Representation of Humiliation in Bengali Dalit Literature: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This article proposes to develop a comparatist framework of pan-Indian Dalit writings on one hand and the representative Bengali Dalit writings on the other in the context of the experience of humiliation. The chief objective of this comparison would be a close reading of the treatment of the experience of humiliation, along with its claims and contexts, in both literary traditions. Cutting across the literary genres, the main argument of this article will be to show the qualitative difference in the perception of humiliation in Dalit literary expressions and a resultant realization that Bengali Dalit experience somehow falls short of depicting the intensity of insult abundantly manifest in Marathi and other Dalit writings. Throughout the scope of this article, various factors responsible for such low decibel representation of humiliation will be taken up for detailed study with frequent references to past and present Dalit authors and their most representative studies. Another abiding engagement with the issue of humiliation, vis-a-vis the tragic demise of Chuni Kotal, will lead to questions about the muted presence of the community experience of humiliation by the erstwhile Criminal Tribe, Lodha Savar, in contemporary Bengali Dalit writings.