Dalit Poetry: A Discourse Through Deconstruction

Abstract

Dalit Poetry as a Discourse on Social Movements

The relation between social movement and literature cannot be denied. Since time immemorial, this relation has been continuing in almost all the literary traditions, and there is no exception to the literatures in India. It is not an exaggeration if it is said that the literary movements in India have been travelling along with socio-political movements. Even a cursory reading of the history of Indian literature will establish this fact.

It is also a known fact that the social movements are inspired by the thought systems of the great philosophers and social reformers. The thought systems offer an analysis of the context in which the writing and social change take place. The same system will also guide the literature to function as a tool of social critique through discourse.

Social and literary movements explore the multiple systems of oppression and discrimination by incorporating both textual and sociological lenses. Not only sociology, even literature operates as a form of civic engagement by utilizing the heuristic tools evolved in philosophy and sociology and exposes the social inequalities or categorization of a caste, gender, race, and class.

Creative writers or fiction writers will investigate the social issues so as to make the social situation understood by the common man. This understanding creates awareness about the existence and simultaneously leads them towards action to change their situation. Dalit Movement and Dalit Literature have been progressing in the same direction with the same goals more vigorously.

Against this backdrop, this paper attempts to analyze the poetry written by the Dalit writers as a tool of discourse on Dalit Movement and on Dalits’ life. The translated poems from the four South Indian languages have been selected for the analysis in order to emphasize the importance of socio-political context and the function of the literature.

References

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