Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Land and identity issues are interlinked and landlessness becomes a cause of ethnic unrest in the Northeast region of India. Colonial land and forest policy not only impacted the lives of indigenous people but also affected the land relation of indigenous and other immigrant communities of Assam. Even the post-colonial state has also been continuing the legacy of colonial state, which resulted in the land deprivation of tribals and Adivasis of Assam. It is in this context the present study discusses the landlessness of the tea garden community of Assam. Despite living in Assam for more than a hundred years, they are constantly facing the issue of landlessness and land alienation, which subsequently created a threat to their identity, culture and livelihood. The article is based on the arguments and narratives drawn from the tea garden community of Assam and the role of state is also highlighted in this context.
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Boosa Movement: A Prologue to the Birth of New Kannada Intellectualism
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The Boosa movement was one of the most controversial incidents in the history of Post-Independence literary as well as political discourse in Karnataka. B Basavalingappa, the cynosure of the movement, made a controversial statement on Kannada literature. He commented that most Kannada literature was filled with Boosa (cattle fodder). His statement created an uproar across Karnataka. In this context, this article aims to present how yellow journalism portrayed Basavalingappa and his comments, which eventually made him lose his political position. The hypothesis presents how Basavalingappa was a victim of caste-based politics coupled with yellow journalism. On the other hand, it also presents that despite the political assassination of Basavalingappa from power, how the Boosa incident gave rise to Dalit consciousness and acted as a prologue to the birth of new Kannada intellectuality.
The Boosa movement was one of the most controversial incidents in the history of Post-Independence literary as well as political discourse in Karnataka. B Basavalingappa, the cynosure of the movement, made a controversial statement on Kannada literature. He commented that most Kannada literature was filled with Boosa (cattle fodder). His statement created an uproar across Karnataka. In this context, this article aims to present how yellow journalism portrayed Basavalingappa and his comments, which eventually made him lose his political position. The hypothesis presents how Basavalingappa was a victim of caste-based politics coupled with yellow journalism. On the other hand, it also presents that despite the political assassination of Basavalingappa from power, how the Boosa incident gave rise to Dalit consciousness and acted as a prologue to the birth of new Kannada intellectuality.
From the Social to the Clinical: Towards a Psychopathology of Everyday Casteism
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Caste has predominantly been understood as a social problem. It is understood as a form of discrimination embedded in the Hindu society that promotes Brahmanical supremacy which, in turn, is founded on the ostracization and dehumanization of the Dalit subject. The great bulk of the existing scholarship on caste has been dedicated to exploring the history, politics, religiosity, anti-sociality and illegality of caste. This article is an emphatic attempt to redirect the field of Dalit studies from considering caste—casteism, to be more precise—as a social problem to defining it as a medical or clinical or psychological problem. It introduces the reader to the neglected trend of research on the interface between caste and mental health and advances the radical possibility of understanding caste as a form of psychopathology. It makes use of the relevant psychological and psychoanalytic concepts from Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and Jacques Lacan and proposes to define casteism in conjunction with the psychology of racism as theorized by Franz Fanon and David Livingstone Smith.
Caste has predominantly been understood as a social problem. It is understood as a form of discrimination embedded in the Hindu society that promotes Brahmanical supremacy which, in turn, is founded on the ostracization and dehumanization of the Dalit subject. The great bulk of the existing scholarship on caste has been dedicated to exploring the history, politics, religiosity, anti-sociality and illegality of caste. This article is an emphatic attempt to redirect the field of Dalit studies from considering caste—casteism, to be more precise—as a social problem to defining it as a medical or clinical or psychological problem. It introduces the reader to the neglected trend of research on the interface between caste and mental health and advances the radical possibility of understanding caste as a form of psychopathology. It makes use of the relevant psychological and psychoanalytic concepts from Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung and Jacques Lacan and proposes to define casteism in conjunction with the psychology of racism as theorized by Franz Fanon and David Livingstone Smith.
Civil Society Involvement and Resultant Health Care Utilization: A Study of Sickle Cell Disease Patients Across Communities in Kerala
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Civil society initiatives have helped in attempts to bring equity and efficiency in health systems by providing direct health services to vulnerable sections in society and indulging in health promotion and information exchange. Kerala, despite the presence of civil society in the health sector shows a pattern of ‘health divide’, with tribal communities experiencing a higher health burden than non-tribal communities. This becomes problematic in the case of some peculiar diseases, particularly genetic diseases such as Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The article explores the involvement of civil society in health systems with a special focus on SCD and enquires into links between socio-economic position and health care utilization patterns. The study identifies the existence of inter-community differences in health care utilization across social classes, depicting the fact that even after the involvement of civil society organizations, socio-economic stratifiers still remain an important impediment in uplifting the health status of SCD patients.
Civil society initiatives have helped in attempts to bring equity and efficiency in health systems by providing direct health services to vulnerable sections in society and indulging in health promotion and information exchange. Kerala, despite the presence of civil society in the health sector shows a pattern of ‘health divide’, with tribal communities experiencing a higher health burden than non-tribal communities. This becomes problematic in the case of some peculiar diseases, particularly genetic diseases such as Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The article explores the involvement of civil society in health systems with a special focus on SCD and enquires into links between socio-economic position and health care utilization patterns. The study identifies the existence of inter-community differences in health care utilization across social classes, depicting the fact that even after the involvement of civil society organizations, socio-economic stratifiers still remain an important impediment in uplifting the health status of SCD patients.
Social Exclusion and Education: Analysing the Rights of Dalit Children Through the Lens of Democracy and Citizenship
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The educational concerns of the Dalit community must be addressed from a perspective of social justice, as the Dalit community has historically been subject to social discrimination and restricted access to education. ‘The social justice framework is significant because it emphasises worries about the meaning of one’s education on one’s sense of self and one’s prospects for the future, as opposed to focusing solely on concerns about educational equity, including issues of access, participation, and outcomes. It also sheds light on the pledges made by educational institutions to the most vulnerable people and how these promises are carried out in practice’ (Nambissian, 2006). The children of Dalit community have in the contemporary context come under analysis across the world. They always faced social exclusion by the majority, the state and its institutions; still, the strong law pertains. This has hampered their growth and development. In countries such as India, the social exclusion of Dalits is also a concern. Therefore, this article attempts to describe, in broad terms, Societies’ manifest behaviours and tendencies that exclude (i.e., exclusion as a citizen in a democratic country) those deemed undesirable or useless from the predominate systems of protection and integration, thereby limiting their opportunities and means of survival. It also attempts to investigate the educational disadvantages of Dalit children in India. It looks at social exclusion, concerning the idea of democracy and citizenship. Furthermore, it explains the development and use of the concept of social exclusion in the Indian context concerning Dalit children and how it is also a helpful policy concept for the integration of various philosophical conceptions like equality, justice, and emancipation on the primary purpose of the welfare state into a single social model. Lastly, it examines the impact of social exclusion in elementary education and its impact on the educational and social conditions of Dalit children in India.
The educational concerns of the Dalit community must be addressed from a perspective of social justice, as the Dalit community has historically been subject to social discrimination and restricted access to education. ‘The social justice framework is significant because it emphasises worries about the meaning of one’s education on one’s sense of self and one’s prospects for the future, as opposed to focusing solely on concerns about educational equity, including issues of access, participation, and outcomes. It also sheds light on the pledges made by educational institutions to the most vulnerable people and how these promises are carried out in practice’ (Nambissian, 2006). The children of Dalit community have in the contemporary context come under analysis across the world. They always faced social exclusion by the majority, the state and its institutions; still, the strong law pertains. This has hampered their growth and development. In countries such as India, the social exclusion of Dalits is also a concern. Therefore, this article attempts to describe, in broad terms, Societies’ manifest behaviours and tendencies that exclude (i.e., exclusion as a citizen in a democratic country) those deemed undesirable or useless from the predominate systems of protection and integration, thereby limiting their opportunities and means of survival. It also attempts to investigate the educational disadvantages of Dalit children in India. It looks at social exclusion, concerning the idea of democracy and citizenship. Furthermore, it explains the development and use of the concept of social exclusion in the Indian context concerning Dalit children and how it is also a helpful policy concept for the integration of various philosophical conceptions like equality, justice, and emancipation on the primary purpose of the welfare state into a single social model. Lastly, it examines the impact of social exclusion in elementary education and its impact on the educational and social conditions of Dalit children in India.
Seasonal Migration and Child’s Schooling: A Survival Approach
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The article opts to investigate the long-term effects of parental seasonal migration on a child’s access to school education. The phenomenon of seasonal migration ‘leaving child at home’ or ‘accompanied by’ is a very common feature in the Purulia district where migration is the only viable option to sustain livelihood in lean-agricultural season. Although parents’ migration in such areas seems to be essential for the family economy, lack of parental care is found to be responsible for academic and psychological non-adjustment that affects a child’s education to a great extent. The Cox Regression Hazard Model and the Kaplan–Meier Estimator analysis of school participation have been employed to explore the survival probability of children at varying contexts, viz. migration status, gender, caste and age. The result shows the negative impact of parental migration on school participation of left-behind children leading to early dropout before the completion of the school education cycle.
The article opts to investigate the long-term effects of parental seasonal migration on a child’s access to school education. The phenomenon of seasonal migration ‘leaving child at home’ or ‘accompanied by’ is a very common feature in the Purulia district where migration is the only viable option to sustain livelihood in lean-agricultural season. Although parents’ migration in such areas seems to be essential for the family economy, lack of parental care is found to be responsible for academic and psychological non-adjustment that affects a child’s education to a great extent. The Cox Regression Hazard Model and the Kaplan–Meier Estimator analysis of school participation have been employed to explore the survival probability of children at varying contexts, viz. migration status, gender, caste and age. The result shows the negative impact of parental migration on school participation of left-behind children leading to early dropout before the completion of the school education cycle.
A Corpus-based Study on Selected Dalit Autobiographies
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Dalit literature represents consciousness about human rights. Autobiographies written by Dalit authors are based on real-life experiences. Based on the conducted studies regarding Dalit autobiographies, women are the ones who suffer oppression and violence to a great extent (Simon, 2021) since they are the backbone of the family. Therefore, how Dalit autobiographies draw their reader’s attention is essential and makes these autobiographies unique. In recent years, text analysis tools have been introduced to facilitate information extraction from a collection of texts and compare two or more texts. So, this article using text mining tools aims to analyze three selected Dalit autobiographies of women writers. The central hypothesis of this study is that sufferers, their families and society have higher frequency in Dalit autobiographies and semantic relations between these elements at the lexical level are available. Based on the findings of this study, only in Dutt’s work, keyword in contexts (KWICs) such as “Dalit, caste, India” had higher frequencies than two other works. In Halder’s work, the frequency of these KWICs was zero. Accordingly, it can be said that in recent years, authors are explicitly willing to attract their readers’ attention toward Dalits and their problems.
Dalit literature represents consciousness about human rights. Autobiographies written by Dalit authors are based on real-life experiences. Based on the conducted studies regarding Dalit autobiographies, women are the ones who suffer oppression and violence to a great extent (Simon, 2021) since they are the backbone of the family. Therefore, how Dalit autobiographies draw their reader’s attention is essential and makes these autobiographies unique. In recent years, text analysis tools have been introduced to facilitate information extraction from a collection of texts and compare two or more texts. So, this article using text mining tools aims to analyze three selected Dalit autobiographies of women writers. The central hypothesis of this study is that sufferers, their families and society have higher frequency in Dalit autobiographies and semantic relations between these elements at the lexical level are available. Based on the findings of this study, only in Dutt’s work, keyword in contexts (KWICs) such as “Dalit, caste, India” had higher frequencies than two other works. In Halder’s work, the frequency of these KWICs was zero. Accordingly, it can be said that in recent years, authors are explicitly willing to attract their readers’ attention toward Dalits and their problems.
Subaltern? Illustrated: A Study of Ambedkar Cartoons
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Just like any other narrative form, cartoons too, by virtue of their storytelling ability, have problematized Dalit life history and delineated the trauma, tragedy and unflinching representational terms. Charting sociopolitical topics, cartoons are an example of popular culture influencing public opinion. With caricature, prose, topical content and a dash of humour, cartoons form a special category of news and a critical form of political journalism. When Elizabeth Edwards discusses the raw history and potential of photographs, she emphasizes their visual sovereignty, which is not only vital for the production of photography but also for the interpretation of images, and through them, the insertion of the human voice. Similarly, cartoons succeed in combining their visual sovereignty with their ethnographic potential because of their interpretive ingenuousness. As such, cartoons articulate lines of instability indiscernible under the garb of mythical solidarity of a myriad of political ideologies. Cartoonists construct publics and counter publics by problematizing the impact of sociopolitics on human beings through the construction of interpretative communities bound by visual perceptions. In other words, cartoons, particularly political cartoons, represent highly complex modern attempts to formulate visual identities under specific historical and political conditions that resonate with the readership. The present research article seeks to problematize Dalit representation in cartoons by non-Dalit illustrators against the work of a Dalit cartoonist to critically study the politics of representation, the discourse of powers and the dialectics of caste. The article seeks to study if and how Dalit agency is, respectively, illustrated or elided, how symbols and caricatures demonstrate the truth of Dalit life and the aesthetics of the Dalit experience. For the purpose of the study, the article especially focusses on the figure of Ambedkar, the iconic Dalit voice and the benevolent patriarch of Dalit ideology, and studies his representation in a series of political cartoons published between 1932 and 1956.
Just like any other narrative form, cartoons too, by virtue of their storytelling ability, have problematized Dalit life history and delineated the trauma, tragedy and unflinching representational terms. Charting sociopolitical topics, cartoons are an example of popular culture influencing public opinion. With caricature, prose, topical content and a dash of humour, cartoons form a special category of news and a critical form of political journalism. When Elizabeth Edwards discusses the raw history and potential of photographs, she emphasizes their visual sovereignty, which is not only vital for the production of photography but also for the interpretation of images, and through them, the insertion of the human voice. Similarly, cartoons succeed in combining their visual sovereignty with their ethnographic potential because of their interpretive ingenuousness. As such, cartoons articulate lines of instability indiscernible under the garb of mythical solidarity of a myriad of political ideologies. Cartoonists construct publics and counter publics by problematizing the impact of sociopolitics on human beings through the construction of interpretative communities bound by visual perceptions. In other words, cartoons, particularly political cartoons, represent highly complex modern attempts to formulate visual identities under specific historical and political conditions that resonate with the readership. The present research article seeks to problematize Dalit representation in cartoons by non-Dalit illustrators against the work of a Dalit cartoonist to critically study the politics of representation, the discourse of powers and the dialectics of caste. The article seeks to study if and how Dalit agency is, respectively, illustrated or elided, how symbols and caricatures demonstrate the truth of Dalit life and the aesthetics of the Dalit experience. For the purpose of the study, the article especially focusses on the figure of Ambedkar, the iconic Dalit voice and the benevolent patriarch of Dalit ideology, and studies his representation in a series of political cartoons published between 1932 and 1956.
We Don’t Sleep on Rainy Nights
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Despite years of social mobility, indigenous people in India stand low in most development indices, and the substandard living conditions make them highly vulnerable to natural disasters. In this communication, we unfold the vulnerabilities and coping strategies of the Paniya tribal community of Kerala during the unusual rain and flood that the state faced in 2018 and 2019. The vulnerability arises primarily from food scarcity, malnutrition, low physical well-being, unemployment and financial instability. Climate change and related events seem to heighten the prevailing exposure of the indigenous community, and women are generally more vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. The study also points out the psychological impact of the flood and the various coping mechanisms adopted over individual and community levels to alleviate the effect. The community members have an optimistic outlook towards life, even after experiencing catastrophic floods and landslides. Nevertheless, this outlook is not a visionary outcome of the rehabilitation process but rather an optionless strategy for the community to get along.
Despite years of social mobility, indigenous people in India stand low in most development indices, and the substandard living conditions make them highly vulnerable to natural disasters. In this communication, we unfold the vulnerabilities and coping strategies of the Paniya tribal community of Kerala during the unusual rain and flood that the state faced in 2018 and 2019. The vulnerability arises primarily from food scarcity, malnutrition, low physical well-being, unemployment and financial instability. Climate change and related events seem to heighten the prevailing exposure of the indigenous community, and women are generally more vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters. The study also points out the psychological impact of the flood and the various coping mechanisms adopted over individual and community levels to alleviate the effect. The community members have an optimistic outlook towards life, even after experiencing catastrophic floods and landslides. Nevertheless, this outlook is not a visionary outcome of the rehabilitation process but rather an optionless strategy for the community to get along.
Book review: Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Tanika Sarkar (Eds), Caste in Bengal: Histories of Hierarchy, Exclusion, and Resistance
Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Tanika Sarkar (Eds), Caste in Bengal: Histories of Hierarchy, Exclusion, and Resistance. Permanent Black, 2022, ₹1495, x+605 pp. ISBN: 9788178246512 (Hardback).
Sekhar Bandyopadhyay and Tanika Sarkar (Eds), Caste in Bengal: Histories of Hierarchy, Exclusion, and Resistance. Permanent Black, 2022, ₹1495, x+605 pp. ISBN: 9788178246512 (Hardback).