Aesthetics and Politics of Dalit Women’s Writings Within Indian Pedagogic Practices

Abstract

With a postmodern shift and with the emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint, the feminist discourse itself has witnessed significant changes. The ‘double marginalization’ which Dalit women have been subjected to because of their caste location has graded down the monolith of gender identity. The emergence of Dalit women’s standpoint has also reworked how aesthetics and politics on Dalit women’s writings have been taken up within the Indian pedagogic practices. These new pedagogic engagements include processes such as the inclusion of newer curriculum and courses on Dalit writings, translation work of Dalit writings and the inclusion of theoretical works on Dalit women writings within the curriculum. This paper aims to understand the aesthetics and politics of Dalit women’s writings, particularly in the Hindi-speaking belt of India, and the interaction of such writings within the select Indian pedagogic practices. Through the select pedagogic practices the paper will explore the new kinds of discursive engagements that are done with these Dalit women’s writings per se. The paper will explore the absence/presence of Dalit women’s writings and also explore how the ‘representation’ of these writings is taken up within the mainstream Indian pedagogic practices. The paper further explores the popular spaces in which Dalit women’s writings have flourished and the tensions that exist, between what gets included and what remains excluded from the pedagogic practices, when it comes to Dalit women’s writings. The paper also explores the new aesthetic sensibility and the politics that have played a dynamic role in the emergence of Dalit women writings, and how the existing pedagogic practices have perceived them.