Dalit Writing in English: A Dalitification of the History of Indian Writing

Abstract

This paper makes a pedagogical intervention in the theorisation of Indian Writing in English (IWE). It asserts that postcolonial studies and anthologies of IWE have deliberately excluded Dalit writing, which narrates the experiences of the majority of Indians who are lower caste. It proves the discipline of IWE— the writing and its study— has been hegemonised by upper caste writers and academics who bely the historical presence and literary worth of Dalit writing. Hence, this paper  proposes that Dalit Writing in English (DWE) should be viewed as independent area of study and, therefore, traces the history of Dalit writing through three waves in conjunction with Indian politics. It argues that DWE achieved the ‘Dalitification’ of English by challenging Brahmanical control over the language and introducing caste into the reading and writing of English from a Dalit perspective.