Closet Dalithood: Traumatized Caste Performativity and the Making of an Urban Aesthetics of Caste in Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as Dalit (2019)

Abstract

With the publication of Yashica Dutt’s (2019) Coming Out as Dalit, a clear shift in Dalit autobiographical writing tradition is becoming visible, and this article tries to capture that shift by locating it within a global discourse on marginality and discrimination. This shift enables Dutt to rebrand a certain understanding of caste from a birth-marked identity to a more free-floating and performative understanding of caste. The emphasis on the performative aspect of caste provides it the necessary synergetic value to attach with multiple global discourses around marginality, discrimination, sexuality, and race. The article highlights how Dutt’s text is trying to develop a new urban aesthetics of caste to capture the sensibilities of a dominantly urban and global audience, and at the same time, expanding and signifying the understanding of caste. The article argues that it is this attempt to develop a new aesthetic formulation of caste that can explain the use of what is primarily a queer symbol of expression ‘coming out’ to couch the expression of caste discrimination. The article further indicates how similar synergies are developed with racial discourses and, finally, argues how these attempts can be understood as part of a global response to inequalities and the right to the city, making and expanding Dalit literature’s participation in the category of protest literature.