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Abstract
Bengali Dalit literature has been published for over a century but is yet to be appreciated by a larger mainstream readership. In this essay, I examine how the ‘absence’ of Bengali Dalit literature was constructed by several social, political and ideological factors that together obscured the cultural history of Bengali Dalits. Using literary texts—primarily autobiographies—written by Bengali Dalit authors as an entry point, this essay analyses the explicit and implicit mechanisms of Brahmanical oppression that have prevented Bengali Dalit writers from consolidating their distinct identity. Set against the critical debate regarding the subaltern’s (in)ability to speak and/or be heard, this essay records Bengali Dalit literature’s triumph over casteist endeavours to relegate it to the periphery.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to the two anonymous South Asia reviewers for their feedback. I am also grateful to the editor, Prof. Kama Maclean, for her suggestions and encouragement.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. In the pre-Independence context, the term Bengal refers to West Bengal and present-day Bangladesh, while in the post-Independence context, it means West Bengal.
2. Manoranjan Byapari, ‘Is There Dalit Writing in Bangla?’, Meenakshi Mukherjee (intro. and trans.), in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 42, no. 41 (13–19 Oct. 2007), pp. 4116–20 [4116].
3. Deriving from the Indo-Aryan root ‘dal’ (meaning crush/suppress), the term ‘Dalit’ denotes those who are oppressed/crushed by structures of power. Nevertheless, in scholarly analyses of caste, it is often used to refer to people who belong to the low castes, especially the Scheduled Castes category. Uma Chakravarti in Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens (Kolkata: Stree, 2003), p. 9, suggests that Dalits are the ‘fifth varna’, which falls outside the Vedic four-tier varna structure. Later, the term was expanded to include many marginalised groups such as Scheduled Tribes, women, neo-Buddhists and so on, but in this paper, the term Dalit primarily refers to Bengali Scheduled Caste groups—more specifically, the Namashudras who, along with another low-caste group, the Rajbansis, were at the forefront of the social movements that began to assert Dalit identity in the late nineteenth century: see Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury, ‘In Search of Space: The Scheduled Caste Movement in West Bengal after Partition’, in Policies and Practices, no. 59 (Feb. 2014), pp. 1–22.
4. Uday Chandra et al., ‘Introduction’, in Uday Chandra et al. (eds), The Politics of Caste in West Bengal (New Delhi: Routledge, 2016), pp. 1–18 [1].
5. See Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India: The Namasudras of Bengal, 1872–1947 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2011), and Chandra et al. (eds), The Politics of Caste in West Bengal.
6. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (eds), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1988), pp. 271–313 [308].
7. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999).
8. Jodi A. Byrd and Michael Rothberg, ‘Between Subalternity and Indigeneity’, in Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 13, no. 1 (2011), pp. 1–12 [5].
9. Sound and Picture Archives for Research on Women (SPARROW), Literary Award 2017 [https://www.sparrowonline.org/literary-award.html#:∼:text=KALYANI%20THAKUR%20CHARAL&text=For%20her%20vigorous%20and%20tenacious,the%20SPARROW%20Literary%20Award%202017, accessed 21 June 2019].
10. See Sankar Prasad Singha and Indranil Acharya (eds), Survival and Other Stories: Bangla Dalit Fiction in Translation (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2012).
11. Sipra Mukherjee, ‘Creating Their Own Gods: Literature from the Margins of Bengal’, in Joshil K. Abraham and Judith Misrahi-Barak (eds), Dalit Literatures in India (New Delhi: Routledge, 2nd ed., 2018), pp. 138–52.
12. Sipra Mukherjee, ‘In Opposition and Allegiance to Hinduism: Exploring the Bengali Matua Hagiography of Harichand Thakur’, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 41, no. 2 (2018), pp. 435–51.
13. Jaydeep Sarangi, ‘Towards the Cultural Banner of Bangla Dalit Literary Movement: An Interview with Nakul Mallik’, in Writers in Conversation, Vol. 5, no. 2 (Aug. 2018), p. 7 [http://journals.flinders.edu.au, accessed 6 July 2019].
14. Namahshudra Suhird means ‘Friend of Namahshudra’. According to the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, the correct spelling should be: ‘সুহৃদ, সুহৃৎ suhr̥da, suhr̥t’, meaning ‘a friend; an ally; a well-wisher’ [https://dsal.uchicago.edu/, accessed 18 Aug. 2020]. However, the spelling used in the paper (‘Suhird’) has been taken from its source: Sarangi, ‘Towards the Cultural Banner of Bangla Dalit Literary Movement’, p. 8.
15. Sarangi, ‘Towards the Cultural Banner of Bangla Dalit Literary Movement’, p. 8.
16. Ibid.
17. Manohar Mouli Biswas, ‘Introduction’, in Manohar Mouli Biswas and Shyamal Kumar Pramanik (eds), Shatobarsher Bangla Dalit Sahitya (Selected Collection) (Hundred Years of Bengali Dalit Literature) (Kolkata: Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, 2011), pp. 13–36 [18].
18. Byapari, ‘Is There Dalit Writing in Bangla?’, p. 4119.
19. Ibid.
20. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in Rosalind C. Morris (ed.), Can the Subaltern Speak? Reflections on the History of an Idea (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), pp. 21–78 [35].
21. Sharankumar Limbale, Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: Histories, Controversies and Considerations, Alok Mukherjee (trans.) (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2004), p. 30.
22. Sarangi, ‘Towards the Cultural Banner of Bangla Dalit Literary Movement’, p. 10.
23. Ibid., emphasis mine.
24. Byapari, ‘Is There Dalit Writing in Bangla?’, p. 4119.
25. Quoted in Sayantan Dasgupta, ‘Ambedkar and Contemporary Dalit Literature in Bangla: Notes on a Few Poems and Two Short Stories’, in Journal of the Department of English, Vidyasagar University, Vol. 9 (2011–12), pp. 31–41 [34].
26. Ibid., p. 36.
27. Manohar Mouli Biswas, ‘Dalit Literature’, Manisha Banerjee (trans.), in Poetic Rendering As Yet Unborn (Kolkata: Chaturtha Dunia, 2010), p. 50.
28. See Albert E. Stone (ed.), The American Autobiography: Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981); and Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001).
29. Arjun Dangle, ‘Dalit Literature: Past, Present and Future’, in Arjun Dangle (ed.), Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1992), pp. 234–266 [255].
30. Sharmila Rege, Writing Caste/Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women’s Testimonios (New Delhi: Zubaan, 2006), p. 10.
31. Amita Ghose, ‘Why Bengali Dalit Feminist Poet and Writer Kalyani Thakur Added Charal (for Chandal) to Her Name’, Scroll.in (18 Mar. 2018) [https://scroll.in, accessed 3 July 2019].
32. Jatin Bala, Shikorchhera Jibon (Uprooted Life) (Kolkata: Chaturtha Dunia, 2010).
33. Bandyopadhyay, Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India, pp. 250–1.
34. Ibid., p. 252.
35. Bala, Shikorchhera Jibon, p. 162, translation mine.
36. Dandakaranya includes parts of the present-day states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh [https://www.britannica.com/place/Dandakaranya, accessed 1 July 2020].
37. Manoranjan Byapari, Itibritte Chandal Jibon (Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit) (Kolkata: Priyashilpa Prakashan, 2012).
38. A.K. Biswas, ‘Memoirs of Chandal Jeevan: An Underdog’s Story’, in Mainstream Weekly, Vol. LI, no. 17 (April 2013), n.p.g. [http://www.mainstreamweekly.net, accessed 3 July 2019].
39. Dwaipayan Sen, ‘“No Matter How, Jogendranath Had to Be Defeated”: The Scheduled Castes Federation and the Making of Partition in Bengal, 1945–1947’, in Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. 49, no. 3 (2012), pp. 321–64 [352].
40. Ibid., p. 355.
41. Quoted in Dwaipayan Sen, ‘An Absent-Minded Casteism’, in Seminar, ‘Bengal Blues: A Symposium on Some Predicaments Facing West Bengal’, #645 (May 2013), n.p.g. [http://www.india-seminar.com, accessed 3 July 2019].
42. Ibid.
43. Byapari, ‘Is There Dalit Writing in Bangla?’, p. 4117.
44. See Ross Mallick, ‘Refugee Resettlement in Forest Reserves: West Bengal Policy Reversal and the Marichjhapi Massacre’, in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 58, no. 1 (Feb. 1999), pp. 104–25; and Annu Jalais, ‘Dwelling on Morichjhanpi: When Tigers Became “Citizens”, Refugees “Tiger-Food”’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 40, no. 17 (23 April 2005), pp. 1757–62.
45. Deep Halder, Blood Island: An Oral History of the Marichjhapi Massacre (India: HarperCollins Publishers India, Kindle edition, 2019).
46. Madhumay Pal, ‘Satyere Lao Sahaje (Take Truth Easily)’, in Madhumay Pal (ed.), Marichjhapi: Chhinna Desh, Chhinna Itihas (Marichjhapi: Fragmented Country, Fragmented History) (Kolkata: Gangchil, 2009), pp. 9–16.
47. Deep Halder, ‘Introduction’, in Blood Island: An Oral History of the Marichjhapi Massacre (India: HarperCollins Publishers India, Kindle edition, 2019).
48. Deep Halder, ‘Afterword: Ground Zero Marichjhapi’, in Blood Island: An Oral History of the Marichjhapi Massacre (India: HarperCollins Publishers India, Kindle edition, 2019).
49. The term bhadralok, which came into use around the beginning of the nineteenth century, was associated in colonial times with upper-caste Hindus with access to some wealth or landed property and claims to a liberal education. The notion has been continually changed since the early twentieth century. Chhotolok, on the other hand, refers to unlettered, uncultured people belonging to a low-caste order: see Parimal Ghosh, ‘Where Have All the “Bhadraloks” Gone?’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 39, no. 3 (17–23 Jan. 2004), pp. 247–51; and Surajit Sinha and Ranjit Bhattacharya, ‘Bhadralok and Chhotolok in a Rural Area of West Bengal’, in Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 18, no. 1 (Mar. 1969), pp. 50–66.
50. Deep Halder, ‘Manoranjan Byapari’, in Blood Island: An Oral History of the Marichjhapi Massacre (India: HarperCollins Publishers India, Kindle edition, 2019).
51. Jatin Bala, Dalita Sahitya Aandalan: Utsa, Etihas, Mulyayan (Dalit Literary Movement: Origin, History, Evaluation) (Kolkata: Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, 2002), pp. 58–9.
52. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, ‘Partition and the Ruptures in Dalit Identity Politics in Bengal’, in Asian Studies Review, Vol. 33, no. 4 (2009), pp. 455–67 [456].
53. Sen, ‘“No Matter How, Jogendranath Had to Be Defeated”’, p. 361.
54. Quoted in Sen, ‘An Absent-Minded Casteism’, n.p.g.
55. Bandyopadhyay, ‘Partition and the Ruptures in Dalit Identity Politics in Bengal’, p. 456.
56. Upendranath Biswas is an ex-civil servant who hails from the Namashudra caste. He was the minister for Backward Class Welfare in the Government of West Bengal from 2011 to 2016.
57. S.N.M. Abdi, ‘Bengal Hasn’t Produced a Jagjivan Ram or Even a Mayawati’, Outlook (10 Aug. 2012) [http://www.outlookindia.com, accessed 30 June 2019].
58. Ashis Nandy, quoted in Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, ‘Does Caste Matter in Bengal? Examining the Myth of Bengali Exceptionalism’, in Mridula Nath Chakraborty (ed.), Being Bengali: At Home and in the World (Oxford/New York: Routledge, 2014), pp. 32–47 [32].
59. Bandyopadhyay, ‘Partition and the Ruptures in Dalit Identity Politics in Bengal’, p. 456.
60. Sarangi, ‘Towards the Cultural Banner of Bangla Dalit Literary Movement’, p. 2.
61. Maroona Murmu, ‘There Is No Caste Discrimination in West Bengal?’, Maroona Murmu (trans.), in Radical Socialist (8 July 2019) [http://www.radicalsocialist.in/articles/national-situation/865-there-is-no-caste-discrimination-in-west-bengal, accessed 8 Jan. 2020].
62. ‘4 HoDs, 3 Deans in Bengal Varsity Resign over Alleged Casteist Slurs’, Hindustan Times (19 June 2019) [https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/4-hods-3-deans-in-bengal-varsity-resign-over-alleged-casteist-slurs/story-5iLsqzHzof9sWJlmJp3NHJ.html, accessed 25 June 2020].
63. Mahasveta Devi, ‘Story of Chuni Kotal’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 27, no. 35 (29 Aug. 1992), pp. 1836–7.
64. Byapari, ‘Is There Dalit Writing in Bangla?’, p. 4117.
65. Bala, Dalita Sahitya Aandalan, pp. 59–60, translation mine.
66. Sarangi, ‘Towards the Cultural Banner of Bangla Dalit Literary Movement’, p. 17.
67. Joanne P. Sharp, Geographies of Postcolonialism: Spaces of Power and Representation (London: Sage, 2009), p. 112.
68. Sharp, Geographies of Postcolonialism, p. 114.
69. bell hooks, ‘Talking Back’, in Russell Ferguson et al. (eds), Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures (New York: MIT Press, 1990), pp. 337–340 [337].
70. Byapari, ‘Is There Dalit Writing in Bangla?’, p. 4120.