Narratives of Violence against Women in Dalit Literary Public Spheres of Hindi. A Case Study of “Dalit Sāhitya (Vārṣikī)” and “Hā̃s”

Abstract

“Dalit Sāhitya (Vārṣikī)” is a yearbook published by Samyak Prakashan (from 1999) and edited by a Hindi Dalit writer and activist, Jayprakash Kardam. It publicizes research papers, essays, poetry and prose dedicated to issues related to Dalit community. Current paper proposes to examine how violence against women is narrated in the issues of the yearbook over the last decade (2013 to 2022) and subsequently compare these findings with findings from the two special issues on Dalit literature published by an established Hindi literary magazine “Hā̃s”: the 2004 issue (in two volumes) edited by Rajendra Yadav, with Sheoraj Singh Bechain as the co-editor, and the 2019 issue edited by Sanjay Sahay, with Ajay Navaria as the guest-editor. Both Bechain and Navaria are well known Hindi Dalit writers, however, their editorial engagements were coordinated by editors from the non-Dalit background. An attempt will be made to respond to the following questions: Is violence against women focalized in the two body of texts under study from different perspectives (public vs. counterpublic); Is there a focus on any specific form of ‘continuum of violence;’ Is there a correlation between these narratives and events connected to acts of violence against women discussed in Indian public sphere; How is the intersectionality of caste oppression, class position and gender aggression brought out in the narratives and their presentation (Aghtaie and Gangoli 2015: 14)?