Namdeo Dhasal: A Radical Voice of Dalit Protest

Abstract

Namdeo Dhasal's voice of Dalit protest emerged onto the Maharashtrian literary scene in the early 1970s and succeeded in fracturing Marathi literature's tranquility while giving birth to a political movement for Dalit voice. Born in 1949 into the Mahar caste, Dhasal is the only Dalit poet to have received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the country's apex literary institution, the Sahitya Akademi. Though a Mumbai poet whose poetic sensibility emerges from the underbelly of the city — its menacing, unplumbed Netherlands — the vitality and vivacity of his expression is so sublime and exquisite that he deserves to be ranked among the radical voices of protest in India. This paper examines Dhasal's poetry through the lens of Dalit consciousness, tracing his engagement with caste discrimination, urban poverty, the politics of Dalit Panther, and his abiding reverence for Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.