International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanities

ISSN 2277 – 9809 (online) ISSN 2348 - 9359 (Print)

An Internationally Indexed Peer Reviewed & Refereed Journal

Shri Param Hans Education & Research Foundation Trust

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IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)

Representation of Anger and Agony in the writings of Marathi Dalit Writers

Anuradha Sharma MA. MPhil.

Assistant Professor

Dalit literature fights for purgation of defiled social system. It deals not only with the themes of marginality and resistance but also explains about the Marxist changes influencing their condition. It is a living, breathing literary movement that is intent on establishing itself as an integral part of the field of Indian literature. Dalit literature protests against all forms of exploitation based on class, race, caste or occupation. It has not been recognized as a literature till 1970 but now its name is being heard all around the world. It has made the people to think against the exploitation and suppression. The rise of this literature marks a new chapter for India's marginalized class. Umpteen magazines, literary forums and workshops about Dalit came into existence because of this literature. Many well known Dalit writers are emerged from villages and towns. The poets, short story writers, novelists are receiving both exposure and opportunity in the marketplace that they have never before received. This chapter basically tries to focus on how the Dalit literature fights for purgation of defiled social system. To unfold the major and even minor complexities faced by them, Dalit literature came into existence. The studies are now firmly established as an important and indispensable aspect of all attempts to understand and analyze the complexities of Indian society. In connection to this, J. Jayakiran Sebastian says: “For far too long, there seemed to be an almost embarrassed silence when it came to fleshing out the harsh experiences of Dalit communities in independent India. Should one speak of an ‘Embarrassed silence’ or of a ‘conspiracy of silence’ when it comes to such matters? Or the resurgence of Dalit pride and the increasing recognition of the vital role played by Dalit communities in the political land.”1

I would discuss each important writer associated with Marathi Dalit literature, beginning with Namdeo Dhasal’s Dalit writing. Though Dalit literature is much older than Dhasal and the progressive writings of Phule and Ambedkar. Namdeo Dhasal’s writings mark a new kind of beginning in the kind of literature produced on Dalits. His writings were the most aggressive and violent display of the agonies of Dalit lives, particularly in Maharashtra. Dhasal wrote in Marathi and made use of a diction which people use in day to day life but mostly the abusive one. The odds against which Namdeo Dhasal fought his way to the centre of Marathi literature and culture

1 J. Jayakiran Sebastian “Can I Now Bypass That Truth?” (Padma Publication: Bombay, 2008) 23

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 128 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) makes a very different yet as compelling a story as Ambedakr’s battle to win human dignity and to wrest equality for his community downgraded by Hindu scriptures.

The earlier Dalit writers including Dhasal begin their writing carrier with poetry. With its affinity for the spoken word, poetry is the one literary genre that conveys subtle tones of intimacy and powerful thrusts of urgency even in its textual incarnation. It is here that Indian poetry distinctly breaks away from its post-Gutenbergan western counterpart. In its eternal form, poetry is located in the human voice. Even when it is appropriated and re-voiced as a performed text, it does not cease to have a live addressor and a live addressee and thus remained loquation. Dhasal resorted this quintessential quality of live performance to his extremely complex poetry from the outset. His first collection of poems Golpitha (1972) is written in an idiolect fashioned in the streets of the red light district of central Mumbai, and from the Mahar dialect spoken in the Maval region of the Pune district in Maharashtra- his native tongue. In Mumbai, Dhasal’s language had a generous infusion from Bambaiya Hindi or Bombay Hindi. However, the Kamatipura in which Golpitha is a landmark has Muslim speaking Urdu; Labourers from Andhra speaking Telugu, prostitutes migrated from Karnataka and Nepal- a unique ethno-linguistic entity. It seems that Dhasal was not shy of making this his poetic register and identity. He is clear that he would meet literature on his own terms and his brash confidence sometimes spill over from his intensely charged poems.

Golpitha can be read as a sequence of interrelated poems, or even as a journey poem that takes us simultaneously through a specific location and the mind of its spokeperson. Marathi playwright and writer Vijay Tendulkar wrote a foreword to the first edition of Golpitha and was struck by its rootedness in space and time, and by the language that defied penetration beyond a point. Tendulkar writes, “The world of Namdeo Dhasal’s poetry-the world known as ‘Golpitha’ in the city of Mumbai-begins where the frontier of Mumbai’s white-collar world ends and no- man’s land opens up. This is a world where the night is reversed into the day, where stomachs are empty or half-empty, of desperation against death, of the next day’s anxieties, of bodies left over after being consumed by shame and sensibilities, of insufferably flowing sewage, of diseased young bodies lying by the gutters braving the cold by folding up their keens to their bellies, of the jobless, of beggars, of pickpockets, of holy mendicants, of neighbourhood tough guys and pimps...”2

Laxman Mane:

Published in 1984 in Marathi, Mane’s Upara gives a detailed account of the writer’s struggle in life within the repressive framework of Hindu caste society. It vividly portrays the process of subjugation of the Kaikadis, a nomadic character of the community the Kaikadis are always looked down upon by the upper caste. For this reason Mane calls them Upara or the outsider to bring in a counter with the settled upper caste communities who are definitely privileged as

2 Dilip Chitre’s translation of the word ‘Dalit’ in the introduction of ‘Namdeo Dhasal: Poet of the Underworld’ (Navayana Publication:Chennai, 2007)10 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 129 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) compared to the Kaikadis. Mane, a Kaikadi himself, narrates how he and his family and his community were suppressed and oppressed by the village people and at times expelled from their village. It is the gripping story of a man’s struggle that yearned for a life of dignity but failed. As a community of the landless and homeless, the Kaikadis, Mane writes, travelled from village to village selling baskets made of cane and repairing old baskets. They always stayed in places where village people relived themselves or in the cemeteries. If their business did not go well, they lived by begging. Sometimes on leftover food thrown to them by upper caste. Mane writes, “I took a bowl in my hand and went from house to house begging for food. Standing in front of each house, I would call out loudly: “Aunty, throw some crumbs of bhakri into my bowl...I beg of you...Grandma dear, throw the stale let-over into my bowl, please ...for pity’s sake.” Some women put rotten bread, stale curry and things like that into my begging bowl. In an hour or two. The bowl was full. I returned home followed by street dogs. Pelting stones at them and brandishing the cane, I reached the hut. Hunger had made us feeble. We ate enough from the begging bowl and we preserved the rest to eat later.”3 Throughout his autobiography Mane narrates the ambivalent and often, retaliatory and undignified attitude of the better- placed upper- caste with whom his community directly came in contact with for their livelihood. The majority of upper caste mindlessly exploitated the kaikadis in vary many ways. They were frequently beaten accusing them of stealing and robbing. In 1997, after thirteen year of Upara in Marathi, his autobiography came out in English. By that time Mane had received an overwhelming response from the mainstream literary critics in Marathi as well as from the general public. He had also won several prestigious awards including a Ford Foundation fellowship to visit America. But still, the existential condition of the kaikadis remained the same. Therefore, he writes sadly about the pitiable condition of his community:

Even so I still felt as ill at ease and restless as never before. For the question is not of an individual. The question is of hundreds of thousands who are living in slums. On pavements, on the outskirts of villages, and those who do not have even such places who are suffering in miserable condition in the vales and valleys, hills and rocky planes. They do not have even two meals a day! Such a world have I been seeing with my own eyes-the world where one doubts one’s very existence. 4 As an autobiography, Upara portrays the life of the author while he was in highly emotional state. At times, the abject submission of the author and at other times, his rebellion in the book, makes it a moving human story-not merely a social document about caste oppression. Today Mane is also known to be a social activist who is been associated with organizations like Rashtra Seva Dal and Samajvadi Yuvak Dal, which are working amidst various depressed classes in different parts of Maharashtra.

Saran Kumar Limbale:

3 Laxam Mane. Upara. Translated as Outsider by A.K Kamat. (Sahitya Akademi: New Delhi, 1997) 35 4 Laxam Mane. Upara. Translated as Outsider by A.K Kamat. (Sahitya Akademi: New Delhi, 1997) 9 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 130 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)

Saran Kumar Limbale like Laxam Mane, is yet another rebel who exposes the hypocrisies of Indian caste society through the narrative of his life. Titled as Outcaste, Limble in his narrative talks explicitly about how Mahar women were being sexually exploited by the upper-caste Marathas. It was rather a strange social Practise in Maharashtra and other parts of India that Dalit girls are kept by upper-caste men to satisfy their lust under the name of employing them for work. The children born to them were considered illegitimates because the Patils never acknowledge fatherhood. In many cases, these Dalit women had to satisfy the lust of several landloards in their lifetime and therefore they could not name the real father of their children. They had no economic security and thus led very miserable lives. Ironically, the society looked down upon them as prostitute. Limble’s autobiography extensively deals with how being Dalit. His mother and grandmother were the victims of this social evil.

The Outcaste basically deals with the question of identity of a young man. Who happens to be an illegitimate child born to a Mahar mother by a Maratha father. Limble wrote his autobiography when he was twenty-five year old. While constructing a ‘self’ through his narrative he goes to the root of Indian caste society questioning its very foundation which was based on a religious order. He condemns the hypocrisy of the Indian upper caste men who far their own convenience follow caste rules but would never mind in induling in carnal pleasure by exploiting the dignity of the lower caste women. His critique of the Indian caste system is worth quoting, “People who enjoy high-caste privileges, authority sanctioned by religion, and inherit property, have exploited the Dalit of this land. The Patil in every village have made whores of the wives of Dalit farm labourers. A poor Dalit girl on attaining puberty has adulterous Patils. There are Dalit families that survive by pleasing the Patils sexually. Even the children born to her from her husband are considered the children of a Patil. Beside survival on the charity of a Patil what else can such a household expect?” 5

Limble’s cry for social justice, perhaps, has no match in any literature, as far as i know. His voice is definitely loud, but it has its own justification. As a direct victim of such a heinous practice, his anger is so much violent that it cannot be contained in words. The following is the outburst where he puts a volley of questions related to his stigmatised birth: “Why did my mother say yes to the rape which brought me into the world? Why did she put up with the fruit of this illegitimate intercourse for nine months and nine days and allow me to grow in the foetus? Why did she allow this bitter embryo to grow? How many eyes must have humiliated her because they considered her a whore? Did anyone distribute sweets to celebrate my birth? Did anyone admire me affectionately? Did anyone celebrate my naming ceremony? Which family would claim me as its descendant? Whose son am I, really?6 Limbale’s questions obviously go unanswered. But, by raising these questions Limbale initiates a serious discussion on the caste

5 Sharankumar Limbale. The Outcaste. Translated form Marathi by Santosh Bhoomkar. (Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 2003) 38 6 Sharankumar Limbale. The Outcaste. Translated form Marathi by Santosh Bhoomkar. (Oxford University Press: New Delhi, 2003) 37 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 131 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) system: how long can we go on perpetuating it? Caste oppression seems to be a never-ending process. Therefore even though Limbale seems to be angry with the system, he is really sympathetic towards the victim s who hardly have any choice. He like other Dalit writers forgives the perpetrators and proves that as an enlightenment writer, he is above narrow- mindedness.

Vasant Moon:

Vasant Moon’s Vasti: Growing up Untouchable in India is an autobiographical narrative of an untouchable boy who grows in a slum amidst poverty, to become an independent and later a responsible leader of the Dalit community in Maharashtra, the homeland of Ambedkar. Being an orphan at an early age, Moon’s struggle to become educated but Moon’s determination to grow in life not only resulted in his having completed a post-graduate degree, but he also became a civil servant in Maharashtra state government. Securing a government job helped him realize his aspiration of working among socially disadvantage groups, particularly Dalits. Ambedkar has remained a source of inspiration throughout Moon’s life. Moon has been working hard with his fellow Dalits to further the unfinished task started by a leader like Ambedkar. But in spite of all these successes Moon’s autobiography is not a book of celebration; it is a social document which tells us how difficult it is for a Dalit to grow in India. Mahar belonged to Mahar community before he got converted to Buddhism. As an untouchable community the traditional roles of Mahars were to clean village roads, to scavenge dead animals, to carry messages from village to village, etc. Moon has seen his father and grandfather performing the traditional roles in their village Sitabardi. Moon’s father died when he was just nine year old and thus finding no proper means to survive his mother migrated to Nagpur and settled down in a slum. The slum was named Maharpura. Moon’s mother did some odd jobs in the neighbourhood mostly inhabitated by upper caste Brahmins. Due to economic pressure Moon’s could not continue his school and he and his sister started begging in the neighbourhood to support their mother. At such a crucial point of time when there was nobody to go to, Samata Sainik Dal, once founded by Ambedkar came to their help by providing them with food, clothes and even books. Later with his studies Moon also joined in the activities of the Dal as well. Moon in his autobiography do not celebrate his progress from a poor Dalit boy to being a civil servant. Instead he brings to our attention a number of events experienced in the slum and its neighborhood which are disturbing and inspiring.

After reading his autobiography it is realized that his active involvement in various Dalit organization including his organizational work to review Buddhism has bought him a sense of self-satisfaction. At the end of his autobiography, Moon acknowledge his gratefulness towards his community which he believes has given him everything beginning from food, love , friendship, care and a life experience. Moon is quite nostalgic about his community life. He remembers his childhood days when he got love, affection and care from the people of his community. He writes: “I should again become small and go live in some small earthen house in that Vasti. I should experience the love of neighbours. I should hear gain the Buddhist and International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 132 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)

Ambedkarite song sung by the new generation and be merged with the soil that nurtured the community.” 7 Moons’s longing for a community life has its own reasoning. He is frustrated to see the present state of the Dalit movement which has not only lost radical posture, but has got divided into several factions. Lack of unity among Dalits is a threat to the Dalit movement. Realizing this, Moon falls back upon the community to strengthen its bond so as to unite Dalit to fight against the caste oppression. They came from diverse family backgrounds and were different from each other in age, education, religion, look, taste, choice, profession, etc. However the common thing about them was that they all lived in a slum in Bombay.

A very important reason for their miserable condition was their poor economic background. Normally, the upper-caste communities knowingly recruit them in inhuman and low-paid jobs and closing for them all the gates of any kind of upward mobility. The males in the family are labourers on whose wages the whole family has to survive. In a few cases even the female members of the family try to contribute to the income by working hard but they often complain that their men take way half of their hard earned money to spend on liquor and other bad habits. As there is no permanent source of income throughout the year, these women has to depend entirely on their good health to be able to work against all odds. Married women in Dalit communities recollect that they were frequently pregnant as a result; they were always in need of food and medical care. Because of the low level of education, these women were hardly aware of family planning methods. Having more children means also means more mouths to feed and thus most of the families could not effort to send their children to school, instead they initiated their children into household work. That is how poverty was perpetuated in Dalit families. One of the eighteen year old women in the group, Mangala narrates how since her childhood she started working along with her widowed mother in a small packaging unit for turmeric, chilli powder and other spices. She narrates, “We sold pots and pans and plates and managed on tea and at times water. We had some red chilli powder and salt, so we ate that for four days. We are all at our last ounce of strength; my little brother was dying for want of milk. We could not sleep. I looked at my mother and I thought she was at death’s door....I asked for some bread and the neighbours gave us some bread and we ate that with the tea but what were we going to do the next day? At last some days later my mother got some work in a plastic factory and my sister got some housework to do in some lady’s house and we had a better time.”8

More than poverty these women suffered from various forms of caste, class and gender oppression both at home and outside. Almost all of them recounted how upper-caste men took advantage of their poor economic condition and attempted to physically assault them. Even outside their work place they were harassed by the upper-caste. Many of them recollected how men in the streets lecherously commented on them and if they protested they abused them. Married women recollected how their husband invariably jumped to the bed at night and forcibly

7 Vasant Moon. Vasti. Translated into English as Growing up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography by Gail Omvedt. (Rowman and Littlefield Publication: United States of American, 2001) 176 8 Sumitra Bhave. Pan on Fire. Translated by Gauri Deshpande (Indian Social Institute: New Delhi, 1988) 111 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 133 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) had sex with them without any consideration. In some case, the women would protest against the different attitude of their husbands towards them. Some of them realise that if they remain silent, they would be further exploited. Therefore they adopted different strategies to deal with their men. In some cases even if women came to know that their husbands had mistresses or they were visiting brothels they never protested but silently suffered the anguish. Perhaps, their economic needs and the desire to maintain a social identity forced then to cling to their husbands. However not all the husbands treated their wives badly, some of the women reported that whenever their husbands were good and understanding, their mother-in-laws would bring disharmony between them. Sometimes the mother-in-law even incited their sons to beat their daughter-in-law. Scenes of violence for one or the other reason are very common among the Dalit families. Sangeeta recollects the attitude of her mother when she was a child. She quotes, “My mother was very strict and we all knew it. So any time she got after one of us, we’d all set up a howling and she’d have to get up disciplining that one! We were smart alright. But she was very strict and I was scared of her. She would even tie up my hands and feet and hang me form wall-hook...I tell you sometimes i wonder she would be my step-mother. I bore all the beating she gave me, I never said a word, but if someone else so much as raised a hand, I’d attack like a tigress. 9

Sumitra Bhave is of the view that because of the different socio-cultural environment there exists a dichotomy between the upper-caste women’s perception of freedom vis-a-vis the existential condition of the lower caste women. To quote Bhave, “Women are not seen to come together under one banner and to struggle, to achieve similar goals. Why? One answer is found in women’s self-image. Outwardly she seems to be a victim of injustice and double standards. But through manipulative politics she gains compensatory rewards both at familial and societal level. Since both these images-the downtrodden one as well as the Machiavellian statesmanlike one- form a part of her self-image, the latter is always undermining the anger of the former, preventing its explosion into a coherent revolution. Mutually exclusive social institutions coexist, interact and borrow from one another in the context of Indian culture. It is this reverence which allows a woman in fact to assume control of her household, though in instrumental norm she remains powerless. The origins of the indifference of Indian women to the lib movement are found in this dichotomy.10Dalit women from all over India have mow started to reveal their inner turmoil without any fear. Their condition has become the main concern for many of the feminist writers like Sharmila Rege who have pointed out the internal contradiction that exists in Dalit women’s movement citing the difference between rural and urban, illiterate and literate, poor and rich Dalit women. However it doesn’t mean that the Dalit movement launched by women is a complete failure though it’s true that it is still in its inception and yet to achieve its objectives, but the literary expression coming from these women suggest that Dalit women in India are sure to get their due in the coming days.

9 Sumitra Bhave. Pan on Fire. Translated by Gauri Deshpande (Indian Social Institute: New Delhi, 1988) 5 10 Raj Kumar. Dalit Personal Narratives: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity. (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2011) 227 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 134 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)

It is quite unfortunate that even though so much have been written by the Marathi Dalit writers, which has not been translated into English or Hindi yet, keeping their life memoirs away from the world. Talking about women autobiographies, only a few can be assessed because of the language problem. In the following section I shall be discussing a few autobiographical extracts of Santabai Kamble, Kumud Pawde and Urmila Pawar. Some of the women wrote critically about violence in Dalit families as I have already discussed above. Apart from writing literary pieces, some of them like Urmila Pawar and others also tried to unearth various misconception attributed to Dalit women by the o-called mainstream social scientists through micro and macro research projects. Unfortunately their findings on Dalit women have not been included in the lists of Feminist Studies or Women’s studies. The life accounts of these women are not just tales of sorrows but of courage. They all fought against all the odds and finally got themselves established as writers.

The first autobiographical extract is titled s “Naja Goes to School-and Doesn’t” which is a part of Santabai Kamble’s autobiography, Majya Jalmachi Chittarkantha . Naja is Santabai’s pet name. In this part she discusses how caste, class and gender discrimination are perpetuated both in the upper caste and Dalit families. She was the fourth daughter in the family and was deprived of the basic necessities of like today such as education. Santabai’s father wanted to have a male child and thus when his fourth daughter Santabai was born he almost wanted to kill her. Shantabai also recounts how, being a Mahar, she and her community people were discriminated against by the upper-castes. Santabai writes an incident when one of her Brahmin friend Shaku did not come to school. The school teacher sent Sanatabai to fetch her. When Sanatbai reached her friend house, her friend’s mother shouted at her from a distance, “You daughter of a Mahar; stay there and do not touch anything. You’ll pollute everything.”11 This was the caste-insult directed at the Mahar community as a whole. Such was the humiliation every Dalit was afraid of while visiting the upper-caste houses. In a nut-shell, Shantabai’s autobiography extract tell us how difficult it is for a Dalit girl to grow in the India caste society.

Kumud Pawde’s autobiographical extract has been named, “The story of my Sanskrit” from her autobiographical titled Anatashot. Kumud in the extract narrates how, being a Dalit, she was denied the learning of Sanskrit during her school and college. But she was determined to learn Sanskrit against all odds. Thus she proves that given an opportunity Dalits could do better in Sanskrit language and literature. Today Kumud Pawar is a distinguished professor of Sanskrit. Kumud life is a reminder of how Dalits are less fortunate in the Indian society compared to their upper-caste counterparts in exercise their freedom of choices. But every time she appeared before the selection committee she was humiliated. She would hear the experts commenting behind her back, “So now even these people are to teach Sanskrit! Government Brahmins, aren’t they?”12

11 Sumitra Bhave. Pan on Fire. Translated by Gauri Deshpande (Indian Social Institute: New Delhi, 1988) 37 12 Kumud Pawade. Antasphot. (Anand Prakashan: Aurangabad, 1981) 105 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 135 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)

After joining the post Kumud worked hard to prove that she was no less than her upper-caste colleagues. She was also praised by her colleagues. But there were also detractor who wanted to bring her reputation down. They could not digest the idea that a dalit woman would teach Sanskrit, and that too excellently. They thought that it was a dreadful anomaly for the people of the lower caste to have chosen such an option. All these instances tell us that caste is the only reality in Indian society irrespective of the achievements of the individual. That’s why even after becoming a professor of Sanskrit she is not free from the stigma called caste. She recalls, “What comes by birth but can’t be cast off by dying-that is caste.” 13

Urmila Pawar’s short autobiographical narrative is named Amhihi Itihas Ghadawala or Urmila Pawar and the Making of the History. The narrative is based on the dialogue between the author and a group of students, teachers and activist at the oral history workshop organized by the sound and pictures Archives for Research on Women in Mumbai. The dialogues were written in Hindi and later SPARROW staff translated them into English. The topics deliberated in the workshop were all related to the autobiographical self, such as, the childhood and growing up stages of the author, her marriage and family life, her career as a writer, discriminations in various phases of her life, etc. The overall narrative strategy emphasises oral tradition over written text. As a writer she is quite frank and direct in her approach on the subject she writes. The language she uses is very rural and earthly. When Urmila was of 7 years old her father died. Her mother was illiterate and thus it became quite difficult for the family to survive. Urmila recollects that the upper caste teacher practised untouchability in the classes. She being a Mahar the class teacher would always make her sit in the last row and thus her classmates also showed disrespect to her. But despite of all the hardships she passed her matriculation examination in 1964 and got a job in Public Worrk Department in government of Maharashtra. She completed her masters in Marthi. She later regrets that Bombay University did not allow her to register for the Ph.D saying that she needed a Masters degree in Sociology. Frustrated Urmila later started the research on the personal level in collaboration of Meenakshi Moon, wife of Vasant Moon, which finally got published under the title, ‘We also made History’.

Urmila Pawar is more famously unknown Dalit short stories who always give representation to Dalit women. For many years Dalit male writers have been indifferent to these issues. So when she actually started writings about the plight of Dalit women, she faced protest from the male writers. Many of them told Urmila, “You write, but write about how the upper caste misbehaves with us. But it is not nice to point out the shortcoming of our men.” 14 By critically reflecting on issues related to her community she is just exercising her freedom as a writer. She also objects to the use of certain words used by Dalit male writers, without realizing their socio-cultural implications use them only to insult their women folk. They had not realized that they easily used bad words, which are actually directed at women. This is believed to be targeted towards Namdeo Dhasal for his using too many abusive words. It is significant to note that unlike the

13 Kumud Pawade. Antasphot. (Anand Prakashan: Aurangabad, 1981) 97 14 Urmila, Pawar. Aaidan (Marathi). (Granthali: Bombay, 2003) 27 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 136 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) upper-caste writers who generally prefer to write in the polished language, the Dalit writers often express themselves with ease by picking up those idioms and phrases which they commonly use in their day-to-day conversations. This is the reason why they never feel shy of using slangs, abuses or even curses which are the reflections of the world they live in and the way they shape their lives.

Autobiographies, in traditional Indian literary genre were not very common way of expressing emotions as poetry was but from the 19th century onwards some revolutionary people mustarded the courage to narrate their personal lives. Though the critical studies of these kinds of personal narratives has been a slow process in India for obvious reasons. 15 The few Indian autobiographies which widely drew attention are M.K Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth (1927). Jawaharlal Nehru’s An Autobiography (1936) and Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s An Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (1951). Though the three writers represent different world views socially but culturally they belong to one particular category i.e. upper caste which makes them little privileged to have an audience worldwide. Since their autobiographies were written in English, the critics working on autobiographies naturally picked them up to evaluate their lives and writings. On the other hand Dalits who have been raising their voices for quite some time, through their personal narratives were constantly ignored and neglected in the academic centre. Dr. Raj Kumar in his Dalit Personal Narratives writes, “One Possible reason for this neglect could be that these voices challenge the hegemony of the upper caste and make way for assertation of the marginal self.” 16

Even the most progressive and revolutionary minded writers like Premchand, Mulk Raj Anand, T.S .Pillai, V.S. Khandekar and several others who have tried to describe the sentiments of Dalits are not being accepted. According to Dalit writers only a Dalit by birth can have the sensitivity and experience to be a genuine Dalit writer. Their writings are believed to be the letters of their own blood, a natural outburst of the feelings and thoughts which have been blocked up for centuries. Unlike the non-Dalit writers, the Dalit writers attempt to be true to their lived experiences and feel that their vision and response must be translated into art honestly, in its raw undistilled form, without euphemism. Their vehicle is often the brutal, course and crude language of slum, springing from a life of poverty, ignorance and violence. There is even an attempt on their part to evolve a new aesthetics because they feel that the genteel expectation of the existing elite literary standard cannot do justice to the equality of the life they know and render in writing. Thus Dalit literature aims at creating a counter-culture and a separate identity for the Dalits in the society. The most unfortunate thing about Dalit literature is that some critics of Dalit literature do not accept it as ‘creative’ art and term it as ‘reactive’ and ‘propagandistic’. Dalit writers refute these charges by arguing that all literature for that matter is propagandistic

15 Amar Nath Parsad and M.B Gaijan. (eds) Dalit Literature: A Critical Exploration. (Sarup and Sons: New Delhi, 2007) 58 16 Raj Kumar. Dalit Personal Narratives: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity. (Orient BlackSwan: New Delhi, 2011) 2 International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 137 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) because all the writers follow a certain philosophy while writing something. The difference between non-Dalit writings is that in the first case one insists on the so-called literary values and in other, on values of life. Dalit writers feel that mere literary interpretation or an academic point of view cannot do any justice to comprehend the true spirit of Dalit literature. The writers argue that Dalit literature has a theoretical as well as a sociological base which is hardly understood by the upper caste critics. Therefore, the Dalit writers suggest that the critics should have a proper orientation to properly understand the various perspectives of Dalit literature and then review it. Thus one can clearly say that Dalit literature is engaged in carrying out two main functions: ‘demolition’ and ‘reconstruction’. 17 On the other hand, it is anxious to transform the social reality in the direction of total freedom, equality and human dignity. These two processes do not easily go hand-in-hand and hence, Dalit literature, like every Dalit individual, is struggling to achieve its goal. He explains: The actual world is filled with dreadful, terrible, humiliating events. Dalit writers cannot escape being tied physically and mentally to this world. Dalit writers are doing the difficult task of portraying this life, through personal experience and empathy, absorbing it from all sides in their sensibility. To live this life is painful enough; it can be equally painful enough; it is equally painful to recreate it on the mental level. Dalit writers are deeply involved in this process. It is not easy for them to extricate themselves from it and write. The creation of literature has its own laws. Higher literary creation is possible on the basis of these laws. Those who have the right to say that ‘our humanity is our burden’ can easily master these rules of literary art. The gift of art can never be as heavy as the burden of humanity. Of late, the volume of Dalit writings has been increasing annually. Besides Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, voices of protest can be heard from as distant states as Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and several others. Dalit outpouring have taken all known forms of literature such as autobiographies, poems, short stories and it seems that the age-old silence has started breaking.

Role of Press in promoting Dalit literature: Press is one of the media of forming public opinions. It consists of daily news papers, weeklies, periodicals journals, magazines, leaflets and books. B. L. Grover says that the Press should take the Government policies to the people and bring back their reactions, which the Government needs to take proper action.18 Pandit Nehru had very high regard about the necessity of free press in the democratic governance. The Portuguese were the first Europeans, who established the first press in Goa in 1557. The British followed the Portuguese and established the press in Bombay in 1684 and gave birth to several newspapers in Bombay and other parts of the Presidency. It does not mean that before the British arrival, Maharashtra was devoid of learning. There was the oral tradition of learning due to the lacking of the availability of printed materials like books, newspapers, magazines and journals as are available today. In 1813, the American Mission set up a printing press at Bhendi Bazar under the supervision of Thomas

17 Jayashree Gokhale. From Confession to Confrontation: The Politics of an Indian Untouchable Community. (Popular Prakashan: New Delhi, 1993) 47 18 B.L Grover. A New Look At Modern Indian History: Men of Destiny. (S. Chand and Co: New Delhi,1998) International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 138 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print)

Graham, who printed books in Marathi and Gujarati in order to stimulate the spread of Christianity. Ganpat Krishnaji, a Maharastrian Bhandari boy worked in the American Bhendi Bazar press for some initial years and when he learned the technique of the press, he opened his own printing press at Bori Bandar, in Bombay. He began to print all religious books in Marathi. Thus, the printing press began operating in Maharashtra. Marathi Periodicals: Although, the printing press initiated English journals in then Bombay like Telegraph, Courier, Bombay Gazette, Bombay Times and the Times of India. But there was no Maratha journal being published. Bal Shastri Jambhekar was the first person, who edited and published the ‘Mumbai Darpan’ in 1832. This was first Anglo-Marathi periodical based on the ‘Samachar Darpan’ a Bengali periodical, which paved the way for all sorts of Marathi publications like books and magazines. In 1840 Raghoba Janardhan Gawank popularly known as Vasaikar, edited and published the first Marathi monthly. Govind Vithal Alias Bhau Mahajan published ‘Prabhakar’ in 1849 his weekly on every Sunday. It became very popular when Gopal Hari Deshmukh popularly known as Lokhitwadi published his hundred letters in it, which came to be known as Shatpatre, were very critical about the evil practices in the Hindu religion. In 1854, he also began to publish ‘Dyandarshan’, a quarterly magazine to counteract the Christian propaganda, which was earlier carried out in their Marathi magazine ‘Dyanodaya’ Major Periodicals: Charles Metcalfe succeeded William Bentinck as Governor General of India in 1835. The Indian Press Act of 1835, which he passed to liberate Indian press from the obnoxious license regulations of 1823. This Act of 1835 enhanced the growth and development of several news papers, periodical and magazines to their fullest extend throughout India. Thus, Charles Metcalf is popularly known as ‘the Liberator of Indian Press’. The then Bombay state did not lag behind in this competition and gave birth to several periodical, news papers and magazines. Among them were three major popular periodicals which created awakening about the contemporary issues in the state. They were 1) Dyanodaya 2) Dyanprakash 3) Induprakash, which are briefed as under: 1) Dyanodaya : The American Missionaries published this periodical at Ahmednagar in Marathi in 1842. In order to popularize Christianity, it criticized the several inhuman customs and practices prevailed in the Hindu society which affected the lives of common people and led them to segregate from the mainstream. The attack of Dyanodaya on Hindu religion gave birth to four periodicals namely Dyansindhu, Mitrodaya Saduktiratna and Dyanchandrodaya which defended Hindu religion and gave more emphasis on promotion of moral, social and advancement of the Hindu religion. In 1844, Updesh chandrika, a new periodical was published, which began to counteract the propaganda of Dyanodaya and also advocated social and religious reforms. 2) Dyanprakash : As in the then Bombay city the periodicals were also published in other parts of Maharashtra like Pune and Ahmednagar. Krishnaji Trimbak Ranade started his own publication ‘Dyanprakash’,

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 139 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) the edition of this first periodical came in 1845 in Pune. Dyanprakash, as the title suggests, began to spread knowledge in all corners of Maharashtra due to its reputed contributors like Krishna Shastri Chiplunkar, Goapl Hari Deshmukh, Tatya Chhatre and Mahadev Govind Ranade. The periodical touched all subjects like female education, Indian industries, taxes, trade and commerce which led it to convert itself from a periodical based on Darpan of Balshastri to a daily newspaper in 1904. 3) Induprakash : Vishnushastri Pandit one of the intellectuals edited and published this weekly periodical in the then Bombay in 1862. This periodical gave priority to issues like child marriage, female education, widow remarriages and advocated social reforms. It aroused the people to think about the social wills and tried to create a favourable consciousness towards the social reforms. This made the weekly very popular and began to publish it daily from 1902. In the same way, Dyansangharsha was published in Berar in Marathi. Samargdarshak, one more magazine was published in Ratnagiri, a remote district of Maharashtra in 1868. A. B. Gunjikar published Vividhadyanvistar a magazine in 1867, which touched the hearts of people and earned a wider readership in Maharashtra. In the same way Vishnushastri Chiplunkar published his popular Nibandhmala, a series of essays, through which he strengthened orthodoxy in the state and created disappointment among the social reformers. There were two other non-Brahmin magazines as Sarita and Deenabandhu. Mahtma Jyotibha Phule had started Sarita in 1885. It survived for a long time and created much awareness among the people. Krishnarao Bhalekar, one more visionary and associate of Mahatma Phule started publishing Deenbandhu from Kolhapur in 1877 which tried to create awareness and favourable atmosphere for social reforms in the society. Development of Militant Journalism: The British Government and their policies were responsible for the rise of militancy in newspaper writings. The periodicals like the Kesari and the Marathas were started by Tilak, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar and Agarkar in 1881 in Marathi and English respectively. Tilak and Agarkar being nationalist and patriot stood several trials for their editorials in Kesari and the Maratha. Tilak and Agarkar produced two letters in support of their argument but could not prove authenticity of these letters which forced them to undergo four months of imprisonment. This made them overnight heroes of people and their weeklies became militant and very popular among the people of India. The Marathi press not only enlightened the people but also enriched their language of knowledge. Among such periodicals Karmanuk of H.N. Apte, Granthmala of Vijapurkar, Itihasa Samgraha of Mumbai, Bharat Gaurav Granthmala and Shruti-both were very important. Thus Maharashtra has witnessed the tremendous progress in the field of education and press. We have seen in this chapter how the education molded the minds of youth and later due to its influence they challenged the orthodox character of Indian society. Number of Marathi and English newspapers and magazines were started in Maharashtra during this period which contributed a lot in the social and political awakening in Maharashtra. Press has become the

International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 140 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Vol 5 Issue 6 [Year 2014] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) important means of mass education. Thus from 1848 to 1960, Maharashtra achieved its development due to the progress in education and press which played a very vital role in bringing the literary movement in India, particularly Maharashtra. All these positive steps contributed in providing platform to Dalit writers and thus letting them create an anti-Hinduism literature which tells about their anger and agony in the so called Hindu dominated society. Bibliography

Primary Texts:

 Ambedkar, Babasaheb. Writings and Speeches, vols.11. The Education Department, Bombay: Government of Maharashtra, 1989-1991.  Ambedkar, Babasaheb. Who were Sudras? Bombay: Thacker, 1946.  Ambedkar, Babasaheb. Annihilation of Caste. Bangalore: Dalit Sahitya Akadmi, 1987.  Ambedkar, Babasaheb. Why go for Conversion. Bangalore: Dalit Sahitya Akadmi, 1987.  Bhave, Sumitra. Pan on Fire: Eight Dalit Women Tell their Story. Translated by Gauri Deshpande. New Delhi; Indian Social Institute, 1988.  Dhasal, Namdeo. Poet of the Underworld. Translated by Dilip Chitre. Chennai: Navayana, 2007.  Dangle, Arjun. (ed). Poisoned Bread: Translation from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature. (1992). Bombay: Orient Longman, 1994.  Kamble, Baby. The Prison we Broke. Translated from Marathi by Maya Pandit, Chennai: Orient Longman, 2008.  Kamble, Santabai. Majya Jalmachi Chittarakatha. (Marathi). Pune, Suguva Prakashan, 1990.

 Laxmibai Tilak. Smritichitree. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, 1994.  Limbale, Sharankumar. The Outcaste. Translated from Marathi by Santosh Bhoomkar. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.  Mane, Laxman. Upara. Translated as Outsider by A.K Kamat. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1997.  Moon, Vasant. Vasti (1985). Translated into English as Growing up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography by Gail Omvedt. United States of America: Rowman and Littlefield Publisher, 2001.  Pawar, Urmila. Aaidan. (Marathi). Bombay: Granthali, 2003.  Pawa, Urmil. The Weave of my Life: A Dalit Woman Memoirs. Translated by Maya Pandit. New Delhi: Columbia University Press, 2008.  Pawde, Kumud. Antasphot (Marathi). Aurangabad: Anand Prakashan, 1981.  Ranade Ramabai. Amchya Ayushyatil Kahi Athavani (Marathi), Himself the Autobiography of a Hindu lady by Ranade Ramabai. Mumbai: Longmans Green and Co, 1938.

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 Shantabai Kamble's Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha published as a complete book in 1986 but presented to readers and television audiences in serial form through the early 1980s, is considered the first autobiographical narrative by Dalit woman writer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantabai_Kamble  Tilak, Laxmibai. I Follow After. Translated by E. Josephine. USA: Oxford University Press, 1950. Secondary Texts:

 Abedi, Zakir. Dalit Social Empowerenment in India. Arise Publishers and Distridutors: New Delhi, 2010.  Acampora, Christa Davis and Angela L.(eds) “Unmaking Race, Remaking Souls: Transforming Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom”. USA: State University of New York, 2007.  Ahmad, Imtiaz. Dalit Assertion in Society, Literature, and History. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2010.  Ashely, Kathleen (ed). Autobiography and Post- Modernism. Bosson: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1994.  Arnold, David and Stuart Blackburn, ed. Telling Lives in India: Biography, Autobiography and Life History. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004.  Basu, Tapan, ed. Translating Caste. New Delhi: Katha, 2002.  Beth, Sarah. “Dalit Autobiographies in Hindi: Transformation of Pain into Resistance.” Swedish South Asian Studies Network, 9 July 2004.  Blunt, E. A. H. The Caste System of Northern India. Humphrew Milford: Oxford University Press, 1931.

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