Abstract:
This essay engages a critical discussion with a comparative analysis between two literary genres namely ‘autobiography’ and ‘Dalit-autobiography’ and by doing so it explores how the latter has much democratic and inclusive space that allows unfurling multiple voices. Further it delineates how the genre called autobiography is inclined to the so called mainstream gharana (pattern) and it necessarily obliterates and silences countless possibilities. Taking consideration of Rabindranath Tagore’s autobiography Jeevan Smriti (Memories of Life) this reading would engage with a discussion where the literary genre ‘autobiography’, because of its sonorous acclamation and overarching presence, it is treated as a touchstone to measure all kinds of autobiographies and this hegemonic attitude necessarily undervalues countless labenswelt which is embedded within Dalit-autobiography. Therefore, its primary focus will be an investigative approach and scholarship towards the aesthetic of Dalit autobiography and Dalit literature in general to look into how this aesthetic pose serious challenge towards the babuwala or mainstream genre called ‘autobiography’.
Key Words: Autobiography, Dalit-autobiography, Aesthetic of Dalit-autobiography, Dalit literature, Literature of Oppression, Testimonies
Introduction:
This paper proposes an investigative reading of the genre called ‘autobiography’ to look into whether within this genre, a distinct space is evolved and how it possesses certain qualities to be claimed as a different genre. It would also analyze how these genres are distinct from one another by creating a diverse area to articulate their voices. I would also argue to analyze how the traditional connotation of the term autobiography reinforces an exclusionary mechanism by inculcating a mainstream’s way of representation which is polished, sophisticated, and much more so to say ‘corrected’ that tries to shadow the literary genre called Dalit-autobiography. This paper would also focus what are the crucial aspects of the Dalit-autobiography and how it differentiates itself from the genre called autobiography. In order to engage a critical discussion, I would focus on Rabindranath Tagore’s autobiography Jeevan Smriti (Memories of Life) (1959), Manoranjan Byapari’s Interrogating my Chandal Life: A Dalit Autobiography (2017) and Manohar Mouli Biswas’s Surviving in My World: Growing up Dalit in Bengal (2015) to come up with a comparative analyses. I would also explore in these Dalit-autobiographies if there is any space of brotherhood rendered from shared identity of suffering among various depressed and deprived people. In continuation to this discussion this essay would also comprehend the rationale behind the representation of Dalit experiences only through the medium of Dalit-autobiography. My paper would also engage with the debate of the Dalit and the non-Dalit writers’ writings on Dalit issues and how there is huge gap between this two ways of representation as Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai argue in their writing Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Experience and Theory (2012). One of the significant aspects of this paper is to draw the aesthetic and cognitive frontier that separates the mainstream theorisation and canonization of autobiography. Therefore, this paper would primarily engage with the following inquiries—what is the fundamental distinctness between these two types of autobiographies? What are the possibilities involved and embedded within Dalit-autobiography? Does this Dalit-autobiography provide a space for an identity of shared sufferings? If not than what kind of Dalit-autobiography is needful to represent all these issues of suppression, oppression, exploitation and marginalization for the subordinate people? Do non-Dalit writers consider these issues in their writings properly? By engaging all these discussions it analyzes how the very concept of Dalit-autobiography denotes ideas of revolution, mobilizations and assertion of their rights by raising a voice of insurgency. Byapari and Biswas both have opined and argued that writing about their life is the only medium to unmute the silenced voices because it is “self-stories” and “self-reporting”. Finally, this reading would focus to look into the vibrant and vital forces of Dalit-autobiography that shadows the mainstream form of autobiography.
Critique of Autobiography
Autobiography has been recognized as a distinct literary genre and as such an important testing ground for critical debates ranging from the ideas of authorship, selfhood, representation and the division between fact and fiction. Autobiographical writings are traced back from Plato’s time and have expressed itself in the form of a genre since Rousseau’s Confession was written. Hence, the term ‘Autobiography’ can be rendered as a self-narrative or self-recording of “self-stories' '. Traditionally autobiographies are written to narrate one’s achievement or succession in one’s life. Again, when someone writes about one’s own self, it should be clear that it is about certain facts and not associated with fictions. But most of the mainstream non Dalit autobiographies are weaved with colourful fictional ingredients which are very much polished, sophisticated and at one point or another it willingly or unwillingly soars with the flight of imaginations. Reading an autobiography in order to understand the life-experiences of a person, several identity criteria would be revealed to us such as—caste, class, ethnicity, language, religion, region, gender etc. Each of these criteria allows us to understand the person’s affiliation to a particular universe of meaning and experience, and its world view. And obviously a non Dalit-autobiography provides delightful experience which is almost completely detached from the ground realities of our society. In this context the rationale of the debate that Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai engaged in their theorisation the The Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Experience and Theory (2012) is justified. In their representation of social realities, there is clear evidence of a gap between both the ground of the ethical and the experiential. These issues can easily be understood by a close reading of Rabindranath Tagore’s autobiographical writing Jeevan Smriti in one side as a mainstream discussion and representation of autobiography and on the other side Byapari’s Interrogating my Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit (2017), the representation of Dalit life. I don’t want to detail the narratives of these autobiographies but just want to mention the big differences which are there in these two writings. One is very much polished, sophisticated, full of witticism, mastery over language, excessively pondering over the form of the writing, dictions and the language, and the other one is just the opposite of this. It is full of what is called ‘raw material’, simple dictions, colloquial language, dealing with the painful struggles of life.
Mapping out Dalit-Autobiography
A large part of the Dalit literature is autobiographical in form. Again, it may be noted that most of their writings, theatrical dialogues etc. are in confessional mode. The “confessions” are mostly associated with the painful experiences that the authors have gone through in a caste ridden society. Dalit writers mostly prefer to write out of authenticity of experience instead of soaring high with the wings of imagination as most of the mainstream non Dalit-autobiography does. Many of the poems and novels elaborate the personal life and individual experiences of writers themselves with a realization that other members of their community also suffer in the same way. The emergence of Dalit autobiography opens up a new dimension to the study of autobiography in Indian literature. Dalits are marginalized entities and were denied many rights for quite a long time by the society crowded with casteism and social hierarchy. After being educated, some of them took writing as a weapon for self assertion and an act of protest. Rajkumar emphasizes that “writing an autobiography is a special act for the members of this group who use the genre to achieve a sense of identity and mobilize resistance against different forms of oppression” (Kumar, 5). One can easily come across with all these issues if one goes through the autobiographies of Manoranjan Byapari and Manohar Mouli Biswas. Byapari, as he narrated in his autobiographical writing Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit (2017), “By birth I belong to a family that has been declared criminal, impure and untouchable… I did not get an opportunity to get to school but did get quite a few to go visit the prisons.” (Byapari, x-xii) This autobiography talks about his traumatic life as a child in the refugee camps of west Bengal and Dandyakaranya, struggling consistently with hunger, poverty and social segregation. In search of work, he had to fight a lot from his teenage and what he gained nothing but further exploitations. In 1970’s he was caught and imprisoned in the Naxalite movement. After his release from the jail, this writing witnesses how he becomes a rickshaw puller. In this writing he has minutely detailed all these experiences to reveal and expose the social realities that he faced throughout his life. Biswas’s Surviving in My World: Growing up Dalit in Bengal (2015) unfolds various childhood memories and Biswas as a Dalit belongs to Namasudra community was exposed untouchability before and after the 1947 partition. He had been exposed in his early childhood to various caste based discriminations—his community was classified as a lower untouchable caste and shunned by the upper caste babus, who would not enter their neighbourhood ‘nor did they sit and eat tighter with them’ (Biswas, 10).
Why Dalit-autobiography
The reason could be that the Dalits who gained the opportunity of education and were exposed to the social realities and upper caste ideology became aware of the necessity to evolve a sense of Dalit consciousness among them and realized the need for the portrayal of their battered souls through writings. In the process they try to attain power from below by reconstructing their identity and social history. Dalit autobiographies turned out to be emphatic outbursts of their smouldering anger taking on the hegemonic paradigms of the Brahminical values glorified in the mainstream literatures. The Dalit autobiographies also play a significant role in reconstructing the Dalit cultural historiography in the postcolonial context of Indian literature. The Dalit autobiographies are characterized by some specific features that differentiate them from the other Indian autobiographies. Firstly, maximum and almost all the Dalit autobiographies are written in the early phase of the respective author’s life. Secondly, the identity affirmation is one of the key central arguments and qualities of Dalit autobiography with a prominence on caste, class, gender, ethnicity, language, region etc. Thirdly, the Dalit autobiographies are mainly reminiscences of their miserable, despondent and depressed experiences as social excluded and absolute outsiders. Fourthly, by challenging the prevailing norms and establishments imposed by the mainstream codes, the Dalit-autobiographers muster resistance. By writing autobiographies the Dalit writers raise voice against all forms of oppression. Fifthly, through the writing of autobiographies the Dalit writers try to rediscover and reconstruct their socio-cultural history of dehumanizing oppression and exploitations in every sphere of their life. According to Raj Kumar, “writing autobiography is a political act because there is always an assertion of the narrative self” (Rajkumar, 3). Autobiography is a narrative that involves remembrance, but this act of remembrance is not a random act but a process of selective recollection. The process involves what Maurice Halbwachs has described as communicative memory which is socially communicated and relates to a group. As Halbwachs pointed out, the recreation of memory by itself does not preserve the past, it is preserved by society’s contemporary frame of reference in respective eras leading to, what he called, “concretion of identity”. The autobiography has evolved into a major discourse that has provided the crucial trajectory for the concretion of Dalit identity and its social location. The language used in the Dalit autobiography is mostly colloquial in nature with the phrases used in their day to day life which may be called as ‘Dalit style of language’. This subversiveness of Avarna (Dalit) narratives overturns the decorum of the Savarna (mainstream) aesthetics creating a platform for Dalit identity.
Dalit Autobiography: A Space for the Brotherhood of Sufferings
In order to understand of the space for the Brotherhood of Suffering within Dalit autobiographies, it is necessary to look into that what is represented in these autobiographies. Autobiography which is a self-narrative and self portrayal, it is also to be considered that within the realm of self, the narrator’s communities are depicted. And here community refers to an imaginative horizon of shared identity which is an echo of the Dalit Panther Manifesto.(1973) In this Manifesto, the term Dalit expands it periphery of the identity space and within the singular identity it includes various other identities which are exploited in terms of equivalent suppression and oppression. In most of the Dalit autobiographies in India and especially in Bengal, somehow keep this point aside. Dalit autobiographies generate rich mosaic of consciousness and ethos. They continually explore and analyze the dialectical binaries of privileged-unprivileged, rich-poor, upper-caste-lower-caste and male-female to unravel the multilayered complexities of exploitations and discriminations. It is a very well measured fact that Dalits in India are voiceless and marginalized. Dalit literature represents the collective consciousness of social, political, economic and racial discrimination suffered by the Dalits for hundreds of years. This suffering is due to the age-old ‘Varna’ system which is coupled with caste division based hierarchy in Hindu society forcing the lower caste people to endure pangs of humiliation and exploitation at the upper-caste hands. So, fundamentally Dalit literature contains the seeds of protest and rebel against these age old practices. It must be noted that much has been said and written about the social improvement and reformation movements devised to uplift the Dalits, but the situation of the unprivileged Dalits has not improved considerably. Therefore, the Dalit literature considerably focuses on these crucial social issues that the depressed section of the society witnessed and experienced for a long time. It should be important to take note that the exiting Dalit literature failed to articulate that inclusive voices by accumulating all these identities. Hence we can imagine an alternative mode of Dalit autobiography that necessarily would be pluralistic in nature. This mode of literature should be the representation of different identities that are exploited in terms of social, cultural, economical, religious and gender-based. In this context, the present essay looks into the existing Dalit autobiographies to understand if those representations create a rainbow coalition pluralistic identity by blurring the sectarian individuality. In both the autobiographies of Byapari and Biswas, they try to inculcate the coalition ambiance by explaining their experiences of exploitation, suppression and oppression. Byapari while explaining and narrating his pre-migration living in undivided Bengal, he found the situation of the other depressed sections of the society who were in quite a similar condition. Among those groups there were poor peasants from the Muslim community, other economical depressed classes as well. He has also penned down explicitly the condition of the post-partition when they migrated and settled in various locations which were full of unhygienic conditions that caused their life an inhuman living. Again the other people who were equally suffered due to the migration are reported in his autobiography. On the other hand, Manohar Mouli Biswas depicted in his autobiography how the people from other communities were equally tormented because of the monstrous presence of the upper caste hierarchy structure. He wrote, “I found profound similarities in the people of my community with those on-aristocrats'' (Biswas, 72). This way both of these autobiographies imagine a space which is a space for a shared identity which is completely missing in the mainstream genre called ‘autobiography’. Keeping this point in our mind we can extend this discussion towards the analysis of numerous discourses and narratives of Dalit writers from different regions—Bengal, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu writers across the country to establish the argument how all kinds of articulations are identical in terms of oppression, exploitations, discriminations and social injustices. Interestingly enough all these writings are weaved with the voice of protests that deliberately pose challenges to the establishment and perpetual tradition. We may consider Dalit Panther Movement (1972) in this regards to understand how this Ambedkarite social organization had disseminated from Maharashtra to Gujarat to spread the mantra of dissent and to battle against caste discrimination. Writers and social activists (Namdeo Dhasal, Arjum Dangle, J. V. Power) of this movement wrote various pieces of writings, articles, magazines, poetry to expunge and deface those dynamics of discrimination and injustices. The definition of the term ‘Dalit’ in their Manifesto (1973) of Dalit Panther Movement is worth remembering because of its pluralistic attitude. The Manifesto defines Dalit as “Members of scheduled castes and tribes, Neo-Buddhists, the working people, the landless and poor peasants, women and all those who are being exploited politically, economically, and in the name of religion”. (Dalit Panther Manifesto, 1973). It necessarily opines a platform and a space which is heterogeneous in identity and a rainbow coalition in nature. Beside this approach, one may unequivocally and undoubtedly address this kind of literary compositions and testimonies as ‘literature of oppression’ because of its shared identity of suffering that allows a space of brotherhood. All these kinds of narratives are deeply rooted with issues of their socio-political, economic and cultural subjugation and it also unearths the complex social structure of the society and its aggravation to perpetuate all these exclusionary mechanisms. The following section elaborates the synthesis of the aesthetic of these narratives and articulations.
Aesthetic of Dalit Literature
So far the discussion has already been sharply demonstrated the radical, vibrant and invincible power of the Dalit narratives for its delineation with countless voices and articulation of resistance. This attempt shows how it distinguishes itself from the mainstream writings because of its inherent and inseparable qualities. Sharankumar Limbale’s in his critical essay Towards Aesthetic of Dalit Literature has meticulously explained what the aesthetic means in Dalit literature. Dalit literature envisages the life and experience of Dalit people who are perpetually neglected, deprived and suffered. Hence their writings articulate all these issues and therefore, the non-Dalit writings or the Dalit writings written by non-Dalit writers alienates and becomes strange to all these issues. The similar argument is found in the writing of James A. Emanuel who focused in Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America. He points that the writings of/by Negro about their inhuman or sub-human existence is completely poles apart from the white men glaze on black. Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai in their theorization of The Cracked Mirror highlight these key points. To them it is quite unthinkable to think of a concept/theory without its genesis from the experience. Therefore, this inference draws the aesthetic of Dalit writings that precisely involves within the life-world of the Dalit people and therefore, it calls for a deep rooted and grounding of the Dalit experience that should not fall from the thin air. Though there are numerous differences between these writings, this essay particularly analyzes two modes of variations. One is obviously pertaining to the way and medium of representations—how they express their feelings, events of their, various phases of their life through the use of artistic elements, dictions, syntaxes, semantics, rhetoric etc. Second part is related to the content of their writings—how they live their life, their struggle of surviving etc. One can come across a lot of significant distinctness between these two kinds of autobiographical reading during one’s encounter with the so-called unified and one dimensional genre called autobiography that creates a strategic exclusionary domain. For instance, Rabindranath Tagore’s Jeevan Smriti (Memories of Life) (1959) which is accounted for a master piece that reflects many of his fascinating traits and trails of his early childhood and countless self-account of certain events, persons and various phases of Tagore’s life. Tagore weaved his autobiography with remarkable artistic mind along with brilliant dictions, syntax and semantics. It wonderfully touches and communicates countless insights of reminiscence, emotion, feeling and understanding to the reader. But sometimes the use of syntax and semantics is too difficult to follow. One may find certain complexity in decoding those sentence structures and semantics that definitely affects spontaneous responses of the reader. Hence in the mainstream/upper caste writings one can find a conscious use of art, syntax and semantics of the author. The author is very much particular about the artistic nature and his/her way of articulation. Again their events of life and incidents are presented with full of imagination. Tagore in his autobiography Jeevan Smriti introduced his residence which is a Zamindari palace surrounded by multiple gardens. His growth from childhood to boyhood was looked after by house servants. For his education, he was equipped with home tutors. If we carefully go through the content pages of his autobiography we can get a crystal portrait of his aristocratic life hood. It reflects how he was trained by a music teacher to learn music. His travel with his father helped him grow manifold learning. In a word we may conclude that he was completely foreign to the experience of poverty, oppression, starvation, discrimination, struggle to earn basic livelihood etc. Therefore, the so-called mainstream and towering figure called ‘autobiography’ which is necessarily associated with the profession of higher caste, in their mode of composition and narration the emphasis is given to the individuality and the development of that individual. But on the other hand Dalit writings and Dalit autobiography, the content is the soul of their writing. In Dalit writing we find a collective articulation through individual’s composition. The individual’s voice in Dalit writings becomes polyphonic in nature. It disboreders and delimits the realm of the self and within the voice of individuality it takes an account of collective representation. In both of the autobiographies, Biswas (2015) and Byapari (2017) narrates self-accounts, events and various phases of life but interestingly the ‘self’ in their composition obliterates and transcends the individuality and it unquestionably represents the collective identity. Both of these writings explain and narrate the life of those people who shared their identity with these authors in terms of social afflictions, oppressions, marginalization and everyday experiences of discriminations. Hence these writings are the representation of their resistance against the barbaric and inhuman practices of untouchability by the upper caste people. They express through their writing not only their own individuality but the daily experiences of injustices, oppression and atrocities that have been experienced by the people become the subject of their content. As Biswas has rightfully observed in his autobiography—
They were just happy to remain alive. The level of their demands was humble. They were joyful just to live. Their presence beside the aristocrats was completely unwanted, a mismatch. This is what I saw. I found profound similarities in the people of my community with those non-aristocrats. (Biswas 72)
Another articulation in this context is aptly appropriate—
Famine descended upon the people of Kali and Chitra riverbanks… there was not a bit of rice in anyone’s home. Almost everyone started spending their days in starvation. (Biswas 24)
Conclusion
In the conclusion we may refer to the idea of the Dalit writing which is deliberately delivers a dialectical binary of autobiography and Dalit-autobiography. As Limbale has expressed in his book Towards Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, the non-Dalit literature emerges from imagination, whereas the Dalit literature emerges from experience. He continues “it is an “unflinching portrayal of ‘seamier’ side of Dalit life”, that of a troubled protagonist who is haunted by his fractured identity. He lives outside the boundaries of the village where, “There is ignorance, sexism, violence, internal rivalry, conflicts, drunkenness and death” (Limbale, 13). This discussion clearly reflects that there is a suspect and problem with the self-proclaimed genre called ‘autobiography’ and hence it is high time to rethink and problematise the very concept which is embedded within this genre and by revisiting the term we would critically unearth all those limitations and deficiencies. The mainstream approaches to autobiography always try to appropriate and expropriate with their own ideologies. On the other hand autobiographies written by Dalit are much more grounded and pertained to the life of their everyday experience of torments, anguishes and sufferings. Therefore one can get a direction of deepening democracy and an inclusive space by shadowing and coloring the mainstream constellation with the hue and odour of Dalit experiences to create a completely different and distinct firmament.
References:
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