Abstract
Though the development of the Indian nation pivots around the ethos and doctrine of Unity in Diversity, it has a dearth of inclusivity. Indian society is indeed caste-centric in which the upper-caste hegemony operates on the lower-caste community in all spheres of life. Dalits or untouchables occupy the most subservient stratum in the Hindu caste system and despite constitutional laws to protect them; they still endure extensive discrimination and humiliation. Against this background, Dalit writers attempt to foreground the aspirations and dreams of the stigmatized section of the casteist society with full of pathos often camouflaged in anger and frustration. The present paper will focus on The Outcaste (Akkarmashi), a representative Dalit Autobiography by Sharankumar Limbale that narrates his anguish, exploitation and social injustice encountered through his birth, childhood, education and his marriage. Born out of wedlock between a high-caste Patil and a low-caste Mahar woman, he was doubly marginalized- for being an untouchable as well as an illegitimate child. The paper strives to explore multiple paradigms of the abhorrent social order inflicted by the caste system through Dalit lens. It will analyze how Limbale successfully begins to resist the repressive social structures owing to his education to liberate himself and his community from caste-based oppression. This paper further aims to illuminate how Limbale is unsettled and insecure about his social position till the very end of his self-narrative despite his endless resistance against the scourge of untouchability.
Keywords: Autobiography, Caste System, Illegitimacy, Repression, Resistance, Untouchability.