Crafting Dalit Consciousness in the Select Short Stories of Omprakash Valmiki

This article encapsulates the dynamics of Dalit consciousness based on the close analysis of the three Dalittranslated short stories “Amma”, “Where can Satish Go?” and “Eclipse” written by Omprakash Valmiki. At the theoretical frameworks of casteism, Dalit and upper caste feminism, Deconstruction, and subalternity, this research analyses cognitive revolution, politics of gender division, upper caste Dalit discourse, patriarchy, untouchability, sexuality, and resistance reflected in the stories above. In the narrative “Amma”, a self-defiant and bold female Dalit character’s struggles are disclosed with empathy and righteousness. She fights against upper caste sexual abuse and poverty which is a bar to the all-round development of the Dalit communal space. A revolutionary feeling for change is embraced in the text “Where Can Satish Go?”. It negotiates revolutionary consciousness for the metamorphosis of the unprivileged and distressed Dalit life through the medium of education. In “Eclipse” it is argued that an upper-caste married woman who is oppressed by patriarchal hegemony can be identified as a Dalit. She involved herself in illicit sex with a Dalit man for pregnancy to safeguard herself from social inferiority in a gender-biased society. However, these three stories owed to Valmiki are successful as a medium to generate consciousness.