Foregrounding the Snake Charmers and Dalit Issues: A Study of Sapua Kela (The Snake Charmer) by Ramachandra Behera and Sapua (The Snake Charmer) by Kalindi Charana Panigrahi

The present scenario makes it quite conspicuous that our society still grapples with many pressing issues in this 21st century, which hugely problematize the existence of human beings. Inspite of all the endeavours, we have failed utterly to protect the interest of the Dalits. Literature, being a mirror reflection of society has been striving relentlessly to address various issues confronted by the so-called Dalits through various literary outputs. In this respect, Odia literature does not fall behind. Many of the Odia litterateurs have made sincere efforts to foreground Dalit issues in their writings. Such laudable efforts of Odia writers have been instrumental in bringing about certain changes in society over the years. The main apogee of this paper is to interpret two of the Odia short stories, Sapua Kela by Ramachandra Behera and Sapua by Kalindi Charana Panigrahi with a view to examine the ways Dalit snake charmers have been represented.