Atrophy in Dalit literary criticism: role of translators in overcoming the five absences

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I review works of Dalit literary criticism in regional languages and their absences in the English language. The paper discusses five absences that continue to make Dalit literary criticism in English deficient. It discusses the nature of these absences and their interconnectedness. The article proposes that translators and editors play a very crucial role in recuperating these absences in Dalit literary criticism, but they must become aware of the necessary and specific challenges involved in the translation and compilation of works of literary criticism. It highlights that translating works of literary criticism is qualitatively different from translating works of Dalit literature. The paper then provides what these specific challenges in the translation are and how overcoming these challenges can remedy the five critical absences discussed in the essay. The paper argues that the discursive strength of Dalit literary criticism in English depends on addressing these five absences, and so does the development of Dalit literary theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Dalit literary criticism
• Dalit literary theory
• Dalit literature
• Dalit translation
• Sharan Kumar Limbale

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Dwivedi, Walsh, Henrik, Narratology and Ideology, 11.

2. Limbale, Towards an Aesthetics, 56.

3. Judith Misrahi-Barak, Satyanarayana, Thiara Dalit Text: Aesthetics and Politics.

4. Exceptional works which utilize works of literary criticism written by Dalits include Wilkerson, Hindi Dalit Autobiography; Gajrawala, Untouchable Fictions; and Hunt, Hindi Dalit Literature and the Politics of Representation.

5. Brueck, Writing Resistance: The Rhetorical Imagination of Hindi Dalit Literature, 63; K. Purushotham et.al., Telugu Dalit Writing, 277.

6. All translations are my own.

7. Valmiki, , 9 .

8. A popular Indian newspaper.

9. One can understand this as a problem if one sees it in comparison to the meticulousness another Hindi Dalit critic Namishray shows. Namishray often gives the exact dates for the newspaper articles he mentions. See Namishray, Hindi Dalit Sahitya, 277.

10. The absence of this diligence and meticulousness on the part of Dalit critics is a case of procedural inaccuracy in writing works of literary criticism.

11. Disnarration is generally used to describe something that is mentioned but didn’t happen within the action of a fictional narrative, but here I use it specifically to highlight situations when the critic alludes to things, they don’t provide explicit examples of.

12. Valmiki, , , 21.

13. This is how the lack of self-reflexivity on part of Dalit critics couples with procedural inaccuracy to produce missing references, weakens the epistemic grounds of Dalit literary tradition. In writing about their own culture, critics have let things to elide into disnarration.

14. Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa is the Jnanpith award-winning writer and poet, known by his pen name Kuvempu.

15. Tharu and Satyanarayana, Steel Nibs are Sprouting: New Dalit Writings, 65

16. In yet another case two Dalit critics B. Krishnappa and B. M. Puttaiah react on Siddhlighaih poem “Ikkra Vaddrala” [Kill them, Bash them] by pointing how upper caste critics deny such diction the dignity of being literary enough. Even though both critics seem to be referring to same source but do not provide it. The source is then neither tracked by the translators nor editors. Tharu et. al., Steel Nibs are Sprouting, 63 and 360.

17. Deepak’s M.Phill thesis “‘No one knew Pandit Ji. But everyone knew Phulwa’s son!’: A Social Epistemological Analysis of Ratan Kumar Sambharia’s Short Story Collection Thunderstorm.” (2021) rehearses the various questions of epistemic violence and injustice and is a very useful study for such insights from within a Dalit literary perspective. This thesis was submitted to the department of English, University of Delhi in 2021.

18. Wakankar, “The Question of a Prehistory,” 290.

19. This phrase is used by Susheela Punitha to point out the usefulness of references in works of literature. Punitha translate works of Dalit literature, and this phrase is taken from her to suggest that it carries some conceptual use in considering references in works of literary criticism. Simon, “Challenges and Possibilities in the Translation of Dalit Literature.”

20. Purushotham, Telugu Dalit Writing, 277.

21. Valmiki, , 8 , .

22. Some of the articles were presented in seminars and some appeared in literary magazines which means their tone and structure differ. Gauthaman, “Dravidian Literature: Radical Features and Worldview,” XV.

23. Sahi, Dalit Literary Perspective, 110.

24. Thiara, “Subaltern Experimental Writing,” 256.

25. Mukherjee, “Translating Minoritized Cultures,” 12.

26. Limbale, Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, 56.

27. Kumar, “Dalit Criticism in Practice,” 64.

28. Limbale, Gair-Dalit, 34.

29. Abrahams and Misrahi-Barak, Dalit Literatures in India.

30. The editor’s footnote explains “This is an excerpt from the article, with scholarly references and annotations omitted in keeping with the style of this book.” Tharu et.al., Steel Nibs are Sprouting, 230.

31. Namishray, Hindi Dalit Sahitya, 274 .

32. Valmiki, Mukhyadhara Aur Dalit Sahitya, 10.

33. Limbale, Brahmanya, 23.

34. For elaboration on technical and practical functions see Gurjar, “Translating Intent.”

35. Gauthaman, “Dravidian Literature,” XVI.

36. Limbale, Akkarmashi, 14.

37. Gauthaman, “Dravidian Literature,” 109.

38. Examples of such practices are not hard to find in translation. “One reference led to the next, and one author referred us to others. The authors provided us the clarifications when approached, and furnished material when needed.” see K. Purushotham 2016, XI.

39. Thiara, “Subaltern Experimental Writing,” 275.

40. Limbale, Indian English Literature, , 28. .

41. Limbale, ; Thiara, “Subaltern Experimental Writing”; and Kardam, “Foreward.”

42. Kumar, “Dalit Criticism in Practice,” 69.

43. Limbale, Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, XI

44. Tharu and Satyanarayana, Steel Nibs are Sprouting, 243.

45. Mangalam, “Dalit Writing in Tamil,” 154–55.

46. Raj Gauthaman also refers to such letters, see Gauthaman, “Dravidian Literature,” xii.

47. Soni, “A Call for Mutual Change and Progress,” 4.

48. Limbale, Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, 112.

49. Tharu and Satyanarayana, Steel Nibs are Sprouting, 621.

50. Tharu et.al., Steel Nibs are Sprouting, 621.

51. Valmiki, , 7. .

52. Valmiki, , 7. .

53. Limbale, Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, 56.

54. Mangalam, “Dalit Writing in Tamil,” 153; and Bama, “Dalit Literature.”

55. Sahi, Dalit Literary Perspective, 108. .

56. Sahi, Dalit Literary Perspective, 110. . .

57. Addressed primarily to the Tamil-reading public. Gauthaman, “Dravidian Literature,” XV.

58. Literary criticism has been local in nature, and has responded to local concerns and hardly artistic concerns were taken into consideration because all literary critics saw themselves fighting the issues in their immediate circumstances Rawat and Satyanarayana, Dalit Studies, 2.

59. Dalit writers accept English as a target language, despite the fact that local realities and registers of caste are difficult to couch in a language that has no memory of caste. Kothari, “Caste in Casteless Languages,” 60.

60. Muthukkaruppan, “Preliminary Remarks on Dalit Poetry,” 62.

61. Limbale, Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, 54.

62. Limbale, Towards an Aesthetics of Dalit Literature, 54.

63. The word is derived from the sanskrit “” which implies “precepts, rules, treatise etc.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kunwar Nitin Pratap Gurjar

Kunwar Nitin Pratap Gurjar is a senior research fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. Currently, he is working on the questions of “Unreliability and Improbability in Dalit Literature.” His latest publications include “Closet Dalithood: Traumatized Caste Performativity and the Making of an Urban Aesthetics of Caste in Yashica Dutt’s Coming out as a Dalit,” published by the “Contemporary Voice of Dalits.”