Subaltern Consciousness in Vijay Tendulkar's Play Sakharam Binder
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Central Department of English Kirtipur, Kathmandu
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in "outdated" social codes and conventional marriage traditions followed by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.