The Unheard Voices of the Subaltern in Harshankar Jaladas’s Ramgolam

Abstract

This paper investigates the class struggle of the Harijans (Hindu sweepers) in Bangladesh as portrayed in Harishankar Jaladas’s Ramgolam. Due to society-imposed identifier of ‘untouchability’, the scavengers in Bangladesh have historically been subjected to discrimination and marginalization. They have been deprived of choices such as free selection of occupation, access to housing, education and other rights. Contending with the conventional notion that Hinduism maintains social order by caste hierarchies and divisions of labour, Jaladas shows how the desperate poor people respond to the notion of untouchability and show resistance to caste discrimination. The protagonist Ramgolam occupies a significant place in Bangla literature through his unique leadership and for his escapade towards freedom from social supremacy. It is arguable that it is not only by Hindu religious ideology but also through historical, colonial, economic, political and social aspects of castebased discrimination that eventually leads them to raise their voices in a world where no one is there to hear them. Through qualitative research methodology, this paper concludes in implying the never-ending struggle of the Harijan sweepers which remains unnoticed to the civilized world and the subaltern are not capable enough to deal with the hegemony imposed by bureaucracy and political conspiracy