Kusuma Satyanarayana is an Indian scholar, editor and anti-caste activist. [1] He is a Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies, English and Foreign Languages University (EFL-U), Hyderabad, and concentrates in the burgeoning field of Dalit studies. [2]
Satyanarayana earned an M.A. and M.Phil from the University of Hyderabad, and his Ph.D. from English and Foreign Languages University.
Active in the Andhra student movement during the 1990s, he is the founder-general secretary of Kula Nirmoolana Porata Samiti (Forum for Caste Annihilation). He also edited the magazine Kulanirmoolana. His research interests are in the field of Dalit studies and literary history.
An anthology of Dalit writing that he co-edited, with Susie Tharu, The Exercise of Freedom (2013) is prescribed as core text for the University of Kerala’s course on Dalit writing. [3]
He is the co-editor with Susie Tharu of No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South Asia, Dossier 1: Tamil and Malayalam (Penguin Books, 2011) and From those Stubs Steel Nibs are Sprouting: New Dalit Writing from South Asia, Dossier 2: Kannada and Telugu (HarperCollins India, 2013). These books have been described as offering "a complex portrait of contemporary dalit politics that spurs readers on to make their own discoveries and assessments" [4]
Reviewing Alphabet in Sight in The Hindu the cultural critic Pramod K Nayar writes, "No Alphabet in Sight might well be the alternative history of Indian literature we have been waiting for... The significance of this volume lies in its potential to change the way we read Indian cultural history. It reveals so many speaking subjects, and voices that are powerful but rarely petulant, poignant yet polemical. It places upon us, the readers, an ethical demand, to respond in certain ways, for there are no neutral ways of reading these texts (just as there are no neutral ways of reading Holocaust narratives)." [5]
S. Joseph is an Indian poet writing in Malayalam in the post modern era. He was born in the village of Pattithanam near Ettumanoor. He has published a number of works on contemporary issues that affect the common man and also the ones who toil in the lower rungs of the society. His poetry collection Uppante Kooval Varakkunnu won the 2012 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.
The Dalit Panthers is a social organisation that seeks to combat caste discrimination. It was led by a group of Mahar writers and poets, including Raja Dhale, Namdeo Dhasal, and J. V. Pawar in some time between the second and the third semester of 1972. The movement's heyday lasted from the 1970s through the 1980s, and it was later joined by many Dalit-Buddhist activists.
Dalit literature is literature written by Dalits about their lives. Dalit literature exists in several Indian languages, including Marathi, Bangla, Hindi, Kannada, Punjabi, Sindhi, and Tamil, through narratives such as poems, short stories, and autobiographies, which stood out due to their stark portrayal of reality and the Dalit political scene.
Azhagiya Periyavan is the pen name of C.Aravindan, a modern Tamil writer and journalist. He writes about Dalit issues.
Bama , also known as Bama Faustina Soosairaj, is a Tamil Dalit feminist, teacher and novelist. Her autobiographical novel Karukku (1992) chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christian women in Tamil Nadu. She subsequently wrote two more novels, Sangati (1994) and Vanmam (2002) along with three collections of short stories: Kusumbukkaran (1996) and Oru Tattvum Erumaiyum (2003), 'Kandattam'(2009). In addition to this, she has written twenty short stories.
Kotiganahalli Ramaiah is a Dalit poet, playwright, philosopher and cultural activist from Karnataka, India. He is one of the founders of Aadima, an institution that experiments with children's theatre, film, education and caste consciousness.
Gogu Shyamala is a Telugu-language writer and women's activist and a prominent Dalit.
Susie Tharu is an Indian writer, publisher, professor, editor and women's activist. Throughout her career and the founding of several women's activist organizations, Tharu has helped to highlight those issues in India.
Siddalingaiah, was an Indian poet, playwright, and Dalit activist, writing in the Kannada language. He is credited with starting the Dalit-Bandaya movement in Kannada and with starting the genre of Dalit writing. He is one of the founders of the Dalita Sangharsh Samiti along with B. Krishnappa.
Dalit studies is a new field of research in India which looks at the problem of marginalised groups, namely Dalits, tribals, religious minorities, women from excluded groups, denotified tribes, physically challenged and similar groups in economic, social and political spheres. Dalit studies scholars also undertake research on the nature and forms of discrimination and social exclusion faced by marginalised groups.
P.Sivakami is an Indian Dalit-Feminist writer, former IAS officer and activist predominantly writing in Tamil. Her notable works include Pazhayana Kazhidalum, Kurruku Vettu, Nalum Thodarum and Kadaisi Mandhar. Apart from being one of the most prominent Dalit novelists in India, she has also constantly voiced her opinions on contemporary social and political issues. An author of six novels and more than 60 short stories. P. Sivakami has regularly kept in touch with editing and has actively contributed to the monthly magazine Puthiya Kodangi since 1995. She is a significant presence on social media through her Twitter account.
Madara Chennaiah was an 11th-century Kannada vachana poet and saint who was a cobbler by profession. He is widely regarded as the first Vachanakara in India who lived in the reign of Western Chalukyas.
Raj Gauthaman is a leading Tamil intellectual who pioneered new approaches to Tamil cultural and literary history studies in the late 20th century. He has authored twenty research works that analyze the development of Tamil culture from ancient to modern periods with a focus on subaltern Dalit perspectives. He has also written three novels and translated Sanskrit works into Tamil. Raj Gauthaman was a part of the core group of writers and thinkers, many of whom were Dalits, which shaped the thinking of the influential journal, Nirapirikai in the early 1990s. He worked in academia before retiring in 2011.
D. Ravikumar is an Indian Tamil intellectual, writer, lawyer politician and an anti-caste activist. He was the editor of the magazine, Nirapirikai. Nirapirikai inspired several new writers in the 1990s in Tamil Nadu. He is an Ambedkarite. Ravikumar is the current Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from Viluppuram and member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Imayam is an Indian Tamil-language novelist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, He has seven novels, seven short story collections and a novella to his credit. He is closely associated with the Dravidian Movement and its politics and considered as one of the leading writers from South India. He is the recipient of the honorary Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Selladha Panam in 2020. He is also the first Tamil writer to receive the Kuvempu Rashtriya Puraskar National Award (2022) for bringing new sensibilites to Tamil literature through his writings. Noting the writer's proclivity to Dravidian ideals, the Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K.Stalin called him "an ideologue donned in black and red". He lauded Imayam calling him a "proactive writer" in the Dravidian movement.
Aravind Malagatti is a prominent Indian poet and writer in Kannada-language. He is the author of more than forty books which include poetry collections, short fiction collections, a novel, essay-collections, critical works and folklore studies. He is the recipient of the prestigious Ambedkar Fellowship Award from the Government of Karnataka. His Government Brahamana, the first Dalit autobiography in Kannada, has won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award. Apart from these, the Honorary Award of Karnataka Sahitya Academy was conferred on him for his total contribution to Kannada literature. He is appointed as Chairman for Kannada Sahitya Academy.
Prof. Basappa Krishnappa (1938–1997) was one of the pioneers of the Dalit literary movement in Kannada and the founder president of Dalit Sangarsha Samiti, later it is named as the radical Dalit advocacy group. He taught at the Sir M. Vishweshwariah College in Bhadravathi for thirty years before retiring as principal. He is acknowledged as an important literary critic in Kannada.
H. Govindaiah is a prominent Dalit poet writing in Kannada. He was associated with Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) and was the publisher of Panchama, a fortnightly magazine of DSS for ten years until 1985. He has worked as a lecturer at Mysore University and the Karnataka Open University and was Deputy Registrar of the latter for two years.
Ajay Navaria is the author of two collections of short stories, Patkatha aur Anya Kahaniyan (2006) and Yes Sir (2012), and a novel, Udhar ke Log (2009). He has been associated with the premier Hindi literary journal, Hans. Navaria is a professor in the Hindi department at Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi. Unclaimed Terrain (2013), an anthology of his short stories translated into English, has been critically acclaimed.
Bandaya movement is a progressive [rebel] literary movement in Kannada started by D. R. Nagaraj and Shudra Shrinivas in 1974. It promoted socially-committed literature and sought to make poetry a weapon against social and economic injustice. "Let poetry be a sword! The dear friend who responds to the pain of people!" ["Khadgavaagali kavya! Janara novige midiva pranamitra!"], was the slogan for the movement coined by D.R. Nagaraj.