Meaning of Work in Dalit Autobiographies

Abstract

There have been varying perceptions of manual labour in different societies, cultures and thought systems. However, in most pre-modern stratified societies, manual work was considered demeaning. In pre-colonial India, despite various dissenting traditions and protest movements, the dominant ideology continued to privilege non-manual work while degrading manual labour. Thus, the Dalits, most of whom were poor manual workers, remained at the receiving end of this ideology. The colonial regime, owing to its peculiar inherent contradictions, created a dual labour regime for the Dalits whereby their subjection was further strengthened in the rural areas while they experienced some measure of freedom in the cities. The consequent contradictory experiences gave impetus to Dalit movements which sharply attacked the caste system. The Dalit autobiographies emerged in the post-independence period as the most important component of Dalit literature which was a product of the Dalit movement. This article endeavours to analyze some of these texts for their explicit and underlying ideas and notions about work.