African American Studies: The Indian Perspective

African American Studies and Dalit Studies

Although throughout the world the history of those oppressed in the name of color, caste, or religion has [Page 32]not run the same course, the broad framework of the struggle of the oppressed for liberation has been more or less the same. The context of the production of Dalit Indian and African American literary discourses is the suffering, marginalization, and oppression of these groups by the supremacist ruling classes and discrimination. Oppressed African American scholars have seen similarities between their predicament and that of the suffering masses in other parts of the world. They have thus provided a perspective for the study of oppression and resistance and inspired Dalit Indians to see through the designs of the nexus between the white savarana (meaning “upper class” in Hindi) and the oppressor or ruling capitalistic classes. Like their African American counterparts, the writings of the Dalit record the search for identity and selfhood in the context of their respective cultures and the struggle of their community to survive whole, forcing their oppressors to revise their literary imagination and affirm the legitimacy of their voices. In this regard, the Dalits relate much of their assertion of literary and cultural ideals to those of the practitioners of African American Studies.

In their writings the Dalit have closely examined the sociocultural religious framework that has limited their horizons and sought the possibility of reforming the way they live. In doing so, they reject the existing religious order. Yet they find it difficult to collectively revolt against the system. As in the case of some African Americans, some Dalits have compromised and given up their past. One reason for the Dalits' lack of response to issues of history is that education came late to them and, with the exception of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, they have lacked strong leaders. In addition, there were the middle-class Dalits who estranged themselves from their caste and got entangled in the socioreligious complexities and microinterests of the society. However, they still inspired their brothers and sisters to change their ways and also to do something to change the “touchable” Hindu. At the same time, the Dalits gave a wake-up call to the savarana Hindus to remove the contradictions in the society or else the sufferers would blow up the structure of their democracy.

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