Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings

The present genre of Indian literary writings on untouchability encompasses fictional or semi-autobiographical narratives produced by writers who are mostly untouchables themselves, and the more widely-accepted of such writings are those that solely focus on the oppression of the untouchable communi...

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Main Authors:	Indrani Ramachandran, Ruzy Suliza Hashim
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit UKM 2014
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/1/5285-18827-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-7776
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-77762016-12-14T06:45:09Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/ Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings Indrani Ramachandran, Ruzy Suliza Hashim, The present genre of Indian literary writings on untouchability encompasses fictional or semi-autobiographical narratives produced by writers who are mostly untouchables themselves, and the more widely-accepted of such writings are those that solely focus on the oppression of the untouchable community. In the process of privileging oppression, these writers often fail to provide a balanced portrayal of the community‟s ethnic characteristics. The key concerns of this paper, therefore, are to analyse the motivation of untouchable writers who choose to stereotype their people as “the victimized other”, and to bring to the forefront works of writers who have made conscious efforts to infuse aspects of ethnicity, culture and rituals into their writings. This paper analyses two short stories on untouchability written in Tamil and translated into English, The Binding Vow (2009/2012) by Imayam, and Eardrum (2000/2012) by Azhakiya Periyavan, with the aim of investigating the writers‟ stand on the ethnic and ritualistic culture of their people. The findings of this study reveal that the writers‟ privileging of oppression over ethnic issues reflects a strong influence of Dalit ideologies, and that despite such a pattern, there are those who continue to employ culture and rituals as tools to empower their people. The study also implies that the ethnicity and rituals of the untouchable community deserve equal attention as the portrayal of oppression in Indian literary writings on untouchability, and that by privileging oppression, writers are misleading their people into abandoning and rejecting their true ethnic and cultural identity. Penerbit UKM 2014 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/1/5285-18827-1-PB.pdf Indrani Ramachandran, and Ruzy Suliza Hashim, (2014) Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 14 (3). pp. 243-253. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/index
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	The present genre of Indian literary writings on untouchability encompasses fictional or semi-autobiographical narratives produced by writers who are mostly untouchables themselves, and the more widely-accepted of such writings are those that solely focus on the oppression of the untouchable community. In the process of privileging oppression, these writers often fail to provide a balanced portrayal of the community‟s ethnic characteristics. The key concerns of this paper, therefore, are to analyse the motivation of untouchable writers who choose to stereotype their people as “the victimized other”, and to bring to the forefront works of writers who have made conscious efforts to infuse aspects of ethnicity, culture and rituals into their writings. This paper analyses two short stories on untouchability written in Tamil and translated into English, The Binding Vow (2009/2012) by Imayam, and Eardrum (2000/2012) by Azhakiya Periyavan, with the aim of investigating the writers‟ stand on the ethnic and ritualistic culture of their people. The findings of this study reveal that the writers‟ privileging of oppression over ethnic issues reflects a strong influence of Dalit ideologies, and that despite such a pattern, there are those who continue to employ culture and rituals as tools to empower their people. The study also implies that the ethnicity and rituals of the untouchable community deserve equal attention as the portrayal of oppression in Indian literary writings on untouchability, and that by privileging oppression, writers are misleading their people into abandoning and rejecting their true ethnic and cultural identity.
format	Article
author	Indrani Ramachandran, Ruzy Suliza Hashim,
spellingShingle	Indrani Ramachandran, Ruzy Suliza Hashim, Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings
author_facet	Indrani Ramachandran, Ruzy Suliza Hashim,
author_sort	Indrani Ramachandran,
title	Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings
title_short	Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings
title_full	Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings
title_fullStr	Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings
title_full_unstemmed	Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings
title_sort	revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings
publisher	Penerbit UKM
publishDate	2014
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7776/1/5285-18827-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:50:35Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:50:35Z
_version_	1777406192868392960

Revalorising paraiyar ethnic identity through literary writings

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