Papers by Purnachandra Naik
Economic and Political Weekly, 2016
By writing in a “Dalit style of language,” taking recourse to oral tradition, the Dalit woman eli... more By writing in a “Dalit style of language,” taking recourse to oral tradition, the Dalit woman elides and invents words, breaks the syntactic structure to express the Dalit world, thereby countering the hegemony of the upper-caste/upper-class language which seeks to impose order and obedience.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2016
Self-expression in the form of autobiographies by Dalits endeavours to expose the hierarchical so... more Self-expression in the form of autobiographies by Dalits endeavours to expose the hierarchical sociocultural space that subjugates Dalits to the
margins, in the literal as well as metaphorical sense. As injustice and violence are endemic in Dalit life, contestation and confrontation are synchronous in the Dalits’ response to the same.
Book Reviews by Purnachandra Naik
The Book Review, 2024
Stories defamiliarize and invite us to read the world differently. But more importantly, they nud... more Stories defamiliarize and invite us to read the world differently. But more importantly, they nudge us to feel it sensuously absorbing its many shades. This is the guiding light that sets off J Devika's translation of thirteen Malayalam short stories which illuminate contemporary Kerala beyond the archaic juxtaposition of the region with higher literacy rate and hyped model of development. Lifeless data and statistics-the fuel for social sciences scholarship-with the predilection to quantify social reality run the risk of reducing it to misleading tropes. J Devika insists that 'literature alone may capture social processes in all their complexities [and] the Malayali society is best documented, in my view, in the works of Kerala's literary writers' (p. x). As such, this compilation aims to cast a spotlight on contemporary Kerala. Drawing on her unique positionality as a feminist, social scientist, and literary translator, she frames each story with a brief introduction, laying out the contexts and background which are strung with real-life events and anecdotes as she dispenses with the distracting footnotes.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2021
"Moustache", a scathing commentary on Brahminical ritual purity, tells the story of a Dalit prota... more "Moustache", a scathing commentary on Brahminical ritual purity, tells the story of a Dalit protagonist with the audacity for bodily grooming and the consequences that ensue in Kerala society in early 20th century.
The Standpoint, 2020
Laughter, in essence, has always been a ‘serious’ matter. As a universal form of human behaviour,... more Laughter, in essence, has always been a ‘serious’ matter. As a universal form of human behaviour, it has many facets and functions. Depending upon the contexts, laughing along/with or laughing at/about are symbolically charged gestures that cement, subvert, and/or function as shock absorbers of the existing order of hierarchies and the attendant discontents in the society. Unnamati Syama Sundar, the Dalit cartoonist-scholar unpicks the intricate and underlying grammar of laughter in his book 'No Laughing Matter:..'
Economic and Political Weekly, 2019
Dalit memoir writing as a potent genre of self-expression can be broadly affixed to certain leitm... more Dalit memoir writing as a potent genre of self-expression can be broadly affixed to certain leitmotifs. Yashica Dutt's memoir, however, adds a somewhat different note to the polyphony of Dalit life-writings. Nonetheless, the 'monster of caste' that Dr B R Ambedkar presciently warned about is never far away from the narrative frame of the memoir.
The Book Review, 2019
The Tamil Dalit woman writer Bama has been a phenomenal name in the contemporary Dalit literary t... more The Tamil Dalit woman writer Bama has been a phenomenal name in the contemporary Dalit literary terrain. Her recently published book 'Just One Word', a compilation of fifteen short stories heralds a new chapter in her literary life. The stories ferry the readers into the quotidian travails yet spirited lives of the rural folks, the schools as well as urban settings, each of them building upon themes such as (evolving) caste practices,
patriarchy, pedagogy and social evils like female foeticide.
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Papers by Purnachandra Naik
margins, in the literal as well as metaphorical sense. As injustice and violence are endemic in Dalit life, contestation and confrontation are synchronous in the Dalits’ response to the same.
Book Reviews by Purnachandra Naik
patriarchy, pedagogy and social evils like female foeticide.
margins, in the literal as well as metaphorical sense. As injustice and violence are endemic in Dalit life, contestation and confrontation are synchronous in the Dalits’ response to the same.
patriarchy, pedagogy and social evils like female foeticide.