Concealing Caste Narratives of Passing and Personhood in Dalit Literature

Kusuma Satyanarayanan, Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad, India, Joel Lee, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Williams College, Massachusetts, USA

K. Satyanarayana is a professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at the English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad, India. He co-edited two volumes of new Dalit writing: No Alphabet in Sight (2011), Steel Nibs Are Sprouting (2013), Dalit Studies (2016) and, most recently, Dalit Text (2020). His research interests are in the fields of Dalit studies, literary history, and cultural theory.

Joel Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Williams College, Massachusetts, USA. He is the author of Deceptive Majority: Dalits, Hinduism, and Underground Religion (2021), and his research interests lie in the critical analysis of caste, sensory studies, popular religion, and Hindi and Urdu literature.

1. Introduction, Joel Lee/K Satyanarayana
2. When I Hid My Caste, Baburao Bagul
3. Dread, Omprakash Valmiki
4. The Parable of the Lost Daughter: Luke 15: 11-32, M.M. Vinodini
5. New Custom, Ajay Navaria
6. Raw Deal, Surajpal Chauhan
7. Friend of the Family, Sharankumar Limbale
8. No Bar, Jai Prakash Kardam
9. Sandstorm, Omprakash Valmiki
10. Madness, C. Ayyappan
11. Tattoo, Ajay Navaria
12. Waiting for a Visa, BR Ambedkar
13. Doubly Cursed, Kausalya Baisantry
14. Joothan, Omprakash Valmiki
15. My Caste, Jai Prakash Kardam
16. Weave of my Life, Urmila Pawar
17. Interrogating my Chandal Life, Manoranjan Byapari
18. The Flood, Shailaja Paik
19. Coming Out as Dalit, Yashica Dutt
20. In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Pratibha Jeyachandran