APPROPRIATION OF DALIT AGENCY: A CRITIQUE OF U R ANANTHA MURTHY’S SAMSKARA

Abstract

Indian fictional representations of caste and society are generally determined by cultural elitism.  The aesthetic and ideological aspects of fiction in India are influenced by material conditions, cultural values and worldviews of caste. Writings that seek to represent the voice of the  socio-cultural margins of caste are considered Dalit Literature. However, in Dalit Writings at least two different modes of narratives can be broadly identified - writings of the dalit writer as an “insider” writing about the dalit subject and the non-dalit “outsider’s” discourse about the dalit subject.  The former may be classified as ‘Dalit’ and the latter ‘Dalitist’ (Dalit+Elitist). This article attempts to analyse how Dalitist writers narrativize, textualize the identity, voice and agency of the caste subaltern and gendered caste subaltern taking U R Anantha Murthy’s Samskara as a representative sample in order to foreground the caste politics involved. It is argued that Dalitist literary representations often appropriate and even misappropriate (assign to wrong use) the voice and agency of the caste subaltern and gendered caste subaltern.