used the colonial courts and legislature to gain minority rights in the early twentieth century, while others highlight Dalit activism in social and religious spheres. The contributors also examine the struggle of contemporary middle-class Dalits to reconcile their caste and class, intercaste tensions among Sikhs, and the efforts by Dalit writers to challenge dominant constructions of secular and class-based citizenship while emphasizing the ongoing destructiveness of caste identity. In recovering the long history of Dalit struggles against caste violence, exclusion, and discrimination, Dalit Studies outlines a new agenda for the study of India, enabling a significant reconsideration of many of the Indian academy's core assumptions. Contributors: D. Shyam Babu, Laura Breuck, Sambaiah Gundimeda, Gopal Guru, Rajkumar Hans, Chinnaiah Jangam, Surinder Jodhka, P. Sanal Mohan, Ramnarayan Rawat, K. Satyanarayana

2022

The researcher, in part 1 of this paper aims to provide an understanding of why Dr BR Ambedkar decided to publish the multiple newspapers he founded, i.e. ‘Mooknayak’, ‘Bahishkrit Bharat’, and ‘Janata’, dedicated exclusively to representation of Dalit issues. The 2nd part deals with an overview of the representation of Dalits in Indian media prior to these publications, part 3 establishes a proper understanding of the newspapers’ functioning, and finally, the last part explains the role Dr Ambedkar, the Journalist played in providing the Dalits a platform in an overtly hostile environment, helping emancipate them.