International Indexed & Referred Research Journal, July , 2012. ISSN- 0974-2832, RNI-RAJBIL 2009/29954;VoL.
IV *ISSUE-42
Research Paper - English
Biological Essentialism: Dalit Literature
* Raviprakash Chapke
* SMT.V.N.M.Mahila Mahila Mahavidyalaya,Pusad(MS)
A B S T R A C T
The article reviews the policy of some critics who enunciate that being dalit is license to write about dalits. Lived experience
is the pre-requisite to write about dalits. This biological essentialism is studied in this article. It studies two articles by a
south-Indian Scholar Sunder Surukkai and eminent Social critic Gopal guru.
Sunder Sarukkai in his article titled 'Dalit Experience
and Theory' (EPW 2007)analyses what Gopal Guru
says about Dalit writing. Guru argued that the lived
experience of dalit constitutes the only valid and au-
thentic experiences hence theorizing this experience
should be restricted only to dalits. In light of Guru's
statement Sarukkai interrogates the idea of dalit repre-
sentation done by the non-dalit writers. He observes
that the theories about dalit experience are largely
derived from the writing of non-dalit scholars who
sporadically visit India but because of their influential
position in the society they command the right to rep-
resent the underprivileged section of society. Sarrukai
calls these scholars 'outsiders' who without being a
part of dalit experience claim to represent them in their
work. Besides their competence and socially privileged
status, their nexus with the sphere of publication and
readership suit their interest.
Sarrukai goes on to assert that "the idea of
'participant observation' legitimizes fieldwork by out-
siders who can sample Indian experience for a few
weeks in order to theorize about its many components"
(4043). He finds it as frustrating as Guru finds it when
non-dalit takes over the theorization of dalits.
Representation of any cultural group or com-
munity by a member from a different community is
mostly challenged when the things written about the
target community are unfavourable or tarnishing the
said community. The parameter of authenticity and
lived experience is not only invoked but insisted when
this representation threatens the very image of commu-
nity. When an outsider writes something complimen-
tary what community perceives as good, the outsider
is not only accepted but valorized. In this case the
writer's 'outsider' logo is conveniently doffed rather
the reference is given to prove that even the outsiders
can understand and appreciate the greatness of their
culture. But the moment there appears some form of
denigration about that culture in the writing of the same
50 kks/k leh{kk vkSj ewY;kadu
July , 2012
writer his 'outsider' status is invoked to debunk the
criticism.
Guru's stand appears to be rather firm and
essentialist on such writing of outsiders on dalit lives.
He argues that non-dalits have no moral right to theo-
rize about dalit, be it complimentary or derogatory.
Sarukkai in the same article elaborates on two kinds of
experiences that enable the writers to write. First he
says is 'vicarious experience' which always comes with
three important characteristics: one, a freedom to be a
part of an experience; two, the freedom to quit if the
experience is unpleasant; and three, if necessary to
alter the experience so as to suit one's own needs.
Second he says is 'lived experience' that exhibits none
of the qualities of the vicarious experiences described
above because the subject has no choice whether to be
a part of it or not. If going gets tough, the subject does
not enjoy the choice to leave or modify it. Thus the
subject has little or no control over the experience
hence is compelled to live with it. Thus the lived expe-
rience is different from the vicarious or simulated expe-
rience in a qualitative sense.
First pre-requisite for the lived experience is
that the subject himself goes through it. This conten-
tion makes a ground for what Guru says that one cannot
have dalit experience unless one is dalit himself. To be
dalit subject is to be oppressed with no choice of es-
caping this oppression. Then it is clear that lived expe-
rience of dalits is not about sharing their attitude, living
with them, being like them but being them in a sense
that you have no choice to be anything else. In other
words being dalits is not sharing all that dalits have but
rather sharing what they cannot have. Sarukkai says
that lived experience is not "about freedom of experi-
ence but lack of freedom in experience."(4045)
Gopal Guru in his article tiltled 'How Egalitarian Are the
Social Sciences in India?'(2002) explains the dialectic of
non-dalit writers' epistemological imperialism. He opens
his article with polemically poignant statement. He says
International Indexed & Referred Research Journal, July , 2012. ISSN- 0974-2832, RNI-RAJBIL 2009/29954;VoL.IV *ISSUE-42
that "the Indian Social Science represent a pernicious
divide between a theoretical Brahmin and empirical
shudras"(5003). To use a traditional analogy for the
theoretician and their subject Guru says that some are
born with a theoretical spoon in their mouth while the
majority with a empirical pot in their neck. Guru
problematizes the epistemological imperialism that
encourages non-dalits to launch the intellectual mis-
sions to conquer the the new epistemological fields
that originally belonged to the dalit intellectual uni-
verse. The danger in this kind of forced representation
is that it ends up stereotyping the subject-dalits.
Guru asserts that this kind of intellectual force
and hegemonic practice often results in caricaturing of
the dalits as epistemologically dumb. Dalits in such
works are pushed in to empirical ghettos or they are
confined to their intellectual ambitions to the dominant
methodological ways to a greater extent. This practice
crushes the morale of dalits. It not only lowers their
self-esteem but humiliates them through literary pa-
tronage. This reverse orientalism, as Guru terms it,
caricatures dalits as amusing objects.
Gopal Guru in his another famous essay 'What
It Takes to be an Indian Dalit: Dalit Response to the
Darban Conference' (2006) published in a book tiltled
'Against Stigma: Studies in Caste, Race,and Justice
since Durban' edited by Balmurali Natrajan and Paul
Greenough is a critique of non-dalits claim to speak for
the dalit subject. Guru says that the representation of
dalits by non-dalits is problematic because it gives
latter a morally superior position. Many people seem to
be oblivious to the fact that this type of representation
results in the permanent exclusion of dalits from intel-
lectual domain. It produces a new kind of intellectual
hierarchy that makes the task of democratizing intellec-
tual representation of dalits even more difficult.
The language used by dalit protest writer
continues to be treated as a language of aliens (italics
original). In view of the above given arguments Guru
asserts that a dalit speaking for dalit is justified be-
cause it helps the historical recovery of of dalit voices
that have been long suppressed. (177). Stressing the
importance of the lived experience and authenticity in
representation Guru argues that those who claim to
make a truthful representation should try to depict the
reality in fullness, without avoiding the the unpleas-
ant, uneasy or inconvenient dimensions of this reality.
Guru further states that any claim to representation
including the one made by dalits can be valid only
when they have moral courage and capacity to con-
front the reality by standing out of it. These claims are
authentic only when the claimants try to resolve the
uneasy and uncomfortable tension between the prag-
matic and moral components of politics. (181)

R E F E R E N C E
1.Sarukkai,Suder. "Dalit Experience and Theory".EPW.6Oct 2007.Web.15 oct.2011
2.Guru,Gopal(2002): 'How Egalitarian are the Social Sciences in India?',EPW.Vol.xxxvii,no51,Dec14.
3.Guru,Gopal(1995): 'What it takes to be an Indian Dalit:Dalit Response to the Durban Conference'
In Balmurali Natrajan et al. ed,Against Stigma:Studies in Caste,Race and Justice since Durban,New Delhi,Orient Blackswan.
SHODH, SAMIKSHA AUR MULYANKAN 51