Book Review
By Dr. Dilip P.Barad, Dept. of English, Bhavnagar
University. (15 July
2008)
Dalit Literature: A Critical Exploration
Edited by Amar Nath Prasad and M.B.Gaijan
Published by Sarup & Sons, New Delhi
ISBN: 81-7652-817-2
Rs. 850 (Pp. 318+16)
Thousand of books are written and edited on
marginal literature. Dalit Literature: A Critical Exploration, edited by
Amar Nath Prasad and M.B.Gaijan, is not the black sheep of that flock. What is
it, that one can say in single sentence that is unique of this edited book? It
is the pattern in which the idea of Dalit literature evolves, progresses and
emerges that makes this book unique and worth reading. See how it happens: the
first page of the first article reads: I reject….I reject….I reject. This
is the voice of protest, which is synonymous of all marginal literature. The
last article quotes J.V.Dave …nowhere a revengeful Dalit anger anywhere
although the author is a Dalit lady. But there is evidently a humanist sense…
This change in angst clearly shows how Dalit literature has matured to embrace
human justice and aesthetic sense. This design in the selection and order of
the articles makes this book unique
one.
The editing is quite impressive. The selection of
articles / research papers is excellent. None of the edited books one ever read
would have such a variety and scope in its theme. Thematically the book is very
rich. It has 21 well research papers. The critical exploration of Dalit
anxiety, Dalit sensibility, Dalit dilemma and Indian Dalichtomy[1] is
appealing in all these articles. Various facets of Dalit literature from
Chokamela: the pioneer of Dalit movement to Arunthati Roy’s God and Daxa
Damodaran’s Shosh…. is selected
in this anthology.
The beauty of the book lies in its language. It
seems editors have worked on the language of all the articles to make it simple
and appropriate to the theme discussed in the book. Words after words, sentence
after sentence, paragraph after paragraphs flows as smoothly as water flows in
river Ganga. However, this calmness or silence is only the upper current of
river Ganga. The under current is as furious and fiery as that of volcano
burning inside. It voices the silence of the marginalized and the oppressed as
its theme. The theme emerges as
naturally as flowers from buds. This makes reading this book a journey, which
we wish, should never end.
Read these excerpts to believe it:
“The Poet (Tagore) has not portrayed outcast as
miserable, pitiable or helpless. Their condition, portrayed by him, is no doubt
pitiable but it is created by the orthodox Indians… Tagore has highly praised
their human virtues in their wretched situation. The poet has his own way to
raise the issue, different from Gandhi. He has not used Gandhi’s term ‘Harijan’
for Outcaste. He has boldly exposed the hypocrisy of the orthodox … the poet
has consciously and earnestly tried to raise the issue of the insulted
community.”(Pg 102)
“Arundhati Roy has heralded a revolutionary
attitude against the mal-treatment of the untouchable, the vulnerable and the
down-trodden. Though these ‘Mombatties’ have no glass, no protection, no
support to face the surge of the fast wind, yet in comparison with ‘Laltain’,
they are not rigid and stubborn but ever ready to burn another lamp. The
Mombaties of Roy’s world which she calls them the God of Los, The God of Small
Things, are bound to suffer much insult something’s with causes and sometimes
without any cause. The ‘Laltain’ on the other hand, is well fed and well
protected. (Pg.269)
“The novel (Shosh) has other sub-themes. Dalit
issues it presents but in a different way. Here Dalits are not degraded.
Generally it is believed the Dalit writing is merely a cry of Dalits protest.
This novel is quite different from that opinion. It is the genuine appeal to
human beings to remove al social inequality based on sex or caste. Here Dalits
do not protest against non-Dalits’ cruelty but non-Dalit protagonist protests
against non-Dalit’ cruelty on Dalit. (Pg.312)
The book opens with Darshna Trivedi’s article. It
sets the tone of the entire critical exploration on Dalit literary theory. She
quotes form Rig Veda to recent Marathi poems to prove her argument, which she
does quite successfully. She has
critically examined the origin of the term Dalit, compared dalit literature
with mainstream literature and concluded her article with future of Dalit
literature. Her article opens with the
angst-ridden voice (quoted form a Marathi Dalit Poem):
“I reject your culture.
I reject your parmeshwar centred tradition. I reject your religion based
literature.”
Prof. B.S.Nimavat’s article takes us back to 13th
and 14th century. In his article, he explored into the realm of
Chokhamela, the Mahar Maharashtrian saint in the Bhakti tradition. He deals
with rarest of the rare incident, Mahar guru and Brahmin disciple. The
beginning of his article is quite effective. He quotes Prof. Gangadhar
Pantawane: “To me, Dalit is not a
Caste. He is a man exploited by the social and economic traditions of the
country…. Dalit is a symbol of change and revolution.” Dr. S.K.Paul has very
effectively explored Dalitism: its growth and evaluation. He is of the opinion
that lack of real sincerity and commitment at the political level and the
silence of the Dalits in the key political and bureaucratic positions is the
root of all the evils against dalits in society. He is of the view that Dalitness is
essentially a means towards achieving a sense of cultural identity and for that
purpose Dalit literature should not only highlight the disadvantages and
difficulties together with atrocities and inhuman treatment given to Dalits but
its main object should be to bring social awakening among the downtrodden.
This anthology has given good space to regional
literature, especially Gujarati Dalit literature. Dr. Pathik Paramar has
critically analyzed the Gujarati Dalit poetry in a very exhaustive and
comprehensive way. Read the following quotation (of the poem) from his article:
“Who is wounded
That is I
To whom
since the centuries
You refuse
to know…
You are
talking about the wound,
I am living
with the wound.”
“I tell
them:
This head,
is Sambooka’s,
These hands
are Eklavaya’s
This heart,
Kabir’s.
I am Jabali
Satyakama.
But still I
am a man.”
He, thus, observes the suppressed voice of the
Dalits, their self-experience of injustice and atrocities and their furious
expression on the Brahminical traditions. Dr. Rupali Burke’s observations are
path breaking. We have read articles and research papers passing running
comment on how mainstream literature is different form marginalized literature.
But none has given thought provoking and well-evaluated point to point
discussion as she has given in her article Reversing Centrality and
Marginality: Gujarati Lalit Literature Vs. Gujarati Dalit Literature. Harish
Mangalam’s article is gist of his experience as a poet. Being (himself) a poet,
none can evaluate origin and development of Gujarati Dalit poetry as he can. He
has observed that Gujarati Dalit poetry initiated on a note of revolt, anger
and impulse. Slowly and steadily, it flowed smoothly in the sea of mainstream
literature. Gujarati Dalit poetry today, has tremendous freshness of
expression.
All other articles are also well researched and
throw new insight in the field of Dalit literature. Space does not permit to
discuss all of them separately in this review. They all are worth reading for
study and research.
All these beads are connected into a beautiful Shabri-mala by the thread, which is made
of four articles written by both the editors.
These articles share their views on dalit in various literary genres -
from Tagore’s poetry to Arundhati Roy’s novels to Gujarati Dalit Novel. Dr.
Amar Nath Prasad critically examined the fact in three novels of Roy that God
never makes any difference between a touchable and an untouchable. He tried to ascertain that no society or
nation can ever progress without the co-operation of the Dalit and the
downtrodden.
Dr.M.B.Gaijan’s two articles exhibit Dalit
consciousness in Tagore’s poetry and Roy’s God of Small Things.
Dalit-empathy and dalit-angst is displayed in Tagore’s poetry and Roy’s novel
respectively. The book ends with his third article on Shosh – a Gujarati
Dalit Novel. Symbolically speaking,
it is not the end, but the beginning of new Dalit literature. It is one of the
six articles on Gujarati Dalit literature in this book. Dalit literature has
travelled a long day’s journey into nights. The revengeful Dalit voice becomes
the voice of humanist in Shosh. This last article opens a new chapter in
the Dalit literature. It seems to say that the literature, which began as a
protest literature, has matured to encompass humanity and aesthetic justice.
The book is edited so meticulously that it has
almost everything that one need to read when it comes to Dalit literature. A
must read book for student and researchers of Dalit literature.
