The White Dalit: A novel that speaks about casteism

INN
Chennai, December 1:
The White Dalit, the debut novel of veteran journalist Saravanan brings into limelight the issue of casteism bothering our society.

The issue though not visible directly, yet is present innately in many of us.

The White DalitCasteism perhaps even determines what kind of life an individual has to live, and, these are the points The White Dalit chooses to highlight.

The author of the novel claims to have seen how predominant is the issue of casteism when he went on research for his first novel.

‘I was on research in interior parts of Tamil Nadu to gather information for The White Dalit, and that was where I saw what relevance casteism holds for people, and, how it influenced their lives.’

A person of a lower caste could be friends with an individual of a higher caste.

They would be cordial to each other, but that does not mean things cannot go wrong between them.

Casteism could still springup between them, often one who belongs to lower caste often becomes target of vulgar jokes.

The White DalitAmong the closest of friends, one from lower caste can often be made to do chores that are considered mean. Also, lower caste means one could even become victim of someone else’s cruel intentions.

‘I want to highlight all these points through The White Dalit,’ says the author. Pandurangan, the chief protagonist of The White Dalit too becomes a target of wrong doers.

The White Dalit is set in the background of rural belt of Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu and shows how Pandurangan becomes a target of anger of his fellow villages for no fault of his.

The chief protagonist of The White Dalit is friends with Mani who is said to be from an upper caste. Mani and his classmates take part in a arrack party.

They die after consuming poisoned liquor, though Pandurangan has no knowledge of arrack party, he becomes a target of villagers’ anger who burn with the desire of revenge.

Somewhere in these whole gamut of things, the caste he belongs to seems to have become the reason for all the trouble he falls into.

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The hero of The White Dalit sees a friend in Vajravelu who claims to be a good lawyer. Vajravelu promises to help Pandurangan, but soon turns into a traitor.

It has to be seen how the hero of The White Dalit battles all the adversity and comes out of it.

There is a lot to be written when it comes to the issues bothering the lower strata of the society.

The most popular among them is the love affairs between Dalit boys and girls of upper caste, though they can become good plots for the novel, the author consciously chooses to focus on the life of dalits instead.

Saravanan sees a good reason behind it. Much is written about the love affairs. ‘But I have decided to focus on the life of dalits for The White Dalit as it is of a greater relevance.’

What about the concept behind that lies behind the title The White Dalit?

In India, either north or southern part of the country, most of the darker skinned people come from less dominant communities.

The dark complexion is owing to the fact that they have to work all day and therefore are less attractive.

What adds to the suffering of persons from lower strata of the society is that they mostly belong to poor family backgrounds.

However, persons with fairer complexion are perceived as powerful and strong, as they both are wealthy and belong to dominant communities.

But, the protagonist of the novel who is dark skinned, suffers from inferiority complex.

But, in the final stages, he breaks out of the complex and terms that white is not a symbol of power, but a symbol of purity.

He offers a statement that his heart is pure as white, and hence he is  ‘The White Dalit’.

The author also feels it is apt to highlight the evils of the caste system through The White Dalit.

There are many dalit biographies in India, which contain the factual details of a person’s pain and suffering.

But, a dalit novel is different, it has story, characters, plot, theme and setting.

Besides, a Dalit novel removes the repititive and monotony of the biography and adds more emphasis to entertainment and expresses the emotions of the character and adds more dimensions to it.

Most importantly it gives creative freedom to highlight evils of the caste system. The White Dalit is a seven year old dream project of the author.

The plot construction for the novel began only after a good research work in the rural belt of Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu.

The White Dalit initially may seem to be much similar to a detective novel where there is strong plot involving someone crime that victimises someone and the effort to bring the real culprit into limelight.

The White DalitHowever as the plot in The White Dalit moves ahead, one would gradually be exposed to the intricacies of the caste system, as to how these complexities can affect our life.

Though sometimes, merely being a part of a dominant caste could provide immunity, however, when the intensions are nefarious, perhaps there could be little or no immunity.

That is the point The White Dalit wishes to drive home.

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