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Prologue
'Dalits' are the poor and downtrodden, generally includes those termed in administrative parlance as Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs); however, in day-to-day usage and political discourse, the term is so far mainly confined to SCs.1 The SCs are the castes identified by the President of India under Article 341, was first used by the British in the Government of India Act 1935, prior to this were included among the Depressed Classes - a category used for the first time in the beginning of the 20th century (Gupta, 1985, 7-35).2 Dalit is itself an internally positive term. Now it has acquired a new cultural context relating to Dalitness, Dalit literature, and Dalit movement. It refers to those who have been broken, ground down by those above them in a deliberate way. There is in the word itself, an inherent denial of pollution, karma, Moksha (salvation), Punarjanma (rebirth) and justified caste hierarchy, considering Brahminical ideology as fraud for deluding and robbing the common people (Sardesai, 1986: 120). The modern Dalit Bahujan category, while building up an anti- caste ideology, drew upon the dialectical materialistic discourses that started in a proto- materialist form with Indus-based Lokayats or Charvakas and continued to operate all through the history.3 Since the last four decades, the question of Dalit identity has assumed critical significance. It has led to various political and social formations within the state and outside. In this sense, the Dalit literature provides critical insights on the question of Dalit identity, though it does not constitute a homogenous or unified identity. It calls for self-identity, self-respect and freedom, governed by different theoretical and philosophical streams. The other side of this identity formation is the nature of production where Dalits are set up.
There has not been a single, unified Dalit identity and movement in the country, now or in the past. Different movements have highlighted different issues related to Dalits around different ideologies, but all of them overtly or covertly assert a common Dalit identity, though its meaning is not identical and precise for everyone. Identity is concerned with the self-esteem and self-image of a community. As Dalits are concerned, the identical question is who are Dalits? The answer lies, there has...