The Dalit movement is a struggle against anti-caste movement to build a modern democratic and secular Indian identity.
The term Dalit literature dates back to the First Dalit literature in 1958 in the state of Maharashtra in India.
There are many theories about the origin of Dalit literature. Buddha (6th c. C.), Chokhamela (14 AD), Mahatma Phule (1828-1890), and Prof. S. M. Mate (1886-1957), are considered the creators of several activists / ideological groups. These great men were deeply concerned about the plight of the untouchables. They fought against all unjust divisions of society. A huge mass of literature is created in the light of his teachings and visions.
But was Dr. Ambedkar, a great visionary modern renaissance leader, the architect of the Constitution of India and an ardent critic of the caste system, which toppled the myth of the divine origin of the caste hierarchy. He inspired and initiated the creative minds of India to enforce the socio-cultural boom for the total emancipation of Dalits.
Dalitism is the ideological habitat where various socio-cultural sensitivities and political-economic groups coexist. Opposition to Hindu traditions in general intellectual and oppressive caste hierarchy, in particular, is the central concern of the movement.
Dalit literary movement began in Maharashtra, the home state of Dr. Ambedkar. A collective effort of neo-Buddhist elites to create a new culture of social equality. It is based on broad socio-cultural, political ideas that transcend the narrow space of the old concepts of cultural and social hierarchy to new open spaces. Uttam Bhoite Bhoite and Anuradha have described as an organized protest movement against traditional Hindu social theories of life and liberation. A sense of collective identity and solidarity are seminal to a protest movement. Dalit literature was evolving into a dialogical structure in this direction as a communication system for various segments of the dalit movement, dalit writers and intellectuals. Written Dalit is leading the oppressed, the untouchables, victims and oppressors. It is our hope that what you write must be read by the untouchables. Our writers wish fervently to be read by the palpable too? (Raosaheb Kasbe in his essay on literature Dalit issues).
Dalit poetry became popular primarily through poetry readings and alternative media such as small magazines and posters and billboards and creative collective.
Birds of a feather from other states of India were inspired by the liberating spirit, style straight, strong, poetic and moving images. Great poets like Narayan Survey, Namdeo Dhasal, Daya Pawar, Arun Kamble, Macqwan Josef, Limbale Saran Kumar, Arun Dangle, and many other poets wrote poetry Indian incredibly new in the sixties and seventies. It portrays the life and struggles of the lower strata, the lower caste. The importance of Dalit poetry in modern poetry in India is undoubtedly great. Movements could consolidate numerous socio-cultural and ecological in postcolonial India. Still, it's great and powerful even though some of its leaders were abducted at the power games of the ruling parties of the political class in India.
Dalit means broken, oppressed, untouchable, oppressed and exploited. They come from poor communities, that under the caste system of India used to be known as untouchables. Constitute almost 16% of India's population.
The caste system, with a history of over 3000 years in India, is a shameful system of social segregation, which works on the principle of purity and impurity. Purity is rich and white or whitish, impurity is poor and dark. Occult powers of wealth can be easily traced in each feudal Brahmanical concept of the ideal. Middle material purity and beauty and importance, control and comfort is also wealth. Economic divide is reflected in social classifications. But it should be recorded that caste is racial or economic. Dr. Ambedkar said that the caste system arose long after the different races of India had mixed in blood and culture. To hold that distinctions of caste are really distinctions of race and to treat different castes as though they were so many different races is a serious perversion of historical facts. Ambedkar asks: What affinity between the Untouchable of Bengal and the untouchable of Madras? The Brahmin of Punjab is racially the same stock as the Chamar of the Punjab and Madras Brahman is the same race as the Pariah of Madras. The caste system does not demarcate racial division. (Annihilation of caste â € "in the writings and speeches vol.1. Dr. BR Ambedkar P.49)
Historically, the caste system is a socio-cultural threat of Hinduism. But it is followed by Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in the country. Traditional Indian society is divided into four hierarchical caste groups: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Beyond this fourfold caste structure, there is a category of ati-Shudras or Dalits (as they are called now), who is forced to occupy the lowest position in the social order aberrant. An evil and shameful waste of feudalism long history in India.
The practice of untouchability was officially banned by the Constitution of India (for the mastermind of Dr. BR Ambedkar) in 1950. But in practice, the Dalits are still subjected to extreme forms of social and economic exclusion and discrimination, physical and mental torture. His attempts to enforce their rights often encounter strong resistance from the upper castes, leading to inhumane torture, rape, massacres and other atrocities.
Reality Dalits in India today is not a mark of national pride. According to official statistics, it is estimated that millions of Dalits are manual scavengers who clean public latrines and dispose of dead animals 80% of Dalits live in rural areas and 86% of Dalits are landless. 60% of Dalits are dependent on informal work. Only 37% of Dalits are illiterate. Dalit women are raped every day. At least a crime is committed against a Dalit every day. According to the 2001 population census Dalit current is 16% of the total population of India ie around 160 million dollars. Independent India has witnessed many violent crimes motivated by hatred and caste, even though the country's legislation does not allow it.
The word Dalit literally means broken in Marathi. First used by Jyotiba Phule, the term was later popularized by the Dalit leader Dr. BR Ambedkar to reflect the situation of Dalits million in South Asia, which are systematically and institutionally deprived of their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights in all aspects of life. However, the Dalits are redefining the word and with it their identity - Dalits are the practical equality, believe in equality and the fight for equality!