HEARD MELODIES ARE SWEET, BUT THOSE UNHEARD ARE SWEETER: AN ANALYSIS OF SELECT MALAYALAM DALIT ORAL SONGS

Abstract

Dalit Literature is concerned with the expression of Dalit voices. It is rooted in the ideology of Dr B R Ambedkar who championed the cause of Dalits and led a vigorous movement for the democratic civil rights of Dalits, the erstwhile untouchables. However, the roots of Dalit writings go beyond Ambedkar and can be traced back to the tradition of Dalit Oral Literature. But Dalit oral tradition’s significance in the ambit of Dalit literature remains hugely unaddressed. In fact, the distinct aesthetic and thematic aspects of Dalit literatures are inherited from Dalit orality.  This tradition which contains the Dalit historic voice, identity and memory has immense social and cultural relevance.   It reinforces the Dalit assertion in the social, cultural and historic fronts.  The invisibility of the oppressed caste subaltern in the written realm of knowledge is strongly annulled by the profound presence of the tradition of Dalit orality. Dalit folk literature in Malayalam is vast and diverse and Dalit historic voice and cultural memory remain enshrined in their folk songs, folk tales, folk dramas, legends, myths, proverbs and riddles. In fact, the element of protest that animates Dalit writings in general can be located in Dalit oral tradition where it is expressed in a subdued tenor since any explicit dissent could invite the wrath of the caste-centre. The attempt in this article is to examine select Dalit oral songs in Malayalam to find out how they register the caste subalterns' and gendered caste subalterns' cowed down protest against the unjust caste order that ostracized them.