Identity Crisis and Dalit Literature: A Study of Bama’s Karukku.

Search for self, a sense of recognizing identity, is overtly seen in Dalit literature especially in autobiographies by Dalit writers. Dalit people have been exploited for many years at every level by upper caste people. Though the constitution of India provides the right to equality to all castes, yet the subordinate class people are deprived of their rights. The lower caste people victims of the hegemonic practices; motivated by caste and gender based social system, searched for their existence in this Dalit literature. As Indu B.C. in an article “Silence Speaks: A study of Bama’s Karukku” defines Dalit literature: Dalit literature is a writing that parallels the revolutionary movement spear headed by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar with a view to bring about psychosocial transformations in the minds of the oppressed. Dalit literature, a strong oppositional voice only raises important question but also narrate the ability of the people at the margins to fight against all odds and injustices. (The Criterion 1)