It is not new in India to have Dalits and Muslims engage politically for social empowerment. Foll... more It is not new in India to have Dalits and Muslims engage politically for social empowerment. Following the partition of India, their political engagement is largely slackened. Similarly, the unity among Dalits and Muslim peasants in late colonial Bengal was stronger than it is today. Both sections of society used to share a similar political interest. Several historians suggest that Hindu Dalits in late colonial Bengal were associated with Muslim peasants as their social allies. According to multiple historians, the disparity between Muslims and untouchable tenants was potentially less than that between untouchables and upper-class landlords. During the colonial era, untouchables and Muslims formed political alliances to oppose the dominant upper-class Hindu landlords. A River Called Titash portrays a low-caste Hindu fishing community called the Malo in late colonial Bengal and their friendly coexistence with other communities, especially with Muslim peasants. The author, as a member of the Malo community, ethnographically elaborates on the story of their lives, including births, marriages and deaths. In every aspect of their lives, there is a solid anguish against caste discrimination that pervades. By emphasizing the social engagement of the Malo with Muslim peasants, this research article aims to examine the type of social alliance that exists between them and how these two groups view each other as social allies. Additionally, it can serve as an example of the contemporary social position of Dalits in late colonial Bengal and their political alliances with Muslims.
The diseased body needs a voice for its suffering. Speech has the power to create an understandin... more The diseased body needs a voice for its suffering. Speech has the power to create an understanding compared to silence. Speaking publicly of illness is felt to be a new necessity. Illness is not only a topic of illness narratives but a condition of telling experiences through it. The insights and articulations of other ill people assure us to become aware of their relationship to the world. Understanding each other sensitively after exchanging unique experiences makes the world more humane. In order to construct a new map and an identity of ill people, we need more and more illness narratives and diseased storyteller.
People with disabilities are represented by the so-called "normal" or "ableist" perspectives thro... more People with disabilities are represented by the so-called "normal" or "ableist" perspectives throughout history. As a result, the common understanding of disability is highly misleading. However, in recent decades in India, people with disabilities have begun to represent their own voices and subjective experiences by engaging in various movements and activities. As a part of this, few individuals with disabilities have started writing about their experiences in the forms of life writings such as autobiographies, memoirs and auto-fictions. Hence, this research paper aims to explore how Indian disability life writings serve as a counter-narrative against the misconceptions of disability. It also seeks to examine how these writings expose the process of marginalization providing much-needed voice against the dominant cultural narratives of ableism.
The Criterion: An International Journal in English , 2023
The term, disability encompasses a wide range of physical and cognitive impairments, which have b... more The term, disability encompasses a wide range of physical and cognitive impairments, which have been subject to various negative representations. Throughout history, disability has been regarded as a social stigma and disgrace, prompting a range of societal responses in different cultural settings. Therefore, disability has a culturally constructed meaning and history. While disability should be considered as a subject of inquiry as an epistemic category to counter the process of stigmatization, it has long been overlooked as a subject of epistemic inquiry. Recently, the epoch of disability studies has shaped a noble understanding of disability that challenges the cultural rhetoric of disability. Disability now signifies the process of marginalisation and stigmatisation toward people with disabilities. The meaning generally attributed to disability has been shifting historically and culturally. Hence, the paper seeks to explore the understanding of disability in order to inform the changing meaning of disability and the emergence of disability as an epistemic category to interrogate the process of 'otherness'.
It is not new in India to have Dalits and Muslims engage politically for social empowerment. Foll... more It is not new in India to have Dalits and Muslims engage politically for social empowerment. Following the partition of India, their political engagement is largely slackened. Similarly, the unity among Dalits and Muslim peasants in late colonial Bengal was stronger than it is today. Both sections of society used to share a similar political interest. Several historians suggest that Hindu Dalits in late colonial Bengal were associated with Muslim peasants as their social allies. According to multiple historians, the disparity between Muslims and untouchable tenants was potentially less than that between untouchables and upper-class landlords. During the colonial era, untouchables and Muslims formed political alliances to oppose the dominant upper-class Hindu landlords. A River Called Titash portrays a low-caste Hindu fishing community called the Malo in late colonial Bengal and their friendly coexistence with other communities, especially with Muslim peasants. The author, as a member of the Malo community, ethnographically elaborates on the story of their lives, including births, marriages and deaths. In every aspect of their lives, there is a solid anguish against caste discrimination that pervades. By emphasizing the social engagement of the Malo with Muslim peasants, this research article aims to examine the type of social alliance that exists between them and how these two groups view each other as social allies. Additionally, it can serve as an example of the contemporary social position of Dalits in late colonial Bengal and their political alliances with Muslims.
The diseased body needs a voice for its suffering. Speech has the power to create an understandin... more The diseased body needs a voice for its suffering. Speech has the power to create an understanding compared to silence. Speaking publicly of illness is felt to be a new necessity. Illness is not only a topic of illness narratives but a condition of telling experiences through it. The insights and articulations of other ill people assure us to become aware of their relationship to the world. Understanding each other sensitively after exchanging unique experiences makes the world more humane. In order to construct a new map and an identity of ill people, we need more and more illness narratives and diseased storyteller.
People with disabilities are represented by the so-called "normal" or "ableist" perspectives thro... more People with disabilities are represented by the so-called "normal" or "ableist" perspectives throughout history. As a result, the common understanding of disability is highly misleading. However, in recent decades in India, people with disabilities have begun to represent their own voices and subjective experiences by engaging in various movements and activities. As a part of this, few individuals with disabilities have started writing about their experiences in the forms of life writings such as autobiographies, memoirs and auto-fictions. Hence, this research paper aims to explore how Indian disability life writings serve as a counter-narrative against the misconceptions of disability. It also seeks to examine how these writings expose the process of marginalization providing much-needed voice against the dominant cultural narratives of ableism.
The Criterion: An International Journal in English , 2023
The term, disability encompasses a wide range of physical and cognitive impairments, which have b... more The term, disability encompasses a wide range of physical and cognitive impairments, which have been subject to various negative representations. Throughout history, disability has been regarded as a social stigma and disgrace, prompting a range of societal responses in different cultural settings. Therefore, disability has a culturally constructed meaning and history. While disability should be considered as a subject of inquiry as an epistemic category to counter the process of stigmatization, it has long been overlooked as a subject of epistemic inquiry. Recently, the epoch of disability studies has shaped a noble understanding of disability that challenges the cultural rhetoric of disability. Disability now signifies the process of marginalisation and stigmatisation toward people with disabilities. The meaning generally attributed to disability has been shifting historically and culturally. Hence, the paper seeks to explore the understanding of disability in order to inform the changing meaning of disability and the emergence of disability as an epistemic category to interrogate the process of 'otherness'.
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