“Malgudi is Hindu upper-caste pan-India, resistant to change, eternal and immutable-very different say from Maryganj in Phanishwar Renu’s Maila Anchal (Hindi:1954) or Purnea in Satinath Bhaduri’s Jagori (Bangla:1946), both in north Bihar, variegated in terms of caste and subcaste, language and dialect, and in the throes of constant turmoil.”Īnd thus, a bird’s eye view of the “Indian” canon will show only literature that can erase national differences, plotting only the majority on the map. In her essay “Anxiety of Indianess”, Meenakshi Mukherjee has this to say about homogenized “Indian” stories: Take for example the wildly popular ‘Malgudi Days’ written by R K Narayanan. The representation of an “Indian” literature is depressingly one sided. This article will review the book’s perspectives on three issues related to Dalit writing. Thus, it is essential to note that while reading Dalit literature, one must not erase their differences or seek to place them on the same plane as empowered, high-culture writing. Dr B R Ambedkar rightly said that treating as equal those who are not equal only increases inequality. Also, writing is an exercise to create, to define and to find identities of a Dalit community. Writing then transcends just being a creative act and becomes a space for socio-political campaigning. In this space, Dalit authors find a way to express themselves, their identity and their community through writing. It is interesting that the name of the book is The Exercise of Freedom. Indeed, one of the ways for a Dalit community to represent themselves would be through the empowering act of writing. It would seem that even by the year 2013, the year the book The Exercise of Freedom written by Susie Tharu and K Satyanarayana was published, there still exists a disparity among Indian writers with respect to the caste politics involved in writing and publishing. I wrote this almost three years ago and I’m finally publishing it on this blog. This is an article on the book The Exercise of Freedom written by Susie Tharu and K Satyanarayana.

The Exercise of Freedom by Susie Tharu