Recovering the Subject: Valmiki's Joothan as the Chronicle of Dalit Life
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Central Department of English Kirtipur, Kathmandu
Abstract
This research examines Omprakash Valmiki's Joothan as a tale of domination,
subordination and hegemony imposed upon the lower caste and class in Indian
society. The Hindi word Joothan literally means food left on plate, usually destined
for the garbage pail in a middle class urban home. However, such food would be
characterized as Joothan only if someone else were to eat it. The word carries the
connotation of ritual purity and pollution, because Joothan means polluted.
In Joothan, Omprakash Valmiki deals with the issue of humiliation meted out
of the Dalits by Indian society, no matter where they lived. This humiliation stems
from the fact that Dalit inferiority has gotton embedded in the psyche of the upper
caste, the members of which have developed on extraordinary repertoire of idioms,
symbols and gestures of verbal and physical lenigration of the Dalit over centuries. It
is embedded in the literary and artistic imagination and sensibility of the upper caste.
Joothan stridently asks for the promissory note, joining a chorus of Dalit voice
that are demanding their rightful place under the sun. A manifesto for revolutionary
transformation of society and human consciousness, Joothan confronts it's readers
with difficult questions about their own humanity and invites them to join the
universal project of human liberation.