Marking the boundaries of a new literary identity: The assertion of ‘dalit consciousness’ in dalit literary criticism

Through your literary creations cleanse the prescribed values of life and culture. Do not limit your objectives. Remove the darkness in villages by the light of your pen. Do not forget that in our country the world of the Dalits and the ignored classes is vast. Get to know intimately their pain and sorrow, and try through your literature to bring progress to their lives. True humanity resides there. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Introduction: In just the last few years, scholarly attention to the subject of Dalit literature in India has increased almost as dramatically as the recent surge in the production of Dalit literature across India. The first significant example of Dalit writing in English translation appeared in Orient Longman's anthology of the literature of the Dalit Panthers, Poisoned Bread (Dangle 1992), and though for almost a decade afterwards there was no significant publication of Dalit literary texts outside of India, save for the lifelong work of scholars such as Eleanor Zelliot and Gail Omvedt, the dearth of Western access to Dalit texts and scholarly attention paid to them has recently turned around. English translations of Dalit literature now abound, thanks to a surge in interest by academic publishing houses in India and abroad as well as the rise of specialty publishing houses such as Navayana whose entire catalog focuses on matters of caste in literature and society.