Dalit Literature

Dalit means Broken, Untouchable, downtrodden and exploited

Dalit come from poor communities
They are just 16% of Indian population.
Caste system in India is a shameful social segregation.
It works in purity (white)and impurity(poor, black)
Caste system came into being long after the different races of India had
commingled in blood and culture- DR. Ambedkar.
Caste system is a menace of Hinduism.
Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vishyas, and Shudras are four hierarchical social
groups in traditional Hindu society.
ati-shrudhas now called Dalit is also a caste beyond those fourfold castes.
Untouchability is outlawed by the constitution of India in 1950.
But Dalits, still subjected to extreme social and economic exclusion and
discrimination; physical and mental torture.
Their attempts to keep their rights often lead to inhuman torture, rapes,
massacres and other atrocities.
Statistics reveals one million Dalits are manual Scavengers.
80% of them live in rural areas.
86% of Dalits are landless.
60% are dependent on casual labour.
Only 37% are literate.
3 Dalit on average women raped every day.
At least one crime is committed against a Dalit every day.
Dalit movement is an anti-caste movement.
They are fighting for a construction of modern secular and democratic Indian
society.
The first Dalit conference in Maharashtra in 1958.
Buddha, Chokkamela, Mahatma Phule, prof. S.M Mate are the great men who
fought against all the unjust division in society.
They are concerned about the plight of the untouchables.
A huge mass of literature created in the light of their visions and teachings.
Dr. Ambedkar (modern visionary, renaissance leader) was critic of Indian
caste system and he demolished the myth of the divine origin of caste
hierarchy.
Opposition to the Hindu intellectual traditions in general and the oppressive
caste hierarchy in particular is the central concern of the movement.
Dalit literature evolving a dialogic structure towards the direction as a
communication sytems for various segments of the movement, the Dalit
writers and intellectuals.
Their writings addressing the oppressed, the untouchables, the victims and
oppressors.
Dalit poetry became popular mainly through poetry readings.
Straight and strong style, liberative spirit and poignant poetic images of their
poetry are the features to get popularity.
 Narayana Survey, Daya Pawar, Arun kamble, Joseph Macq, Saran Kumar,
Arun Dangle are major poetry of Dalit literature in 60s and 70s.
They portrayed the life and struggles of the low caste.
The prominence of the Dalit literature in modern India undoubtedly great.