Locating “Selfhood” in Dalit Autobiographies

The caste system had an all-pervasive effect on the self-perception of Dalits and how others viewed them, till very late upper castes constructed and interpreted the identities of the Dalits such as in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable. However, Dalits’ autobiographies like Joothan attempt to reclaim their “selves” from the control of upper-caste literary representations. The authenticity of experience makes autobiographies different from Non-Dalit writers’ narratives of the Dalits. These narratives are mainly concerned with expressing anger and anguish against caste discrimination, and how it has negatively impacted the Dalit self-perception. However, mainstream critics question the literary merit of Dalit autobiographies, often calling them unstructured, thematically stereotypical (as they focus on themes of pain, violence, and hunger), lacking in art and imagination and biased. Dalit autobiographies present alternative models of the Dalit “Self” and History.