What is Dalit literature and who are Dalits- Dr. George K Alex, Elisabeth John

Dalit literature is the expression of the pain and agony of the oppressed and their longing for a caste-less society. It emanates from the day-to-day struggle of the oppressed people It is a struggle reinventing identity. The identities of they oppressor and the oppressed are contextual and are defined in the context and frame of the socio-political environment were they are embedded.

The movement for alternative polities were generally termed as the movements of identity. In this sense, Habermas remarked that the 'new politics' is the politics of identity and it is totally different in nature and from the traditional  class movements. According to him, the old politics is the politics of 'class' and new politics is the politics of 'identity'. Dalit literature is an 'identity centric' literature movement., which is also political and thus distinguishes itself from the mainstream literature.

Reinventing identity is the central theme of Dalit literature. Identity is heterogeneous in nature, multifarious in operation. An identity is referred to in a particular context, determined by the hegemonic political structures. Hegemony predominantly works through the medium of language and culture. 'Dalit' is contextually referred identity, confined by the forces of super-structure and base-structure. Identity is a reference point and refers to the totality of the societal structures, within which it exists. thus any movement in the social system directly or indirectly affects the total environment of the social system and its units move either vertically or horizontally to capture a legitimate position. The Dalit's struggle for a legitimate position only affects the Dalit community, but also disturbs the other unit of society, demanding a re-legitimization of units, is a process we can term as 'reinventing identity'. The Nama Sudra movement of Bengal is the best example of such re-legitimization. Re inventing identity affirms a new identity, a new cultural space and capturing of political power through value additions. Thus, the struggle of the Dalits for dignity, equality and social justice is a continuing struggle for reinventing identity.

Ambedkarism is treated as one of the inevitable ingredients of true Dalit literature. Dalit literature is undoubtedly a struggle of power, justice and equality. In this sense, it is a counter hegemonic movement. In essence Dalit literature is a self search of a subjugated mind. It is the process of re-inventing identity. DWD has classified writers as Dalit Writers in this perspective. Hence the writers introduced in the Directory are drawn from the literary world in general.

Dalit's the plural form of the term Dalit, literally means 'distorted and subjugated'. The term is used in Sanskrit as both, a noun and adjective. It has been derived from the root dal which means to crack, open, split ete. When used as noun or objective it means burst, split, broken or torn asunder, downtrodden, scattered, crushed, destroyed etc.