How are Punjabi Dalits presented in English fiction, especially in novels by upper caste writers?

Besides Khushwant Singh, it is hard to think of another acclaimed English-language novelist from the Punjab region, unless we count writers from Pakistan. Lately, some writers from the state have been trying to fill the gap. Among their works, two recent novels by Indian Punjabi authors stand out for portraying Dalit lives – Rachhpal Sahota’s Chasing Dignity (2023) and Anirudh Kala’s Two and a Half Rivers (2021). Both authors are non-Dalits, but their choice of subject reflects the increasing academic and literary interest in the injustices of the caste system. Outside India, the British writer Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways (2015) was one of the first novels to closely examine casteism within Sikh society.

It’s admirable that Sahota and Kala mention the Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, albeit cursorily, in their books – a feat that even Arundhati Roy did not achieve in her The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017), which featured a Dalit character. As Ruma Sinha suggests in her PhD thesis, Roy’s novels “align themselves with progressive Gandhian philosophy rather than subaltern Ambedkarite politics”. This observation can be extended to much of Indian-English fiction addressing caste discrimination.

Dalits in new Indian writings

Ambedkar’s absence in Indian-English fiction that explores Dalit lives, starting with Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), raises troubling questions. Could mentioning a brilliant...

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