e n

Bahujan literature: Introduction to a new literary-cultural vision

The concept of Bahujan literature and culture has started taking shape over the past couple of years. To understand this concept, three books are a must-read, writes Dr Siddharth

The exercise of re-interpreting and unearthing alternative interpretations of Indian culture, literature, mythology, and history has been continuing for the past thousands of years. There have been Vedic and non-Vedic, Aryan and non-Aryan as well as other interpretations, re-interpretations and alternative interpretations. This process gathered pace during the colonial period. The national freedom movement triggered incisive discourses on Indian history, society and the course of the country’s future based on different interests and schools of thought. These discourses were aimed less at understanding the reality and more at safeguarding the interests of different classes, communities, and groups and mobilizing support for them. These discourses are broadly classified into colonial, nationalist, liberal, leftist, anti-Brahmanism, anti-caste, and anti-Varna (Dalit views). Besides, on the pretext of establishing a Hindu Rashtra, covert and overt attempts for re-establishing Brahmanism and Manuvad also began. These schools of thought were not what they appeared or claimed to be. It is a well-known fact that the nationalist, liberal (Gandhian) and leftist streams also had Brahminism and casteist patriarchy at their core.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: Bahujan literature: Introduction to a new literary-cultural vision

 

 

 

 

 

About The Author

Dr Siddharth Ramu

Dr Siddharth Ramu is an author, journalist and translator. His books include ‘Samajik Kranti ki Yoddha Savitribai Phule: Jivan ke Vividh Aayam’ and ‘Bahujan Navjagran aur Pratirodh ke Vividh Swar: Bahujan Nayak aur Nayika’. He has translated Badrinarayan’s ‘Kanshiram: Leader of Dalits’ under the title ‘Bahujan Nayak Kanshiram’ (Rajkamal Prakashan). He has also edited and annotated Ambedkar’s ‘Jati ka Vinash’ (translated by Rajkishore, Forward Press)

Related Articles

Seminal role of Dalit-OBCs in development of language and literature
Scripts were invented by painters and sculptors, and not scholars. Not only in India but in civilizations the world over, paintings and sculptures predated...
‘Sahitya Akademi has brought itself honour by honouring Sanjeev’
In his more than a dozen novels, Sanjeev has depicted the reality of the post-Independence Indian society. The issues and topics that he has...
In his ‘Ambedkar: A Life’, Shashi Tharoor betrays his privileged-caste naivete
After coming out with ‘Why I Am A Hindu’, Tharoor has predictably set out to look for Ambedkar’s ‘flaws’ in his biography of Ambedkar,...
Phanishwar Nath Renu – who gave centrality to the toilers of ‘the provinces’
Renu took the genre of reportage to new heights in Hindi literature. No one has been able to match him to date. In his...
Rajesh Paswan: Criticism within Dalit Literature is still in its infancy
Our Dalit writers don’t take criticism well. They begin enquiring about the caste and ideology of the critic. They evaluate criticism on these parameters,...