Dalit Studies: A new critical perspective

Dr Rajesh Kumar , Dept. of English, MLNCE, University of Delhi

I strongly believe that the Hindu social system is a historically specific social
construct; a discursive formation based upon the Manav Dharma scheme of
Manu who is the chief architect of the Hindu society, and the theory that the
caste Hindus, particularly Brahmans, have all the privileges and the Shudra
(Dalits) do not have even the rights of a human being. Nothing can show the
shamelessness and absurdity of this Manav Dharma better than turning it
upside down. The discourse of Manusmriti, on analysis, reveals bios that
privileges certain epistemes while deprivileging certain others. The privileged
classes are here no doubt, none other than the caste Hindus and
deprivileged Dalits. The caste Hindus have made their best efforts to
establish a hegemonic social power by dissembling its epistemological
premises and social historical paradigms as being normative so that what
is a historically specific social construct, is made to appear essential and
incontrovertible. Language, being relational and constitutive, shapes and
constructs it, giving it hegemonic power by textualizing it. Further, this
central discourse posits what does not conform to its normative standards
as the marginal (Dalit discourse here in his context) to simultaneously
designate and denigrate its alterity. The marginal discourses are
accommodated, contained, excluded and even silenced by the central
discourse, and its meaning, value and identity have become conditional
concepts determined by the moderators of the central discourse.
However, marginal discourses, I assert, have the power, by virtue of
their alterity, to offer resistance to the hegemony of the central discourse by
interrogating its hollowness, incongruities and contradictions thereby
effecting the disruption of its normative claims. Moreover, by exposing and
revealing how in society with the help of sophistry, dominant culture have
become automatized agency, Marginal discourses can allow subversive
elements to identify the determinants of hegemony and eventually alter
power configuration in their favour.
 Here I would like to use the theoretical framework developed by
Michael Foucault to understand the relationship between power and
knowledge in the construction of images of Dalits in the Hindu social system
where the scheme of Manu has been instrumental in the subjugation and
marginalization of knowledges from Dalits. These knowledges would
otherwise challenge or rupture the apparent linearity of Manav Dharma.
Subjugated knowledges are defined by Foucault in Power Knowledge as
being the historical contents that have been buried and disguised in
functionalist coherence or formal systematization. The insurrection of
subjugated knowledges allow us to rediscover the ruptural effects of conflict
and struggle (Foucault: 1972) that the new order or functionalist coherence
is designed to mask (Foucault: 1972). Subjugated knowledges also include:
a whole set of knowledges that have been disqualifieda particular,
local, regional knowledgewhich owes its force only to the harshness with
which it is opposed by everything surrounding it.

In Indian context, official history has served to marginalize or

subjugate Dalit knowledges, customs and beliefs and further ensured a
privileged place for the caste Hindus-Brahmanical knowledge in particular-
as the foundation of Hindu social system. The caste Hindu culture has come
to be considered the natural, central or dominant culture which is passed
on through birthright. I assert that Manav Dharma is a fiction that both
creates and substantiates a political reality that is itself fictitious. A more
equitable account of history is possible if official history is mediated by a
reading of Dalit literature as history. Counter histories that both disrupt
the apparent linearity and homogeneity of the caste Hindus historiography
and foreground subjugated Dalit knowledges are emerging in a growing
body of writings by Dalit literature that can be read as history.

This takes interesting dimensions at the level of literary discourse. Dalit

Writing in India has begun to emerge discursively as powerful visible forms
of protest against a chequered history of exploitation both in the socio-
politically materialist and discursive realities. This discourse has become
site for the contestation and negotiation of identities at several levels and in
several ways. The construction of Dalit as identity category evoking a sense
of homogenized collective community has evinced a problematic relationship
within the social, historical, political and discursive frameworks of
conceptualizing national identity. This is largely because the socio-political
and discursive marginality historically assigned to with this rubric has been
concomitant with the epistemological otherization of Dalit identity within the
natural framework.
Dalit literature resembles the legendary bird phoenix which kills itself
on a funeral pyre but is reborn from the ashes: Dalit literature too, is born
from the ashes of the anguish, anger of the unjust social system based on
caste and class inequities and is an expression of the agony suffered by
these deprived groups for ages. Dalit literature, in the main, is an attempt to
establish an independent identity for the Dalits. It engages the theme of
protest directed against the existing intellectual and social system. It also
opens several debates on the issues of caste and identity politics. Dalit
literature has become an expression of community rather than the
individuals by challenging traditional literary aesthetics, traditional slogans,
ideologies and idioms of existing literature, which they assert, do not
capture the reality of the oppressed.

As far as the mode of expression of Dalit literature is concerned, it can

be seen that the poetry has been its dominant mode of expression. In
addition to this, Dalit literature has produced a spate of autobiographies,
few novels and short stories as well. One has to be especially sensitive to the
distinctive aesthetics created by Dalit writers whose language is generally
direct, spearing and its imagery hair-raising and hard-hitting. Dalit
literature is being represented through various regional languages such as
Tamil, Malayalam, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi, Oriya, Hindi and others.
What is interesting to note is that there are many common elements of
anguish, anger and protect in the Dalit literature of these various languages,
the reason being the commonality of the repressive caste and class
categories that exist in various parts of the country.
 Dalit literature has produced many writers, poets committed both to
literature and to literature as a weapon against social injustice.
One of the most existing things and the most recent trend in the ever-
changing field of Dalit literature that has been taking place is the increasing
importance of woman poets, novelist and autobiography writers.

Nevertheless, the disappointing thing for the Dalit Literature is the

fact that till now it has not been recognized as full fledged marketable
national literature. While Dalit literature has been academic possibilities, it
is being equated with on Maharashtrian Dalit literature especially that
which is available in easily consumable translated anthologies. The mindset
of such researchers has to changes that Dalit literature does not confine to
Maharashtrian Dalit literature but it expands beyond that in other different
regional languages as well. Now the situation is changing slowly as English
translations of Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Oriya, Bhojpuri Dalit
literatures are becoming available. But it is disappointing that it has not
changed sufficiently for Dalit literature to be considered nationally or
internationally marketable as bonafide Indian literature.
It has been noted that Dalits find greater publicity when mediated,
represented or incorporated in the texts of mainstream writers such as Mulk
Raj Anand, Mahashweta Devi, Gail Omvedt, Arundhati Roy etc. This
explicitly shows that Dalit voices are variously mediated, appropriated, co-
opted, accommodated and even commodified, which has to stop
immediately. What I believe is that Dalit literature must be produced by
Dalits themselves who have well awareness of what it is to be a Dalit. I do
not disagree with the view that there are many prominent non-Dalit writers
who have contributed significantly to Dalit literature; but what I contend to
say is that they must stop showing their sympathies towards Dalits by
taking credits. After all they are the ones who have subjugated Dalit
knowledges. Dalits are now capable of doing it ourselves about their
inhumane experiences.
I assert that unless Dalits control the content, the publishing, the ultimate
presentation of the articles or texts then it is not Dalit literature: that it
ceases to be Dalit when it is interfered with, when it is tampered with by the
mainstream writers. It is no good for Dalits to be writing what the caste
Hindus i.e. mainstream writers, what their publishing companies, what
governments, government agencies decree that they ought to write. The Dalit
literature must come, flow freely from the Dalit people, for the Dalit
communities without any restrictions placed upon them. Dalit writers must
come to grips with the fact that they are Dalit. Now if they are sincere about
Dalits, about their feelings for it; if they are sincere about wanting justice for
Dalits, then that commitment must be made and they must be united and
directed with one slogan we will do it ourselves.

The Dalit search for identity grows out of the development of a new
consciousness and a need to come to grips not merely with the question of
identifying as a dalit person, but seeking to know, to understand, what
can be the components of a dalit identity, credible to individuals, which they
can select, and which they can build upon in order to attain a personal
identity, to demand aggressively their share in the shaping of the destiny of
the nation and most importantly to seek radical empowerment and complete
self assertion.
It is a problem which has not been addressed to any great extent in India by
researchers from the Mainstream discourse. My article is centered on
changes taking place in the structures of traditionoriented people and is
defined within a Dalit framework of thought. The Mainstream discourse has
focused, by and large, on the accommodation and segregation of Dalit people
into a caste Hindu world of culture and living, a world where Dalit identity is
absorbed. The dalit people have started analyzing the problem of caste
discrimination, socio-cultural discrimination to seek radical empowerment
in the society and started projecting a time when Dalits would grab hold of
their identity themselves. The Dalits have conscientized Dalit masses for
assertion, protest and mobilization against the act of monopoly on every
social institutions by the Indian upper castes. They are threatening the
Brahmanic hegemony on all theoretical issues.
Living an untouchable life in Indian caste society is a tremendous
unfortunate affair as the untouchables are thrown not only to the lowest
rung of the social ladder but also they are compelled to swallow inhuman
tortures. Untouchability, in basic sense, is out and out an Indian
phenomenon, and it has deeply penetrated into the social philosophy of the
totalistic Indian life where the privileged sections of the stratified society
enjoy the life at the cost of the untouchable sections which have been forced
to do all sorts of menial and labourious jobs, work as scavengers and
sweepers and removers of carcasses of dead animals in the villages and also
as the carriers of night soil. Because of this the fate of the untouchables has
become miserable and what is important to note is that it is being continued
in one form or other through the ages.
The atrocities are antihuman such as butchering the dalits, beating them
and chopping off their bodies, raging dalit women ad girls, parading them
naked and burning them, forcing the dalits to consume human excreta and
urine, poisoning their water sources, evicting them from their land and
places of living and denying them access to public places including temples
etc. The atrocities on dalits are all outrageous violations of human rights
and criminal offences. The provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled
Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 are not being used effectively to
prevent the offences and punish the culprits. There is increasing tendency of
police officials of not writing FIRs and asking dalits to give complaints in
writing on plain papers. The role of National Commission for Scheduled
castes and Scheduled Tribes, State commissions of SC/ST, law and order
machinery and judiciary in arresting the discrimination and violence against
dalits needs to be questioned and scrutinized.

One of the outstanding facts about the Dalit in rural India is their
lamentable and extreme poverty. Ill clothed and cold in winter, badly
housed, and insufficiently fed, they belong to the poorest of the land. They
are greatly in debt on account of loans both for the purchase of raw
materials with which to carry on their traditional occupation and for seed
and for cattle for their agricultural enterprises. In most cases their
obligations are such as to keep them in perpetual bondage to their creditors;
and as a consequence, they are never able to rise above the lowest economic
level. In many instances the whole family is engaged in satisfying the
insatiable demands of the zaminders or some other creditors. They live at
the back and call of others, and are obliged to do a great deal of work for
which they receive no pay whatever. This is but a phase of the general
condition of depression in which they live. They have been so conquered and
broken by centuries of oppression that they have but little self respect left
and no ambition. Their condition is in reality serfdom, and at times they are
sore oppressed. They are the worst sufferers and have to bear the brunt of
the rigidity of the caste system.

The social and economic lives of Dalits in cities or towns have relatively
improved compared to the Dalits living in villages. A Dalit in urban setup is
generally a government servant, a teacher in a state school, a lecturer, a
reader or a professor in the central universities or a politician. However, he
is never a member of the higher judiciary except for the first time the first
Dalit Chief Justice of India has recently been appointed nor an eminent
lawyer, industrialist or journalist. His freedom operates in designated
encloses: in politics and in the administrative posts he is required because
of constitutional policies. The fact of the matter is that in areas of
contemporary social exchange and culture, his untouchability becomes his
only definition. Not only this; even the right to pray to a Hindu god has
always been a high caste privilege. Intricacy of religious ritual is directly
proportionate to social status. The dalit, in a nutshall, has been formally
excluded from religion, from education, and is a pariah in the entire
sanctified universe of the dvija. The dalit is physically indistinguishable
from the upper castes, yet metaphorically and literally, the dalit has been a
shit bearer, toiling at the very bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy.
Dalits are the main targets of what can be termed caste-related
crimes. In the rural countryside, stripping, hocking to death, massacres
and chopping off heads are the marks of a horrific bestiality inspired by the
unshakable joint of dirtiness. The dalit body, powerful, suppressed and
perennially dirty from such tasks as removal of dead cattle and waste,
towing, or toddy (collecting juice from the bud of palm tree flowers) is to be
violently exorcised, ritually cleansed, from the pure Aryan body of the
Hindu caste system.
The Theory
The Dalit people, in voicing the need to grab or build their identity, place
themselves unconsciously within the theoretical framework provided by the
sociology of knowledge. Within this framework, the society into which one is
born is conceptualized as a social construct, and identity is the result of
social processes within that construct. Caste system in India is not only the
age-old and depth oriented socio-cultural phenomenon but it has also been
working, since the remote period, as the symbol of Indian social practice
with the help of hierarchical categories. The puritypollution concept
developed round the Brahmanical order not only to make discriminations
amongst the different castes and community groups but also to dictate their
modes of behaviour inside and outside the pale of Chaturvarna pattern of
classification exclusively fashioned under mythological viewpoints. The
Hindu caste hierarchy refers to the mythological law of Manu who is the
chief architect of the Hindu society and whose law has formed the
foundations on which it is built. According to Manusmriti in the hoary part
four predominant Varnas emerged from various parts of the Holy Body of
the creator:

31. But for the sake of the prosperity of the worlds he caused the Brahmana, the Kshatriya,
the Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arms, his thighs, and his feet.
87. But in order to protect this universe He, the most resplendent one, assigned separate
(duties and) occupations to those who sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet.
88. To Brahmanas he assigned teaching and studying (the Veda), sacrificing for their own
benefit and for others, giving and accepting (of alms).
89. The Kshtriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to
study (the Veda), and to abstain from attaching himself to sensual pleasures;
90. The Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrificies, to study (the Veda), to trade,
to lend money, and to cultivate land.
91. One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other)
three castes.(Islam: 2004)
It is to be noted that this Varna system is characterized by two distinct
patterns. The first three of this group i.e. the Brahmanas, the Kshatriyas
and the Vaishyas are entitled to go through the initiation ceremony to have
sacred thread. It is for this reason these three groups are known as dwija
or twice-born. As days went on, the Sudras who were destined to serve the
three upper groups in all walks of their life, were practically detached from
the arena of the higher social groups in the schematic structure of
Chaturvarna principle and thus they were forced to live outside the general
habitations governed by the higher upper castes. Later on Sudras became so
much unsanctified that, as was assumed by the three groups in the
Chaturvarna, their very touch would defile the members of the higher upper
groups. Hence, there developed a consciousness of keeping them aside and
preferably out of touch. The fierceness of the societal norms transformed
that consciousness into the very ill-fated situation known as untouchability.

The word dalit or crushed underfoot or broken into pieces is the

contemporary version of the word untouchable. Dalit owes its genesis to
the nineteenthcentury writings of Jotirao Govindrao Phule as well as to the
literature of the Dalit Panthers, a political group formed in 1972 in the state
of Maharashtra. British colonial census takers grouped together all those
communities neighbours considered polluted and called them
untouchable. Harijan or children of god was Mahatma Gandhis term
for dalits. Today most untouchable castes would prefer to use the term
dalit as an identity of assertion. Prior to adoption of Dalit as an identity,
untouchables were addressed by different names such as exterior castes,
depressed castes, outcastes, Pariahs, Mlechha, Chandala, Avarnas,
Achhuts, Pariahs/ Panchama etc. These identities had stigma, segregation
and contempt at large.

New Perspectives
Dalit people in the past have been thwarted, exploited and forced to do all
sorts of menial, and labourious jobs, work as scavengers and sweepers,
removers of carcasses of dead animals in the villages and also as the
carriers of night soil in their efforts to respond to the Hindu Caste hierarchy
system which is to a great surprise still being practiced and continued in
one form or other even today in the 21 st century. If Dalits now wish to follow
a different path and locate themselves in a Dalit world, then, in terms of the
constitutional provisions made available to them above, they must locate
themselves in a world of meaning that has characteristics that are
specifically Dalit, a world which is legitimated, made credible to the self, at
all levels of theorizing. It is not enough, for the construction of identity, for
individuals to locate themselves unilaterally within a particular world.
Identity is a social construct; its maintenance depends not only upon the
individual, but upon the readiness of others to confirm the chosen identity
of the individual.
The construction of Dalit identity may lead to a conflict situation as the
theorizing of Dalit people about a Dalit world of meaning within which a
dalit identity may be found, may well be at variance with that of mainstream
theorizing. The maintenance of the world of meaning of the mainstream
group (dwija i.e. twice born) may then be threatened by version of a deviant
world, held by a visible group that has been excluded from the mainstream.
The Dalit World, as a site for the location of identity, must therefore be
studied not in isolation, but in relation to the mainstream upper caste
society.
An understanding of the objective reality for Dalit people, that is
knowledge about dalit world which is objectivated and taken for granted,
demands an understanding therefore, at the conceptual level, of the
machinery by which the world of dalit society has been managed in the past,
and is being managed in contemporary society by the dominant upper caste
groups. The only machinery used by upper castes is the fact that they have
tried to establish de-humanising, mythological philosophy of Manusmriti as
fundamental law of the country or to enforce Manusmriti as part of legal set
up, which preaches for the enforcement of codes, which are barbaric,
inhuman, racist and forcist and most importantly casteist. If there is
nothing wrong with casteism in Hinduism then who are Manus Sudras?
How can one call Manus code humane when it has the following contents in
chapter 8:

A once-born man (a Sudra), who insults a twiceborn man with gross invective, shall have his
tongue cut out; for he is of low origin (code number 270). If he mentions the names and castes
(jati) of the (twiceborn) with contumely, on iron hail, ten fingers long, shall be thrusted hot
into his mouth (271). If he arrogantly teaches Brahmanas their duty, the king shall cause hot
oil to be poured into his mouth and into his ears (272). With whatever limb a man of a low
caste does hurt to (a man of the three) highest (castes), even that limb shall be cut off; that is
the teaching of Manu (279). A low caste man who tries to place himself on the same seat
with a man of a high caste, shall be branded on his hip and be banished, or (the king) shall
cause his buttock to be gashed (281). If out of arrogance he spits (on a superior), the king
shall cause both his lips to be cut off; if he urines (on him), the penis; if he breaks wind
(against him), the anus (282). A man who is not a Brahmana ought to suffer death for
adultery (samagrahana); for the wives of all the four castes even must always be carefully
guarded (359). A Brahmana who approaches unguarded females (of the Kshatriya or Vaisya
(castes), or a Sudra female, shall be fined five hundred (panas); but (for intercourse with) a
female (of the) lowest (castes), one thousand (385). (Islam : 2004)

Reproduced parts of Laws of Manu need no further elaboration and

commentary, as these are too glaringly venomous, fascist and degenerated
against untouchables who are referred to as Sudras by Manu. There is a
recent flood of low priced editions of Manusmriti. In one of such editions, the
back cover has the following illuminating description of Manusmriti:

The Manusmriti is the oldest social system of the world which establishes constitution and
justice. Largely the social and judicial systems of todays India are modelled after this book.
It is an essential book for each family, organization and society.

It is important to note that this Manusmriti is based upon the theory that
the Brahmana is to have all the privileges and the Shudra is not to have
even the rights of a human being, that the Brahman is to be above
everybody in all things merely by reason of his high birth and the Sudra is
to be below everybody and is to have none of the things no matter how great
may be his worth.
It may be mentioned here that after Independence, India has undergone
great social and structural changes. Not only was the form of government
being changed from foreign administration into self-rule, but also the
cultural, regional and linguistic boundaries within the nation was being
redefined. A new experiment in nation-building was being undertaken in all
spheres of life. The basic Indian social reality, however, remained
unchanged. It was the reality of pluralism, a pluralism of caste-
discrimination, religious separation and cultural identities. It was a
pluralism which graded social groups into those with more power and those
with less power. Indian society was relatively dominated by the upper
castes who were rich and powerful and therefore played important role at
the centre of the decisionmaking process and a whole lot of people who
were poor and didnt have any access to sources of power were apparently
excluded from the decisionmaking process.
The irony, however, lies in the fact that in spite of the secular and
democratic goal accepted by leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian
leadership at the time of independence was predominantly Hindu in
religious sentiment and in political vision. This Hinduness sentiment of the
dominant community largely affected the nationbuilding process in India. It
affected the conditions of the Scheduled castes. They were removed from
their status as a minority in Hindu society and the concept of justice to
weaker sections came to mean privileges to those who paid allegiance to
Hinduism. For example, in the constitution (Scheduled Castes) order, 1950,
it was clearly mentioned that no person who professes a religion different
from Hinduism shall be deemed to be a member of the Scheduled Caste. Till
date Scheduled Caste status has not been extended to Dalits belonging to
Muslim and Christian religious. Even in 21 st Century, our newspaper is not
free from a headline relating to some sort of violence against Dalits or a
crime committed on Dalits. The very recurrence of Dalit assertion and Dalit
movement stand testimony to their ongoing discrimination and
victimization. In fact, the very identity of Dalit is nothing but a reaction
against a hegemonic order, a challenge against perpetual oppression and a
counter-identity against an irrational Brahamanic order that seeks to
dehumanize and enslave a section of Hindu fold on ascriptive ground. It
represents a voice that has perpetually remained unheared; an identity that
has long been derecognized/ suppressed; a category that has hitherto been
deprived of its dignified existence. It is not enough to revile Brahmanism and
upper caste hegemony and declare them the root of all evils. What is
important for Dalits is the question of empowerment.

Facing each other, the Dalits and the caste Hindus exemplify the
characteristic relationships of the dominated and the dominant. As the
dominant impose their ideas and will on the dominated, they offer a scheme
of justification to maintain their position. The dominated, on the other hand,
either accept such schemes or refute them in a way suitable to social
circumstances. And this has been the standard social script for the Dalits.
The clear traditional notions of dominance and privilege are becoming
blurred as democratic law, politics and economies release new forces in
India. Urban centers usually show this effect more, where the weakness of
the strong and the strengths of the weak are constantly uncovered in new
ways. In this circumstances the dominant feel threatened and the weak
emboldened for new reasons. This is evident from the fact that gradual
awakening of the Dalits under the leadership of the towering personalities,
no doubt, has exerted a strong protest against the unjust thinking patterns
nurtured by the advantageous caste groups. The emergence of a newly
developed perception of identity among the Dalits has brought forward a
challenging force against the age-old system of exploitations at cultural,
economical and political levels. Now new phase has emerged, which raises
the expectations of the lowest and the fears of the highest. In this ethos,
Dalits especially in the cities have begun to argue that they are much more
than their abjectly low status in relation to the caste Hindu reflects. They
dare to question the schemes of the Hindu social precedence. Dalits insist
that they are not merely The signified, they signify as well. Despite their
long-standing dependence on the dominant Hindu social system, they offer
evidence that they are alert and sensible about themselves and the larger
society in which they live. If they must face numerous concrete problems in
everyday life, they seek survival with social dignity. They are ready to
challenge the tradition as they test the promises of Indian democracy. Thus,
compared to the last decades of last century, much has, in this 21 st century,
changed for them more than ever before perhaps; but compared to what
they should have in a democratic society, these changes are hardly enough.
The issues of positive self-image, social fairness, and practical
effectiveness engage the contemporary Dalits in India. To survive in todays
political culture, therefore, the Dalits must have not only a positive cultural
ideology but also an ideological voice; they must have an effective cultural
reasoning.
A fundamentally positive ideology and assertive identity are therefore
indispensable to the contemporary Dalits. As Derrida has said, In
deconstruction the opposition is first..to overthrow the hierarchy. The
construction and deconstruction of differences actually go hand in hand in
indigenous thought and experience, each must not only culminate in the
other but also transcend itself and the other. A Dalit genuinely experiences
a double bind, perhaps a sociological expected condition among the
deprived. Hence, whatever he thinks, constructs, and does, a
deconstruction immediately takes over. As he assembles his new identity,
he also feels that a dispersal and blurring take place. As he decides on a
new plan, a dissipation begins to occur. This recalls Derridas subtler
conjugations of structure and deconstruction.
We can employ two Derridian concepts to interpret the overall
condition of a dalit. These concepts prove to be congenial vehicles for
reflecting on a deep civilizational paradise and ambiguity that neither the
caste order nor a dalit can get away from. Generally, as we have seen, when
a Dalit comments on his civilizational condition, he forces the observer to
think about the caste order as a paradoxical segment of the much larger
Indic cultural system. I will bring in Derrida here essentially for a rectified
structuralism that I think refines certain concepts and procedures in exactly
those ways that would render them more sensitive to a Dalits condition as
well as Indian circumstances. Let us remember that Derrida. argues within
a particular philosophical system but at the some time attempts through the
productivity of language to break or exceed that system. He tests the limits
of logocentrism, engaging in deconstructive reversals. If deconstruction
means that we must do a thing and its opposite, and indeed we desire to do
both, and so on indefinitely, the Derridan double bind helps us
characterize the civilizational blind in which a Dalit in fact exists. He
continuously constructs and deconstructs himself in relation to the caste
Hindu (and vice versa), without knowing whether this perpetually self
deconstructing movement could ever be total and complete.
To sum up, now it is important for the Dalits to construct a new wave of
direct opposition against the caste system. They need to reorder, reformulate
and review the equation of the caste Hindus versus Dalits. Dalits must
interrogate accepted notions regarding caste and class relations in
contemporary society by engaging themselves in a continuous
deconstruction of formulated notions that govern critical perception of social
intercourse. The recent militant protests by Dalits in different parts of
Maharashtra could herald a new phase in Dalits activism as youth
disillusioned with traditional political frameworks seek to assert their rights
on the streets. The protests were not just a reaction to one incident the
desecration of Dr. Ambedkars statue in Kanpur or even the Maharashtra
governments inexcusably slow response to the bestial killing in Khairlanji of
four members of the Bhotmange family. The political system has failed to
read the signs of the anger boiling up in Dalit youth and the out built of fury
in the form of militant protests was a consequences of years of frustration
over the indifference of the government towards Dalits. Educated Dalit
youths are disillusioned with the existing political leadership and are
looking for ways to express their dissatisfaction. But the question that needs
to be asked in why would thousands of ordinary Dalit youths come out on
the road and vent their anger in this way unless their sense of
disillusionment with the system had not already reached boiling point? The
caste Hindus must understand the basis of this fury or get ready for a siege.
Dalit studies as a new perspective
There is a need for serious thinking in understanding the dalit
structure of knowledge and for the establishment of Dalit Studies as a
 new perspective. Dalit Studies should not be treated as a mere body of
knowledge, rather there is a need to construct a new perspective that
cuts across all disciplines in the Social Sciences and Humanities to
comprehend the Indian reality. There is also a need to establish Dalit
Studies as a separate discipline and as a new perspective; as an
independent mode of knowledge, an autonomous discipline within the
larger framework of social science to intervene in the pedagogic
discourses of the system of higher education and contemporary socio-
political discourses at large in order to sensitize them to the issues of
the marginalized sections of society.
Every effort must be made to "de-normalize" caste as the lasting
category of Indian society that gets easy acceptance in the categories
of Indian social sciences, either in the form of universal or national.
Moreover, there is a greater need for exchanges of ideas and views,
discussions and debates to concretise the dalit perspective of Social
Sciences towards developing a new perspective called Dalit Studies
both as an autonomous discipline and as a critique-cum-restructuring
of existing disciplines in Social Sciences and Humanities for the
recovery of history and culture of dalits by undoing the hegemony of
the dominant knowledge system and preparing enough ground for
understanding the history of suffering of marginalised groups and
from this point critiquing the dominant system. All efforts should be
made towards creating a universal that will subsume all the
knowledge systems from below which would aim at undoing the
normalisation of caste as a characteristic of Indian society and
history.

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From Soliloquy to Public Debate: The Dialectics of Identity construction

in subaltern writing in India and Australia.

Http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ Reading Room / litserve/

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