Hindi Dalit literature has been produced for over a century but is yet to be acknowledged by a larger mainstream audience. In this article, it is examined how generations of Dalit women lived. Experience of Hindi Dalit literature was constructed by several social, political, ideological and economic factors that together obscured the cultural identity of Dalit women. Using narrative text Dohra Abhishaap, an autobiography and testimonio in nature, written by Kausalya Baisantri, Hindi Dalit author as an entry point, this essay analyses the explicit and implicit mechanisms of Dalit women oppression that have averted Dalit women writers from consolidating their distinct identity. This article examines critically on the discourse regarding the subaltern’s failure to speak and/or be heard, and reflects Hindi Dalit literature’s triumph over casteist struggles to relegate it to the periphery. I argue that Dalit autobiographies/testimonio are indeed a medium towards change and development to represent the ‘silenced voices’.
AdichieC. N. (2014). We should all be feminists. HarperCollins.
2.
AlamM. M., & SinghM. (2022). Understanding identity, education and multi-religiosity among the Nat Tribe of Paschim Champaran in India. Contemporary Voice of Dalit. 10.1177/2455328X211069494
3.
AndersonB. (1986). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso.
4.
AppaduraiA. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press.
5.
AssmannA. (2008). Transformations between history and memory. Social Research, 75(1), 49–72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40972052; 10.1353/sor.2008.0038
6.
AssmannJ., & CzaplickaJ. (1995). Collective memory and cultural identity. New German Critique, (65), 125–133. 10.2307/488538
7.
AyyubR. (2022, October17). The world continues to ignore the radicalization of India. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/india-hindu-nationalist-extremism/html
BeverleyJ. (1989). The margin at the center: On testimonio (testimonial narrative) (pp. 12–13). https://www.proquest.com/docview/1301319368/6A2A2093A96D4FECPQ/5
10.
BiswasS. (2020, October6). Hathras case: Dalit women are among the most oppressed in the world. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54418513
11.
BremnerJ. D., & MarmarC. R. (1998). Trauma, memory and dissociation. American Psychiatric Publishing.
12.
BrowarczykM. (2013). ‘The Double Curse’: A Dalit woman autobiography in Hindi by Kausalya Baisantri. Cracow Indological Studies, 15(15), 287–305. 10.12797/CIS.15.2013.15.15
13.
BrueckL. R. (2014). Writing resistance: The rhetorical imagination of Hindi Dalit literature. Columbia University Press.
14.
BrueckL. R. (2019). Narrating Dalit womanhood and the aesthetics of autobiography. Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 54(1), 25–37. 10.1177/0021989417710067
15.
ButlerJ. (1990). Gender trouble. Routledge.
16.
ChakravartiU. (2020, November23). A message for Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and all the members of Pinjra tod. The Wire. https://thewire.in/rights/a-message-for-devangana-kalita-natasha-narwal-and-all-the-members-of-pinjra-tod
17.
ChatterjeeP. (1994). The nation and its fragments: Colonial and postcolonial histories. Princeton University Press.
18.
CrenshawK. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. 10.2307/1229039
19.
DangleA. (Ed.). (1992). Poisoned bread: Translations from modern Marathi Dalit literature. Orient Longman.
20.
Dharamveer. (2004). Dohrā Abhiśāp Kitnā Dohrā?: Ek dinosaur aurat. Hans, 19(1), 66–67.
21.
DirksN. B. (2001). Castes of mind: Colonialism and the making of modern India. Princeton University Press.
22.
FernandesW. (Ed.). (1996). The emerging Dalit identity: The reassertion of the subalterns. Indian Social Institute.
23.
FraserN. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social Text, 25(25/26), 58–80. 10.2307/466240
24.
FreireP. (1972). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin.
25.
FreireP. (1992). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.
26.
FreudS. (2002). Civilization and its discontents. Penguin.
27.
GangulyD. (2009). Pain, personhood, and the collective: Dalit life narratives. Asian Studies Review, 33(4), 429–442. 10.1080/10357820903367109
28.
GorringeH. (2015). Dalit women’s education in modern India: Double discrimination. Contemporary South Asia, 23(1), 101–102. 10.1080/09584935.2014.1001115
29.
GuptaC. (2017). Speaking self, writing caste: Recovering the life of Santram BA. Biography, 40(1), 16–43. 10.1353/bio.2017.0001
30.
GuptaS. S. (Ed.). (2022). Subalternities in India and Latin America: Dalit autobiographies and the testimonio. Routledge.
31.
GuruG. (1995). Dalit women talk differently. Economical & Political Weekly, 30(41/42), 2548–2550.
32.
HalbwachsM. (1992). On collective memory (Edited, Translated and Introduced by Lewis A Coser). University of Chicago Press.
33.
HuntS. B. (2014). Hindi Dalit literature and the politics of representation. Routledge. 10.4324/9781315733944
34.
JaffrelotC. (2005). Dr. Ambedkar and untouchability: Fighting the Indian caste system. Columbia University Press.
35.
JyotsnaS. (2020, April13). रजनी तिलक: दलित महिला आंदोलन की एक सशक्त अगुवा. Feminism in India. https://hindi.feminisminindia.com/2020/04/13/rajani-tilak-an-empowered-leader-of-india-dalit-women-movement-hindi
36.
KambleB. (2008). The prisons we broke (PanditM., Trans.). Orient BlackSwan.
37.
KannabiranK. (2014). Annihilation by caste: Lessons from Budaun and beyond. Economic & Political Weekly, 49(26/27), 13–15.
38.
LimbaleS. (2007/1984). The outcaste (Akkarmashi) (BhoomkarS., Trans.). Oxford University Press.
39.
MauryaS. (2020). Reading Kaushalya Baisantry’s Dohra Abhishaap: A modern idiom of Dalit female subjectivity. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 5(4), 1232–1238. 10.22161/ijels.54.59
40.
MenchúR. (1983). I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian woman in Guatemala (Burgos-DebrayE., Ed. and WrightA., Trans.). Verso.
41.
MenchúR. (2010). I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian woman in Guatemala. Verso Books.
42.
MerrillC. A. (2014). Crafting a feminist Dalit consciousness in translation. World Literature Today, 88(3), 52–56. 10.1353/wlt.2014.0242
43.
MondalA. (2021). The constitution of the Hathras victims’ body. Body Studies Journal, 3(1), 42–58.
44.
MoonV. (2001). Growing up untouchable in India: A Dalit autobiography. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.
45.
NoraP. (1989). Between memory and history: Les lieux de Mémoire. Representations, 26(1), 7–24. 10.1525/rep.1989.26.1.99p0274v
46.
OmvedtG. (1994). Dalits and the democratic revolution. Sage Publications.
47.
OmvedtG. (1995). Dalit visions: The anti-caste movement and the construction of an Indian identity. Orient Longman.
48.
PaikS. (2009, October3). Amchya Jalmachi Chittarkatha (the bioscope of our lives): Who is my ally?Economic & Political Weekly, 44(40), 39–47. https://www.epw.in/journal/2009/40/special-articles/amchya-jalmachi-chittarkatha-bioscope-our-lives-who-my-ally.html
49.
PaikS. (2011). Mahar–Dalit–Buddhist: The history and politics of naming in Maharashtra. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 45(2), 217–241. 10.1177/006996671104500203
50.
PaikS. (2014). Dalit Women‘s Education in Modern India: Double discrimination. Routledge.
PaikS. (2022, February1). What Dalit people taught us about education and why we must commit to it. The Wire. https://thewire.in/caste/what-Dalit-people-taught-us-about-education-and-why-we-must-commit-to-it
PawarU. (2019). The weave of my life: A Dalit woman’s memoirs (PanditM. & StreeD. O. I., Trans.). 10.7312/pawa14900
55.
RajanB., KunduD., & SarkarS. (2022). Rape, popular culture, and Nirbhaya: A study of India’s daughter and Delhi crime. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 46(3), 1–19. 10.1177/01968599221102527
56.
RamachandranV. (2017). Dalit Women‘s Education in Modern India: Double discrimination, by Shailaja Paik. Women‘s History Review, 26(2), 305–308. 10.1080/09612025.2016.1210956
57.
RegeS. (1995). Feminist pedagogy and sociology for emancipation in India. Sociological Bulletin, 44(2), 223–239. 10.1177/0038022919950205
RoyA. (2022, April21). Religious nationalism, dissent, and the battle between myth and history. Literary Hub. https://lithub.com/arundhati-roy-on-religious-nationalism-dissent-and-the-battle-between-myth-and-history/
SmithS., & WatsonJ. (1998). Introduction: Situating subjectivity in women’s autobiographical practices. In SmithS. & WatsonJ. (Eds), Women, autobiography, theory. A reader. University of Wisconsin Press.
62.
SpivakG. C. (1988). Can the Subaltern speak? In NelsonC. & GrossbergL. (Eds), Die Philosophin (Vol. 14, No. 27, pp. 42–58). University of Illinois Press. 10.5840/philosophin200314275
63.
SunderR. R. (1993). Real and imagined women: Gender, culture, and postcolonialism. Routledge.
64.
TakbhaureS. (2011). Shikanje kā dard. Vani Prakashan.
65.
ThapanM. (2022, May4). Dalit autobiographies as counter publics: An exploratory essay. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, (28), 1–20. 10.4000/samaj.7910
66.
ValmikiO. (2003). Joothan: An untouchable’s life (MukherjeeA. P., Trans.). Columbia University Press.
67.
VelaskarP. (2012). Education for liberation: Ambedkar’s thought and Dalit women’s perspectives. Contemporary Education Dialogue, 9(2), 245–271. 10.1177/097318491200900206
68.
VemulaR. (2015). My birth is my fatal accident: Full text of Dalit student Rohith’s suicide letter. Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/Dalit-student-suicide-full-text-of-suicide-letter-hyderabad/
69.
YengdeS. (2019). Caste matters. Penguin.
70.
YúdiceG. (1991). Testimonio and postmodernism. Latin American Perspectives, 18(3), 15–31. 10.1177/0094582X9101800302
71.
ZelliotE. (1992). From untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar movement. Manohar.
