The Dalit Presses, Publication, and Patronage: The Mohalla Archives and the Rise of Dalit Studies

Abstract

It has become evidently clear that the Dalit Mohalla (neighborhood) archives in Dalit activists’ homes, preserved in almirahs and trunks and reprints of previously published texts, have contributed centrally to the rise of Dalit Studies in the last decade. Recent regional studies of Dalit movements (G. Aloysius: 1998, A. Rao: 2009, R. Rawat: 2012, C. Jangam: 2017, S. Mohan: 2018) discovered vernacular literary archives to fashion their argument relating to caste inequality and civic equality afforded by the juridical transformations in the early-twentieth century British India. They have discovered significant role of Dalit presses, despite short life-spans, in publishing chapbooks, song-booklets, and newspapers in advancing untouchable activism, which has contributed to rethink existing caste histories. In this paper I will address the relationship between archival research and ethnographic fieldwork which drew attention to the Dalit Mohalla. I will address the ethical and political questions at stake in preserving this archive, especially recognizing Dalit groups who produced and preserved this material. Drawing from discussions at the University of Pennsylvania libraries, I will explore the critical role of the digital humanities in creating and building local and global conversations on caste inequality, facilitating engagement between Dalit activists and academics. It will address questions of preservations and engagement yet foreground the role of activist-archivists.