‘It’s the Way I Tell them about Caste’: Dalit stand-up comedy as the performance of resistance

Abstract

This paper examines Dalit stand-up comedy as a creative resistance to caste in India, focusing on the emergence of Dalit stand-up comedy. Through the case study of select Dalit stand-up acts of artists like Manpreet Sarkar, Sanjay Rajoura, and Neha Thombre, this paper analyses how Dalit stand-up comedy as a performing art offers a potent minority perspective on caste, hegemony, and upper-caste elitism. It traces the evolution of Dalit stand-up comedy, pointing out its similarity and differences with the elite mainstream stand-up comedy. The paper foregrounds the radical reimagining of humour wielded as a weapon by Dalit stand-up comedy for sociocultural transformation. It highlights how Dalit marginalisation still exists in India, even in cultural spheres such as stand-up comedy.

Keywords:

• Stand-up comedy
• caste
• Dalit stand-up comedy
• performing resistance
• Dalit humour
• comedy in India

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.