Saptarshi Mandal Dalit Life Narratives as Ethnographies of Justice
FULL PAPER - http://www.mcrg.ac.in/Spheres/Saptarshi.doc
Abstract
‘Situations of marginality produce ideas of justice.’ While thinking about the notion of ‘justice’ in the context of the Dalits, this statement in the preparatory note for the conference kept flashing in my mind. This eventually led me to look at autobiographies written by the Dalits in recent times, as sites for articulation of ideas and concerns regarding justice. Situations of marginality, which constitutes a major ingredient of the Dalit lived reality, finds a frank and poignant expression in the autobiographical narratives. Additionally, writing autobiography for the Dalit is also a means of assertion against their marginality, disempowerment and oppression. For the proposed paper, I shall consider three autobiographies namely,Akkarmashi by Sharan Kumar Limbale, Uchalya by Laxman Gaikwad and Karukku by Bama. I am interested in exploring these autobiographies for the ideas of agency, autonomy, honour, entitlement, oppression and violence entailed therein. Also, the third text, which is written by a woman, shall enable me to look at each of these notions from a gendered standpoint. Through this exercise, I wish to make an intervention in a wider discussion about Dalit justice and the postcolonial Indian State. On the basis of my conclusions, I wish to suggest that for the Dalits the question of justice goes much beyond the narrow limits of distributional aspects (reservation/ compensatory discrimination) and touches upon the so-called ‘non-cognitive’ aspects of life like violence, powerlessness, fear, cultural identity etc.
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