Being a Woman and a Dalit: A Study of Sivakami’s The Grip of Change

Abstract

Dalit writing is relevant in contemporary Indian scenario as it gives expression to the oppressed consciousness of the people who belong to the lower strata of the society. Despite the constituition being piloted by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a Dalit and one of the architects of modern India, Dalits seem to hardly figure in sectors where there is no affirmative action. Beyond representation in jobs in the government sector and in politics, they continue to be sidelined in the realms of culture, literature, academia and the arts. Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in 2009 that caste is the very negation of the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination and that it condemns individuals from birth, and their communities to a life of exploitation, violence, social exclusion and segregation. It is from such a context of hidden apartheid that Dalit literature emerges. Dalit literature is gaining ground in mainstream Indian literary field with emerging writers in Kannada, Gujarati, Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil. All Dalit writing is to be perceived as political writing, as a strategy of resistance to social oppression.