Literature and Liberation: The Dalit Movement - I
Literature and Liberation: The Dalit Movement Part I - pp. 98 - 105 - Cross-currents - Sem. 4 BA English Complementary Course For a YouTube lecture on this topic, click here. ‘Dalit’ The Dalits are members of various people groups in India who are considered outcasts of Brahminical Hinduism. The Dalit Movement The Dalit Movement implies a confrontation with the existing tyrannical social order which refused to acknowledge their basic humanity, a way of affirming their self worth, a campaign for essential amenities needed for them to come out of the swamp of wretchedness. It represents their aggressive efforts for resurrection, a demand for reform, and their recourse to writing as a means of self assertion. The term “Dalit” Debjani Ganguly, in the work “Caste and Dalit Worlds”, explain the term thus: This is derived from the Marathi language. It connotes the state of being “ground down” or “depressed”. Since the 1970s, this has been used generically in India to r...