Limbale in his essay describes Dalit Literature as writings about Dalit sufferings by Dalit writers, born out of their Dalit consciousness. The purpose of this literature is to spread awareness amongst the Dalit society about their slavery and narrate the pain and suffering of the same to the rest of the society.
He further asks whether it is justified to expect pleasure or beauty, from a Dalit text which has primarily been written for social transformation and is a narrative of pain and suffering. Its focus is to spread awareness and not be analysed on the already established aesthetic measures. Hence, Dalit Literature rejects traditional aesthetics and demands new yardsticks for evaluating the aesthetics of a Dalit text.
Suvarna critics have already claimed that Dalit Literature should get literary appraisal on the same measures as any other literary piece and should be critiqued on the basis of eternal and universal time-tested aesthetic values.
However, what they don’t bring into account while forwarding such a uni-dimensional criticism is that Dalit Literature can be understood in the context of its uniqueness and inspiration as literature of the exploited and hence, literature of rebellion. Dalit Literature’s literary value is embedded in its social value and any aesthetic consideration of such a literature should be based in Ambedkar’s thoughts of social upliftment for the lower classes.
Limbale comments that the traditional values of Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram, are not applicable in context of Dalit aesthetics as they are fabrications used to exploit common people. This aesthetic trinity only benefits the upper caste and has been formulated to suppress the lower ones. This concept should be replaced with a more social and material concept. Limbale then posits some counter values to Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram that Dalit Literature espouses. He considers viewing human beings, first and foremost as humans irrespective of their class and creed as Satyam; the liberation of human beings as shivam and humanity of human beings as Sundaram.
He at last gives aesthetic measures which form the foundation of Dalit Literature, which are equality, liberty, justice and fraternity.
Some Dalit texts:
Akkarmashi by Sharankumar Limbale
The title means being illegitimately born. In this text the narrator is the son of a Dalit woman who was lured by a rich landlord and later deserted. The text shows the painful experience of growing up in a society in which sexual exploitation and casteism are prevelant, tinged through and through with the Dalit consciousness of the writer.
Joothan by Valmiki
This text talks about the discrimination that a group of friends had to face in school while growing up. The title which means left over food which the Dalit were forced to accept and eat shows the pain, humiliation and poverty of a community which is suppressed for centuries.
Janhavi Chadha
Citations:
Limbale, S. (2004). About Dalit Literature. In A. Mukherjee (Trans.), Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies and Considerations (pp. 19-22). Orient Longman.
Critical Aesthetics, 2015 