Subaltern Consciousness in Vijay Tendulkar's Play Sakharam Binder

Abstract

Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder represents the consciousness of peasant workers as it explores the saga of subaltern character Sakharam Binder, who through his benevolent charity for other subaltern caste off women--Laxmi and Champa and a Muslim, Dawood by giving them shelter. They are all are peasant workers. But as Gramsci and Spivak argue, there is the politics behind speaking or working for the subalterns, which suggests the central and serious issue about the liberation of the subalternity exist for centuries. Sakharam is a man who does not care about ethics and morality, and professes not to believe in "outdated" social codes and conventional marriage traditions followed by elite groups. Sakharam who on the one hand pretends as if he is giving a very benevolent support to the subaltern people, but behind the bush he exploits sexually and expresses deep-rooted oppressive power of the patriarchy and elitism over the subaltern women. However, to a greater extent, this play can be important space for critical discourse about subaltern studies.