“The Hindus wanted the Vedas which they sent for Vyasa who wasn't a caste Hindu.

The Hindus wanted an Epic and they for Valmiki who was an Untouchable.

The Hindus wanted a constitution and that they sent on behalf of me .” - Ambedkar

A Literature of a society can only express the real life experience and the history of the class of society
and dalit literature is no exception . The contest which are made in history with respect to Dalit
Literature have not been recognised . Dalit writers genuinely carried out the movement started by
Mahatma Phule and Dr. Ambedkar with message , "Don't let your pen be restricted to your own
questions ", to awake , to liberate and to realise that every single human being is equal . Not only have
the Dalit authors penned about the human equality , liberty and fraternity but also highlighted the
positive aspect of Dalit culture and acknowledged various Dalit art forms .

Most of the issues of caste and caste related problems are very prominent in Dalit literature . Dalit
literature , or literature about the Dalits , an oppressed Indian caste under the Indian social organization
, forms an important and distinct a neighborhood of Indian literature .

‘Annihilation of Caste’ is one of 20th century India’s most significant texts, equally relevant to the 21st
century. It needs to be read. And reread.

B.R. Ambedkar's passion for the abolition of untouchability and thus the eradication of caste is as
relevant today because it had been 75 years ago.

Caste system has been a glaring , tragic fact of life ever since Manu Smriti divided the society into four
castes - Brahmin , Kshatriya , Vaishya and Shudra . Although condemned for oppressing and exploiting
the lower caste , especially Shudras , the system has been justified as sanctioned by the scriptures by
interested parties in spite of several social reform movements initiated in the twentieth century by
Mahatma Gandhi ( he called the untouchables Harijans ; now they are called Dalits ) and B.R. Ambedkar ,
who worked for social equality during their lives . Abolition of untouchability and ending discrimination
on the basis of caste is a fundamental priniciple of the Indian Constitution , yet we find that it still being
practised in various parts of the country , especially in rural areas .

According to Ambedkar, worse and unparalleled, the Hindu Dharmashastras gave legitimacy to the
doctrine of Chaturvanya and thus the category structure . The infamous Manusmriti dehumanised the
Sudras and untouchables, ruled the Hindu psyche for many years and created the simplest obstacle to
any serious attempt at eradicating the category structure . This made Ambedkar publically burn the
Manusmriti on the occasion of his historical Mahad Satyagraha in 1927 for establishing the right of
untouchables to drink the water of the Chawdar tank in Mahad town in Maharashtra.

Caste prevents Hindus from forming a true society or nation .

Ambedkar says that the most important thing to remember is that Hindu society is a Myth . He says that
the name itself was given by the Muslims to the natives so that they could distinguish themselves from
them. The word Hindu does not occur in sanskrit manuscripts before the invasions of Muslims . And it is
because they did not feel the need of one common name , "because they had no conception of their
having constituted the community ." And therefore Ambedkar argues that Hindu society does not exist
as such .

It castes only mingles with the members of its own , "but it Prescribes its own distinctive dress . "
Ambedkar says that a perfect Hindu "must be just like the rats living in his house , refusing to possess
any confact with others ."

He argues that there are many Indians who are not permitted to admit that Indians are not a nation by
their own patriotism . Such people have insisted that there is fundamental unity that underlies the
apparent diversity . But even so it is not possible for one to conclude that Hindu constitute a society , for
it would be misunderstanding of the essentials that go into the making of the society .

Similarly , the very good example of how caste plays an important role can be seen in Kalyan Rao's
Untouchable Spring originally written in Telugu . Kalyan Rao used tradition of oral storytelling to narrate
the story of generation during which along side the social and cultural lifetime of Dalit their kind also
play a major role . Untouchable Spring is the archetypal story of the Dalit family where the plot is woven
with the socio - cultural history of Dalit community . The story unfolds in Yenalla Dinni , that takes the
readers to the offensive social systems and to the lives of suppressed Dalits .

Plight of Dalit community remained same , although time and context might have changed . Being born
in Dalit family all of them had to face the trial of fire . Dalits still have to fight for the self identity and self
respect in the orthodox social system . The awakened and rational Dalit , start bringing the awareness
through various dance and art forms , songs and play are full of their life experience , which are left
behind by the mainstream art .

Untouchable Spring talks about those arts that try to bring out the pain in the hearts of the Dalits ,
deprived from human right and self respect as human being in the society .

To conclude we can say that , It is the cult of rebellion and protest that is at the centre of the dalit
literature . It not only makes the dalit literature possible , but also nurtures it and gives it its
revolutionary power . As the name suggests , the dalit literature tries to give voice and sound to the
unheard and forgotten struggles of the dalits against the oppression of the caste Hindu .