Neither Rural, Nor Urban: Incomplete Migration in Dalit Life-narratives

Abstract

Fifteenth-century saint Guru Ravidas, who belonged to the ‘untouchable’ Chamar caste, was the first to formulate an Indian version of utopia in his song ‘Begumpura’ (Omvedt 2008, 106–107). Interestingly, he does not dream of a village that is caste-free, he dreams of a city; to him, the city is the hope of a caste-free space. ‘Begumpura’ shows that the hope and dream for caste-free spaces is not a modern phenomenon; it goes back in time. The importance of modernity (unlike pre-modern times), however, is that through social rationality it promises an egalitarian space for everybody to live in (Aloysius 2009), where one can question, critique and make demands when the promise is not fulfilled. In this regard, the genre of the Dalit life-narrative is a strong critique of Indian modernity, a modernity that believes that to shut out the language of caste is to shut out caste itself (Pandian 2002).