Glorification of Dalit Heroes of 1857 Rebel

The year 1857 especially figures in a major way, where there is a convergence of histories, myths, realities and retelling of the past (Badri Narayan, 2004: 19). There has been an appropriation and a differential interpretation of 1857 here. Given the circumstances which have generated this literature, many of these Dalit writers are attempting to look upon the mutiny as part of their struggle for freedom and portray their histories as the real and comprehensive truth. In this literature, the revolt has taken on the character of a Dalit resistance, where alternative Dalit rebel heroes—some constructed, some exaggerated, some ‘discovered’—are represented as the real symbols of 1857 in Dalit popular nationalist consciousness. In these accounts, the armies of soldiers against the British consist largely of Dalits. The focus of this literature is no longer on the sepoys or the greased cartridges, but on Dalits groaning under foreign oppression. As the famous Dalit poet Bihari Lal Harit says, regarding 1857:

nai, dhobi, kurmi, kachchi/bharbhuje bhaat kumhaar lare.
Lare khak rub mochi dhanak/sab daliton ke parivar lare.
[Barbers, Washermen, Kurmis, Gardners, Grain-parchers, Bards and Potters fought. Cobblers rolling in dust and cotton-carders fought. All Dalit families fought.]

These Dalit narratives of 1857 deploy an impassioned language and are written usually by Dalit men who are not trained historians. These writers are inspired by altogether different sentiments, and their writings reveal the inner dynamics of Dalit politics as well. They are writing history with a mission by claiming a past and using it for the furtherance of their future. One of their purposes in writing inspirational histories of this kind is to stimulate Dalit nationalism, Dalit patriotic sentiment and Dalit pride. They are rewriting history to provide dignity to the Dalits. Thus they say:

dalit upekshit virvaron ka, hoga phir se nav samman, samay chakra ki chaal karti – parivartan ka sabko gyan.
[The neglected Dalit brave warriors will again gain new respect. As time passes, this change will be realised by all.]

Present-day feelings are ascribed to Dalit heroes of 1857, and they are seen as teaching a moral lesson: that the Dalits of today need to emulate the heroic deeds of their past heroes, and fight for their rights. It has an inspirational quality, an effective conviction, that signifies a present political importance. Thus, the present circumstances have made new constructions and hitherto unimaginable imaginings possible for the Dalits. Through 1857, they are also seeking to win acceptance from the wider society by creating and legitimizing a space for themselves within the nationalist narratives.

Dalit histories are not just reinventions of the past or inspirational histories. They also reveal a deep impassioned plea to recognize the unsung heroes of the revolt, who were often illiterate and left no written records. Dalits claim to be overturning the inaccuracies and prejudices of mainstream historiography—be it nationalist, Marxist or Western—by retrieving lost histories. As says one:

yatra-tatra sarvatra milegi, unki gaatha ki charcha.
kintu upekshit veervaron ka—kabhi nahin chapta parcha.
[Here, there and everywhere, you will find discussions on their deeds, but the scorned (Dalit) heroes are never written about in papers]

This literature is representative of a Dalit-imagined nation in search of its own historical narration. However, even in its inspirational and celebratory mode, it has an inherent tension within it, as it constantly grapples with its ambiguous genealogies of 1857 and Dalit relationships to the very character of the Indian nation. It cannot help but denounce certain features of 1857 and it too stresses that Dalits had nothing much to lose in pre-British times, as their condition was miserable even then. It reflects on the high caste biases, partial presentations and prejudices in histories of 1857, and condemns the upper caste Hindus and Indian rulers, who only fought to restore their rule.

It is not possible to talk of a homogeneous Dalit politics or nation. At the same time, it is significant that whether Dalits take an anti- or a pro-1857 stance, the social constructions of the role played by Dalits in 1857 have been changed by the Dalits themselves in tandem with changing social and political conditions in specific historical moments within Dalit communities. The year 1857 provides a moment for negotiation of Dalit identities, where Dalits themselves emerge as subjects involved in self-constitution, recognition and reflection. Their agendas and articulations dramatically depart from, and challenge, conventional histories, presenting a different perspective on 1857. They animate and alter received assumptions, and, as such, revise history. This underscores the disjuncture between a codified view of 1857 and its complex construction by Dalits.

More importantly, the paradoxical Dalit perceptions of 1857 signify the genealogies of ambiguous nationalism, where the Dalits play with restrictive lineages of historical pasts, from their own viewpoint. The contradictory politics of exclusion and inclusion, censure and celebration show that Dalits wish to be a part of the nation and yet cannot be. Dalits swing in their stances on 1857 because of their political compulsions about domains of power and nationalist assertions on the one hand and their autonomy and resistance to a dominant and hegemonic nation on the other. Their dilemmas not only reflect their wish to be integrated into the heroic deeds of 1857, but also to have their distinct domain. They hope to claim 1857 but can never fully do so. Their discourse is thus marked by complicated, shifting and selective appropriations, in which they can only have an ambivalent, incomplete, partial and fragmentary relationship with 1857.