Politics of Dalit Representation(s) and Question of Dalit ‘Other’: Destigmatizing the Dalit Identity Through Literature

Abstract

The central orientation of this study revolves around the immanent politics of Dalit representation employed in mainstream Indian literary canon, analysing how hegemonic literary discourses construct and distort Dalit identity, making them Dalit Other , and frame them as vulnerable, uncouth and a ‘subject of abomination’ (Ambedkar, 1948/2017, p. i) with the help of subtle authoritarian approach that I call here ‘Brahmanic paternalistic benevolence’ and very adroitly normalize it using representational tactics and attempt to institutionalize caste hegemony, which gradually seep through in everyday practice. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theory of representation and cultural identity, the study sets to critically examine the mechanism through which Dalit identity is formed, disseminated and regulated in the present time, deconstructing the tropes of Dalit stereotypes emerging from sacralized caste hegemony and coded in the mainstream canonical literatures. Using textual analysis of the select canonical texts, the study critically explores the epistemic violence embedded in mainstream literary depictions, highlighting the subversive narratives in Dalit literary aesthetics that reclaim agency and articulate a resistant identity. The study ultimately challenges the etic perspective used in mainstream canonical texts and necessitates the emic perspective of Dalit literary theorists and authors, which calls for a radical reimagining of Dalit representation, centring on Dalit resilience, assertion and agency.