The Portrayal of the Suffering of Socially Denigrated, Suppressed and Silenced Class in Indian Fiction
These lines are more appropriate to the present day. It’s a time when India is emerging as economic power, globalized culture and trends but still there lies an abominable and harrowing portrait of caste system behind this glittering appearance. It is so appalling that despite of 69 years of freedom from the clutches of imperialism, we are not yet free from our own social vices of stigmatizing the people belonging to the so called “lower classes”. It’s the harsh reality of our society that even in this 21th century there are some people called “Dalits or Untouchables”, who face discrimination, violence, and oppression from the higher castes or traditional upper classes particularly in access of jobs (works), education, health care, property and marriages etc. They are discriminated socially, economically, even in the matter of religion also. This paper intends to throw some light on the sordid saga of Dalit’s plight and their frequent subjection to oppression, silence to violence and marginalization. Their voice was suppressed so long, their rights has been violated, they are denied to access to land and forced to work in degrading conditions, also they are abused by police and upper- caste society routinely. Though things have changed with the flow of time but still dalits are suffering in many ways, which will be highlighted in this paper with the help of some fiction in Indian literature.