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I SEEK TO EXAMINE THE FORMATION OF THE CATEGORY OF TELUGU Dalit literature in the 1990s. I suggest that it is through the establishment of a new set of Dalit social and cultural organizations, forums, and small journals that Dalit writers have shaped the new category of Dalit literature. Mapping the consolidation of the Dalit community as a distinct social group in the context of the Dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh in the 1980s and 1990s, I further argue that the category of Dalit literature was conceptualized as an oppositional category to the dominant modem form, revolutionary literature. I will present some of the debates between Dalit critics and liberal /leftist critics in order to show how the former highlighted the failure of the revolutionary writers to represent Dalit life. I conclude by suggesting that Dalit critics posit a new politics of caste in the Telugu literary domain. I will draw on debates on Dalit literature and poetry and a few Telugu Dalit poems to illustrate my arguments.
New Spaces and New Voices
In the 1990s, Dalits formed a set of new organizations in the social, political, and cultural domains. Dalit Mahasabha is one such important social organization that emerged with an agenda of mass mobilization against caste discrimination, atrocities against Dalits, and other issues. Established in the wake of the Karamchedu massacre of Dalits,1 it brought together a group of Dalit intellectuals, activists, and students from various political formations.2 Originating in the coastal Andhra area, it soon expanded into a state-level organization with branches in the Rayalaseema, North Andhra, and Telangana regions. Several Ambedkar youth organizations were established throughout the state. In 1993, Dalit writers and intellectuals, along with some Backward-Caste intellectuals, formed Dalit Rachayitala Kalakarula Ikya Vedika (Darakame).3 Several other small Dalit student and youth forums were established during this phase - examples of these short-lived forums include the Samata Volunteer Force and the Satya Sodhak Intellectual Forum.4 The Dalit movement took a political turn with the formation of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Almost all of the leaders of Dalit Mahasabha and other Dalit organizations joined the BSP on the eve of the 1994 Assembly elections. However, the BSP failed to consolidate in Andhra Pradesh. The significant development in the second half...