Dalit Aesthetics and Dalit Consciousness in Dalit Literature

Abstract It is very difficult for the writers of upper castes or non-Dalits to express the real life incidences of the marginalized classes that are full of poverty, pain, helplessness, neglection in every aspect of Indian social life, and their struggles to overcome from all these barriers. A few Indian writers like Mulk Raj Anand, and Premchand tried to depict the real life incidences of caste barriers in Indian society from mere sympathetic point of view for the downtrodden or marginalized classes of community. Nevertheless, the upper caste literary artists depict is only a mere sympathy or pity for the downtrodden or marginalized classes of community in their writings. The Dalit Bahujan writers tried to aware the Dalit people about the importance of education in erasing the curse of caste inequalities prevalent in Indian society. Dalit literature became a slogan of revolution and social change in a short span of time. Dalit literature cannot be judged on creating ornaments of any universal artistic values, or producing an imaginary pleasure. Dalit self-narratives are not based on the mainstream literary philosophy of ‘Art for Art’s sake’ but ‘Arts for society’s sake.’ A Dalit writer many times experiences his own personal life full of several inequalities due to caste barriers in Indian society. The major aspect of Dalit Literature is longing for its aesthetic pleasure arousing out of Dalit consciousness and inspiring the Indian Dalit community to share their bitter experiences of life. Keywords: Marginalized classes, Dalit aesthetics, Dalit Consciousness, Dalit self-narratives, Art for Society’s sake, Dalit Bahujan Writers