• To focus Indian Dalit Literature as a significant locus of imaginative and polemical writing.
• To provide curricular recognition to the experience, art and knowledge of a subaltern section of the Indian society.
• To enable students explore the discussion on democracy, humanism, literature and selfexpression through the medium of contemporary art.
• To familiarize the students with the building of a counter-canon in the Indian literary and artistic scenario.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• come into contact with key modern Dalit/Subaltern writers, thinkers, artists and varied concepts.
• enhance their understanding of the issues at stake in the contemporary Dalit/ subaltern movements.
• evolve an in-depth grasp of the field at the levels of experience as well as concepts.
• extend their awareness of the social and aesthetic questions being raised in their writing as well as in the expression of protest, through the medium of contemporary art.

Unit 1  Key Concepts

Definition of the Dalit-Varna and caste hierarchy- Opposition to Brahminical hegemony and ideology-bhakti movement-B.R. Ambedkar’s contribution to the Dalit movement Reservation – Dalit Movements- Dalit Panther Movement, Adi Dharm Movement-Dalit Buddhist Movement-Role of Brahma Samaj and Arya Samaj-Kerala Renaissance-Narayana Guru and Ayyankali- the Dalit awakening-shaking off the social shackles- the development of Dalit sensibility- Emergence of Indian Dalit Literature- Language of the Dalit- Dalit women writers- Anita Dube’s contribution for Dalit/ subaltern expression in Kochi-Muziris Biennale- Dalit expression through installations and other conceptualistic form of contemporary art- Dalit prospects of development of independent sensibilities in art- Their attempts for social reform through self-expression in Art and Literature.

Unit II  Poetry and Drama

• P Karuppan : “Pulayas”
• Poykayil Appachan : “Song”
• Pitambara Tarai: “Untouchable”
• D Rajkumar: “ Our Gods do not Hide”
• Siddhalingaiah: “The Dalits are Coming”
• A Gunasekaran: “Scape Goats”

Unit III Prose 

• R Ambedkar: “Caste in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development.”
• Gopal Guru :       “Dalit Women Talk Differently.”
• Umma Chakravarthy: “Conceptualising Brahmanical Patriarchy in Early India: Gender, Class, Caste and State.”

Unit IV Fiction

• Meena Kandasamy: “The Gypsy Goddess.”
• Sivakami: “The Grip of Change.”

Unit V Autobiography

• Sharan Kumar Limbale: “The Outcaste”
• Bama : “Karukku”

• Panache. Kochi Biennale: Fest hosts art works by Women Dalit and Tribal artists. The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com (originally published on Dec.15,2018)
• Ambedkar, B.R. “Annihilation of Caste”. The Essential Writing of B.R Ambedkar. Ed. Valerian Rudrigues. New Delhi: Oxford UP, 2002. 263-305.Print.
• Basu, Tapan. Et.al., eds. Listen to the Flame: Texts and Readings from the Margins: New Delhi: Oxford UP, 2016, Print.
• Dasan, M. and Rajesh Karankal, eds. Counter Cultural Discourse and Dalit Literature in India. New Delhi: ABP Publishers, 2014. Print.
• Guru, Gopal. “Dalit Women Talk Differently”. Economic and Political Weekly vol.30. 41-42 ( October 14-21, 1995): 2548-2550. Print.
• Hubel,Teresa. Whose India? The Independence struggle in British and Indian Fiction and History. London: Leicester, 1996. Print.
• Limbale,Sharankumar.“Towards a Dalit Aesthetics”. Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies and Considerations. Trans. Alok Mukherjee. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 2004. 103-21. Print.
• Omvedt,Gail. Dalit Visions: The Anti-caste Movements and the Construction of an Indian Identity. 1995. Rev.ed. New Delhi: Orient Black Swan, 2006. Print.
• Omvedt,Gail. Dalit and the Democratic Revolution. New Delhi: Sage, 1999. Print.
• Rawat, Ramanarayan S. and K. Satyanarayan, eds. Dalit Studies. Durham: Duke UP, 2016. Print.
• Satyanarayana,K. and Susie Tharu, eds. No Alphabets in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South India. New Delhi: Penguin, 2011. Print.
• Satyanarayana K. and Susie Tharu. Introduction. From Those Stubs, Steel Nibs are Sprouting: New Dalit Writing from South India: Dossier II: Kannada and Telugu. Ed.K.
• Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu. Noida: Harper Collins,2013. Print.
• Sivakami, P. The Grip of Change. Trans. Arun Prabha Mukherjee. Berkeley: Columbia UP, 2003. Print.