Dalit and Social Media
Dalits and New Media: Towards a Progressive Social Discourse
Introduction
Communication in India is complex and complicate in tune with the stratification and hierarchical order of Indian casteist society. Casteism, being the most complex and discriminatory social system of the world, vehemently denied the right of Dalits to have education. Thus letters and literature were inaccessible for Dalits for about three millennia; even though they kept their oral tradition alive. Things were changed not because of any positive change of attitude of the dominant caste groups of India; but, ironically, because of the intervention of the western missionaries. It was Christian missionaries, who wanted to produce the Bible in the several languages of the country, who introduced printing and publishing in India1. News magazines, news papers, books and pamphlets were published by the missionaries. Local dominant caste people took part as assistants.
Even though the colonial power and its myriad ways of implementation have been severely criticised, it was a blessing in disguise for the Dalits in India. When the missionaries, especially the protestant missionaries, shifted their focus of their mission work and conversion to the vulnerable communities in India, doors were open for the Dalits to access education. In a sense, Dalits were able to effectively use one power (colonial) to overpower the other power (casteist dominance) to a certain extend. It is an astonishing fact that there are number of eminent writers among the Dalits even though they are in the third or fourth generation literates. While the writers from Dalit background emerged as a force in the last decade, hindrances were umpteen from the casteist Indian media. They are branded as ‘Dalit writers’ who write ‘Dalit literature’. This tokenism in the field of literature have been used as part of the ploy to suppress the emergence of the literature of the Dalits as a rebellion against the casteist social
Introduction
Communication in India is complex and complicate in tune with the stratification and hierarchical order of Indian casteist society. Casteism, being the most complex and discriminatory social system of the world, vehemently denied the right of Dalits to have education. Thus letters and literature were inaccessible for Dalits for about three millennia; even though they kept their oral tradition alive. Things were changed not because of any positive change of attitude of the dominant caste groups of India; but, ironically, because of the intervention of the western missionaries. It was Christian missionaries, who wanted to produce the Bible in the several languages of the country, who introduced printing and publishing in India1. News magazines, news papers, books and pamphlets were published by the missionaries. Local dominant caste people took part as assistants.
Even though the colonial power and its myriad ways of implementation have been severely criticised, it was a blessing in disguise for the Dalits in India. When the missionaries, especially the protestant missionaries, shifted their focus of their mission work and conversion to the vulnerable communities in India, doors were open for the Dalits to access education. In a sense, Dalits were able to effectively use one power (colonial) to overpower the other power (casteist dominance) to a certain extend. It is an astonishing fact that there are number of eminent writers among the Dalits even though they are in the third or fourth generation literates. While the writers from Dalit background emerged as a force in the last decade, hindrances were umpteen from the casteist Indian media. They are branded as ‘Dalit writers’ who write ‘Dalit literature’. This tokenism in the field of literature have been used as part of the ploy to suppress the emergence of the literature of the Dalits as a rebellion against the casteist social