Paper Details

Name: Lakshminarasimhaiah N & Mohan Prakash
Country: India

Year: 2025
Volume: Vol-12, issue-2, (July-December)
Page Number: 57-60
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17937289

ABSTRACT
This paper explores the liberative potential of Dalit literature as an aesthetic and ideological
movement that redefines the contours of Indian literary discourse. Rooted in lived
experiences of oppression, exclusion, and resilience, Dalit writings transform pain into
artistic power, articulating a collective consciousness that challenges the hegemonic
structures of caste and culture. The study examines how contemporary Dalit authors employ
narrative strategies, linguistic innovations, and symbolic expressions to reclaim identity,
dignity, and agency. Through poetry, fiction, and autobiography, Dalit sensibilities emerge as
both a mode of resistance and a quest for self-realization. The paper analyses select works
that foreground the aesthetics of protest—where art becomes a vehicle of emancipation and
storytelling serves as an act of social justice. Moving beyond the politics of victimhood, the
discussion underscores how Dalit writers reshape the moral and cultural imagination of
Indian literature by asserting the right to feel, to create, and to belong. Thus, the paper
situates Dalit literature not merely as a sociological category but as a vibrant artistic
expression of liberation and human possibility. The paper addresses the following critical
riders:
 How does Dalit literature transform the experience of oppression into an aesthetic of
resistance and liberation?
 In what ways do contemporary Dalit writers redefine literary form, language, and
voice to assert a distinct cultural identity?
 Can Dalit sensibilities be understood as a new paradigm of aesthetics that challenges
the traditional hierarchies of Indian literary discourse?
Keywords: Dalit Literature, Aesthetics of Resistance, Liberation, Caste and Identity,
Contemporary Indian Writing