Dalit Literature: Situating Aesthetics in the Realm of Political Challenge

Dalit writing, ever since its emergence, it has been met with censure. The major objection and flawthat has been pointed out time and again is that falls woefully short of aesthetics. Dalit literature haslargely been inspired by the ideas of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who, the Dalit writers and critics proclaim,as the ‘Father of Dalit Literature’ (Dangle xxii). Largely aimed at articulating the hopes ofemancipation of group of people, Dalit writers firmly believe that their writing has a purpose andmust draw attention to the searing social reality and engage with it in an aggressive manner. Thustheir writing has been termed ‘political’ and ‘propagandistic’. The present paper is an attempt toargue that terming the corpus of Dalit writing as ‘political’ is indeed not only arbitrary but alsountenable. The paper suggests that for a proper understanding of Dalit literature it is imperative toforeground its context.