Saturday, May 26, 2007

The Song of Protest:
Voice of the Voiceless


Dr. P. Kesava Kumar

The changes in a society are always carried out by the political struggles. Politics as a value facilitate to understand the culture, history and politics of a social group. The power of politics expressed through the social and cultural practices of society. In other words, culture plays a key role in upholding the hegemony of the particular social group or community. From late eighties onwards, with the Dalit movement came against the hegemony of the upper caste and argued in favour of casteless society. It is very well evident that dominance of upper caste brahminical class) carried through their literature and cultural forms. Even till today, the brahminical ideology sustained through its music in the name of classical, in the public sphere. It has celebrated as elite culture and pure/real musical form. As a feudal cultural form it had loyal to god and religion, and confined to temple. In other words, shows its loyalty to feudal lords or kings and help in maintaining status quo of the system. This brahminical culture propagated through festive occasions of temple and especially in modern times through Ganasabhas. As Dalit movement came against this dominant brahminical ideology and tried to establish its distinct cultural forms and experiences of life in a celebrating way. The literature and culture of dalits emerged as protest against the dominance. Dalit song as a cultural genre made an attempt in resisting hegemony of brahminical class and in mobilizing dalits for a political purpose.
In this paper I would like to explore the rise of Dalit song as a protest against the dominant upper caste hegemony. This maps the struggles of dalits against the feudal, capitalist and brahminical cultural forms in a process of self discovery and self assertion of their culture. Dalit song not only countered the brahminical culture but also made a difference with existing alternative cultural struggles as in the case of political struggles. In a cultural front there is a powerful tradition of capturing the peoples culture (folklore) and politicized for the propaganda of political ideology. The cultural organizations like Praja Natya Mandali, Jana Natya Mandali, Aurunodaya Samskritika Samstha worked with a mission in this direction. In their cultural production, there are many songs about the dalits in the name of workers, labourers, and agricultural coolies. They were tapped from their cultural repository and politicized with a social purpose. Dalit song, though it is not established its autonomy like existing ‘revolutionary song’, but it had forced to talk about caste, naked reality of Indian society in much more concrete fashion. In comparison with other literary genres, like poetry, story quantitatively less in production. Though there is a conscious effort to build a cultural movement of dalits by establishing cultural organizations like ‘Dalita Kala Mandali’ and ‘Lelle’, but they are not with hold for a long time due to the set back for Dalit movements in recent times. The paper will emphasis on the strength of Dalit song as a protest against the dominance of upper castes and its weakness in organizational level in mobilizing people and in strengthening the Dalit movement.

The cultural genre ‘song’
The cultural form song had always advantage over other literary and cultural genres. The song entertains instantly and involves its audience emotionally. Song survived in all times though society had undergone many changes either socially or politically, from feudal to capitalist society. The song had centrally located in all cultural forms from folklore to films. Song is a collective act and social phenomenon. Song situated in a place that gathers writer and its audience. For song, the writer himself has to play a role of singer, or at least he has to move along with singer. Song needs a platform to gather people at one place. The audience will correct the song. The songs of the writer who doesn’t fulfill these conditions will be unproductive. Where as the writer engaged in other literary forms like poetry could retain his place as a writer, without fulfilling any of the above conditions.
The song goes along with performance. The song which is linked up to the everyday life activity, generally goes with the movement of the body and the movements will ultimately form a performative action. This natural performative action spontaneously involves the audience into its fold.

Social character of song
The song had been established as a most powerful cultural medium of the modern world. From the beginning song is the central to most of the cultural forms as marked with- Padas, Kritis, Kirthanas, Javalis, folk songs , bhajana, Harikatha, women songs drama music, film music etc. It had undergone into a remarkable transformation. However, it maintained its social character. The music had distinguished and identified with a social category. One may find lot of changes with the early decades of 20th century to the second of the century. Broadly it is divided into classical and folk lore. Former represents the elite brahminical class and came with the grammar of music and centered around temple. The folklore identified with masses, the lower castes, and it is spontaneous act of labourers while engaging in the labour and entertains them in a leisure time.
In modern times, technology brought tremendous changes in the cultural medium The Gramphone record, Cinema, Radio, TV facilitated this change and carried the song with it.. The film music, not only popularized and democratized the music but also culminated the both the elements of classical and folk. With further technological innovations, especially information technology, Globalization has influenced the culture. With rapid increase of satellite channels and digitalization popular film music had total grip over its audience than any other cultural form. Music becomes a commodity than ever before.

The folk song has changed a lot by falling in the hands of bourgeoisies and feudal lords. The real content of the folk song has got distorted. One can see the feudal culture in today’s popular songs. The popular song got patronized by the feudal and capitalist classes to meet their political ends. There may be no significant change in the tunes of folk song, but it may have ideas of conservative content. The solution the songs offered for the suffering masses looked at God, fate, or devil. It did not have political message. Some of the songs on women subordinate them to the system and are vulgar, and insulting. However, even today the culture of folk songs is still alive in the lower strata of society like Dalit, Adivasi and artisan communities. (In other words they are alive where the feudal relations are strong enough.)

Dalit movement and Dalit song
With the rise of Dalit movement, Dalit literature came to forefront in telugu literature by questioning the existing canons of telugu literary world. Dalit aesthetic creation mostly took in the form of poetry with newly emerged educated middle class. This is confined to only to that section and generated a debate in literary circles of telugu society. This form has its limitations since majority of Dalits are illiterates. With an intensified Dalit struggles, to mobilize the people they are forced to revive the tradition of song. The cultural phenomenon of JNM under the leadership of Gaddar and Vangapandu already established powerful tradition of revolutionary song by exploring the folklore of the people. In a similar fashion, dalits are in search of song for the propagation of Dalit ideology.
Dalit movement brings the special recognition for Dalit song. Though they are good number of songs about the life and struggles of dalits narrated by dalits, they are not identified with a name of Dalit. In academic discourse, they are known as folklore in contrast with elite culture/classical song. With the political intervention of left politics through Praja Natya Mandali and Jana Natya Mandali these kinds of songs are popularly known as peoples song (Praja pata) or Viplava pata. The folklore got politicized by them. Most of the songs on dalits are written from the political perspective of class struggle. Dalits are looked as labourers or working class. Still there is a debate going on weather the songs under the influence of revolutionary politics by the Dalit singers on the subject of Dalit to be treated as Dalit song or not. This has to be understood in the context of assertion of Dalit politics in ideological differentiation with Marxist revolutionary politics of telugu society. Dalit movement contributed significantly by pointing out the characterization of Indian society reality as casteist in nature. In defining the Dalit song, the literary critics encountered the situation same in the case of definition of Dalit and Dalit literature. This conflict reflected in the controversies centred around Chikkanavutunna Pata and Dalit Manifesto. Chikkanavutunna Pata proposes that SC, ST, BC and Minorities to be treated as dalits and the literature written by them are Dalit literature. Ambedkar-Phule and Desiya Marxism should be the philosophical basis for Dalit movement. The other extreme considers the labourers those who are exploited by the caste are dalits. Carried by this they excluded muslim writers and included upper caste writers who sympathesised with Dalit cause. The struggle is the only means for the liberation of dalits from exploitation. In course of time, Dalit literature identified only Mala and Madiga sub-castes, and B.C communities are identified with Bahujan. They brought their poetry collection and it is happened same with muslim writers by identifying with muslim literature. With Dandora movement of madiga community, which demanding categorization of SC based on subcastes, and Mala Mahanadu movement of Malas in opposition to this categorization of reservation, the common Dalit identity has at stake.

Song as a centre of Discourse
In the year 1994, the first collection of Dalit literature came with a name of ‘Chikkanavutunna Pata’ (Thickening Song). There is a compliant about this book that it does not contain any songs though the title indicated with song. At the same time, another book named ‘Dalit Manifesto’ had the good number of songs along with poems. Of course, there is a different view points emerged on the questions of who are Dalit? What is Dalit literarure? However, everybody recognized the song as the powerful cultural medium to reach the Dalit masses. The debate went to the extent by telling poetry (vachana Kavita) is not a medium for Dalit literature.[i]Some Dalit scholars stretched the point by saying written culture is brahminical since it had predominantly helps to establish the elite brahminical hegemony by marginalizing the oral culture of illiterate dalits.[ii] This issue got resolved with acknowledging the both forms and its contextual importance. One may argue that the form of song is better than poetry without bringing the distinction of Dalit or non- Dalit. It is not right indirectly negating the space for Dalit writers in poetry by branding that space as brahminical. Dalit poetry reflects the upward mobility of dalits and everybody has to welcome this trend. Song is the revolution of sound. Poetry is a silent revolution. Song is the war of man over. Poetry and Story are war of position. Both have to be done.[iii]

Dalit song: An historical view
In this backdrop let us examine the Dalit song historically. Dalit song is mostly available in oral form. There is no recorded evidence for their songs. But one can listen their songs by invoking the social memory. Though there are countless composers and singers, but no name got institutionalized. Written culture had succeeded in marginalizing the singers of lower caste groups since these groups are illiterate. Even after technological innovation, no voice of these singers got recorded. On the other hand the singers of brahminical culture like Kshetrayya, Tyagaraja, Annamaya, Ramadas are not only institutionalized and revered as legendary figures in the musical tradition. By overcoming the limitations imposed on the Dalit artists/writers, in telugu history one may find some songs of the life of dalits.
The first song in print on Dalit issue with a name of Malavandrapeta (The Song of Malas), was appeared in the year 1909 in Andhrabharathi with anonymous name. Later it was appared in Mungipudi Venkata Sharma’s Nishidhabharatam (1915) .The song appeals to others to treat equally since all of them born to same mother hindummma:

Andaru puttiri hindumma talliki
andaru okkatai vundali sakkanga
vernal yekkuva puttanga ledayya
mammela kridiki krummeru ma noru
yettagu yekkuva byammarlu makante
tammulamani meeru mammula judandi
ammoru deevinchi iswaryamichunu

The first generation Dalit writers are responded to the context of the nationalist movement. Nakka China Venkaiah, Kusuma Dharmanna and Jala Rangaswamy are prominent figures. Kusuma Dharmanna’s (1930s) song Maa Kodde Nalla Doratanam (We don’t want this native black hegemony) is popular in the time of Dalit consolidation under adiandhra mahasabha. This song is direct response to the celebrated Garimella Satyanarayana’s song of nationalist movement, Maa Kodde Tella Doratanam (We don’t want this white man’s hegemony). Dharmanna wrote this song foreseeing flight of dalits in the independent India under native hindus. The legendry figure in telugu literature, Jashua with the influence of Gandhi’s nationalist movement wrote many poems on the subject of Dalit life. In 1950s, the literary organization Abhyudaya Rachayalala Sangham (Progesssive Writers’ Association) and cultural organization Praja Kala Mandali articulated the Dalit question in the name of class in support of communist party. In 1970s in support of radical Naxalite movement, writers association ,Viplava Rachayatala Sangham (Revolutionary Writers Association, RWA) and cultural association named Jana Natya Mandali (JNM) brings many artists of lower castes in forefront. The JNM contributed a lot in reviving the tradition of song. The folklore of the lower caste groups got politicized and used for the purpose of spreading the revolutionary messages. These songs basically targeted labourers to join the armed struggle for classless society by keeping the differences of caste and religion. From late 1980s with the rise of Dalit consciousness, Dalita Maha Sabha under the leadership of Katti Padma Rao and Bojjatatakam changed the political discourse of telugu society by articulating the issue of caste explicitly as dominant social reality of Indian society. Many young Dalit writers started questioning the brahminical dominance in one hand and upper caste monopoly in the alternative movements. Under the leadership of B.S.Ramulu, Dalita Rachayatala, Kalakarula,Medhavula Iykya Vedika (Da.Ra.Ka.Me, United front of Dalit writers, artists and intellectuals) in 1990s.At the same time under the leadership of Sikhamani, Dalit Rachayatala Sangham, (Darasam, Dalit Writers Association) got formed. Almost at the same time Dalita Kala Mandali , the cultural organization formed under the leadership of Masterjee. In the late 90s, Lelle ,a cultural organization formed with an initiation of Suresh and Mallepalli Laxmaiah, who are sympathetic to Naxalite movement. On the other hand, the JNM artists namely Gaddar, Vangapandu further contributed to the Dalit song. The influence of Dalit movement could be seen in these artists in their recent songs.

Under the influence of Dalit movement many songs are composed by the young artists and performed in many occasions. A few audio cassettes and compilation of books of songs has seen the light. K.P.Ashok Kumar and Jayadheer Tirumala Rao collected songs came with a name of Dalit Geethalu (Dalit Songs) in the year 1995.[v]This includes the songs of older generation Dalit writers, sympathetic upper caste writers, writers of progressive and revolutionary writers, and recent Dalit songs dated from 1985 onwards. The editors explains that these songs are included by locating the struggles historically as nationalist, progressive, revolutionary and Dalit movements. Karimnagar Dalita Patalu (1993), and, Dalita Geethalu (Dalit songs,1993) of Masterjee are some of the anthologies of songs got published.

Politics of Dalit Song
There are many political streams with in the Dalit movement and different political positions on the Dalit issue. This has reflected in the Dalit song. One stream reflects the influence of Naxalite movement. Dalit liberation linked up with armed struggle and considers Dalit issue as a part of class .The liberation of Dalit struggle has linked with the struggles of land.The songs of Gaddar, Vangapandu, Guda Anjaiah, reveals this position. However, one finds significant change in their political orientation on the issue of caste after Karamchedu massacre (1985). The other political stream counters this position and treats Dalit question differently. It argues the necessity of taking note of where the Dalit song differs with the revolutionary song in understanding the autonomous political stand of dalit. It forcefully argues that laborers liberation is linked up with Dalit liberation and struggles of land liberation linked up with caste annihilation rather than the other way.[vi] They explore the other alternatives to capture the political power rather than armed stuggle. This position could be seen in Masterjee and others.
Being a dalit, Gaddar is an internal critique of Maoist party on the issue of caste. Being nurtured in Maoist political struggle, he is critical about the Dalit movements and its strategies to reach out to the powers. Gaddar emerged as link between Naxalite party and Dalit movement, not only as singer but also as a theoretician with commitment. In comparison with the language of political rhetoric of Marxists, Gaddar’s cultural language comes close to the life styles of toiling masses. In the backdrop of dalit movement he too changed his language from identifying people earlier with ‘coolie’ and ‘labourer’ to Malas and Madigas. The significant transformation can be seen from his earlier songs calling with coolanna (Coolie brotherhood) to his songs of eighties with ‘Dalita pululamma’(Dalit tigers).It is true that his early songs centered around coolies, peasants. He sings for ‘Coolie Rajyam’. It does not mean that, Gaddar is not sensitive about issues of caste. Even prior to dalit movement, he came with a song ‘Yelaro ee Madiga batukulu/ Mottukunte dorakadura methuku’. In the song ‘Rajyadhikaraniki Malanna’, he categorically explains there will be no change in the lives of dalits unless and until you get political power. Even if you change your caste or religion, there will be no change in your life .For this armed struggles is the only way:

‘Bhanchan bhanchanantu
Guloponni dora antu
Yennalu bhatukutavu Malannaa
Yeduru tiragavemiro Madiganna
Nuvvu Matam marchukunna
Nee batuku maradanna
Neevu Kulam marchukunna
Neeku kudu dorakadanna
Neevu rajyamekunda
Nee rata maradanna
Rajyadikaranki -Malanna
Neevu riflundunkovaro- Madiganna’
(In this song he appeals to the Dalit community of Andhra especially Mala and Madiga caste groups saying that converting into different religion won’t change their lives, even if they change their caste also their fate wont change.)
Gaddr’s Dalita Pululamma (Dalit Panthers) is a power song that reached the people. This is about the courageous struggles of dalits of karamchedu :
Dalita Pululamma
Karamchedu Bhooswamultone
kalabadi nilabadi poruchesina
dalita pululamma
In continuation with this, Gaddar composed many songs on the lives of dalits. He translated the condemned life styles as symbols of protest:
Yenta Chakkagunnado Naa chettakundi..[viii]

In the same line of Gaddar, Vangapandu is known for his songs in the dialect of northern coastal Andhra. He composed songs on miserable lives of dalits, and their role in knowledge production, and against the atrocities committed on dalits.
Vundarra mala peta
Kaastalunna chota’
(Dalitwada(hamlet of Malas) is there, Where the problems are there)
In response to anti- Mandal agitationon the question of reservations for backward castes:
Jnanokadi sottukadanna
adi sarva jatula sampadoranna’ (
Knowledge is nobody’s property, It is the wealth of all jatis)
The songs of vangapandu, Gandara ganda, yendaka chuddamuro invokes the feeling of revoltof dalits against the upper caste hegemony.
Gandara gandara ganda
dalita biddalevaro
kattulu goddalu batti
kaksha terchukovaro
sunduru hatyalu
mandinchi gundelo
narikinodni pattukuni

Yendaga juddamuro chaduvula dalitannalara
ika yegabadadamuro sevala kulannalara
Neerukonda hatyalakee
neetulenno seppema
karamchedu papulakee
kadhalenno jeppenu
maalolu savulakee
yemulolla rajyamide

Guda Anjaiah’s song of Vurumanadira fills the confidence of dalits by declaring this village is ours by questioning the Dora of villages:
Ee vurumanadira
ee vada manadira
palle manadira
prati paniki manamra
sutti manadi!katti manadi! Palugu manadi
paara manadi
bandi manadi
bandedlu manayira
vadi peekudendiro…sanghapolla jendakinda-sangamokati pettale
manila doche ee dorala-makkeliragadannale

Charabanda Raju is sympathetic to dalits and important literary figure in Digambara Kavitvam and revolutionary literature. He questions why all these differences in the name of caste and appeals the toiling masses to come together:
maa de matamabbi….kulalanee kulam loni
sakhalanee verujeste
chematodje manushulamoo
cheyi kalipi nilabadite

B.N.B in a same tone condemns the practice of untouchability and sings for the pedollarajyam:

maalollamantavu madigalamantavu
maata matadite duramundamantavu
nee rakta mettundiro orori
maa rakta merupundero… kulamu, matam leka peda prajalandarito
kalasipothu memu kadili vastunnamu
vunna valla rajyamu- orori
vudagottestamu orori
pedavalla rajyamu orori

On reflecting the atrocities on the dalits, Gorati Venkanna appeals dalits not to spare this and be ready for the struggle :
yenni sarlu eegoralu
yentamandimi orugudamu
dalitanna dandu kattakunte niluvalemu
dalitanna baditetthakunte bhatakalemu.

K.C. sings for dalita rajyam:
Ore ore ore dalitanna inkalevaro-mayannalevaro
eedopdi dongala gulcha-parugu deeyaro….dailajana rajyamkoraku porujeyara

Mastarjee is the founder of Dalit Kala Mandali and composed number of songs exclusively Dalit in nature. He gave many performances and a cultural force for Dalit movement. His political position too differs from the earlier noted singers. His song on Ambedkar is popular all over andhrapradesh: ‘Anduko dandalu baba ambedkara.. ambarana vunnatti’. His song goes with the political arithmetic of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to capture the power, as he sings in Manamenabaiyadusatam (we are eighty five percent):
Padihenu mandi leni-dopidi agrakulamu
desanni dostavunte-sustetlavurukundam
kusundimestavunte-kastetla vurukundam
In another song Ee Desavasulam, he tries to establish the fact that dalits are the sons of the soil:
Eedesavasulam-eebhumi putrulam
memu aadi jatulam-asalu mulavasulam
batukochina badavaryulu-brahmanagra kulamantoo
bharatadi mulajanula-banisalu meerantoo
In the same line he continues:
Madigodni malonni madigodni
adilone eedesannelinonni
mayadari manumalochi..vinnava annayya

Vu.Sa in the light of Dalit movement argues for the rewriting history:
Tiragarayora mana charitranta
tiragarayaro mulla charitranta
manaku teliyani mana charitra
pusa guchinatuu rayi, malle rayi, tirigi rayi

K.G. Satyamurthy known as Sivasagar, onece the secretary of PWG Naxalite party and a legendry figure in revolutionary literature came out of the party and actively engaged in Dalit politics and Dalit literary movement. His song Nallati Sureedu (Black Sun) highlights the Dalit aesthetics :

Nalla nalla sureedu
nallati sureedu
Nalupu nalupu sureedu
Gelupu dari sureedu

Andala sureedu
Andamaina sureedu
Andamaina sureedu
Aaku seppula sureedu

The strength of Dalit song lies in countering the brahminical culture and in celebration of Dalit culture in public. Dalit song is a turning point in articulating the life of dalits in a concrete form than the earlier as it was in the name of ‘class’, ‘labourers’. Dalit song is at low phase today due to the weakening of Dalit movement in Andhra. It implies that the Dalit song won’t survive without a strong Dalit political movement. In this situation, interestingly many of the young singers identified with Dalit movement contributed later to Telangana Pata.

End Notes:

[i] Mo. Dalita Kavitvaniki Vachana Kavita Vahika Kadu. Andhra Prabha Sahiti Gavaksham September 14, 1994
[ii] Surendra Raju, Iliah refered in HRK
[iii] HRK. Vachana Kavithakoo Samajamlo Space vundi. Aa spacelonoo dalita kavulaku chotundi Sunday Andhra Jyothy ,25 May 1997 p.7

[iv] ---- . Malavandra pata, quoted by S.V.Satyanarayana, Dalita sahitya parinamlo jashua In Jashua Sahitee Prasthanam , Vishalandhra : Hyderabad, 1999, pp.106-107
[v] Thirumala Rao, Jayadheera and K.P.Ashok Kumar (Ed.), Dalita Geethalu, Hyderabad: Sahithi circle,1995.
[vi] Laxminarasaiah, G. , Charitralo Nilichipogala Dalita Geethalu , Aadivaram Andhrajyothi, October 29,1995.
[vii] Gaddar (Ed.) ‘Rajyadhikaraniki Malanna’ Jana Natya Mandali Patalu JNM: Secunderabad, 2001 p.71-72
[viii] Gaddar, Gaddar Galam Audio CD
[ix] Anjaiah, G., Ooru Manadira, Ooru Mandarin (patalu) , Hema Sahiti publications: Hyderabad,1999 p.1
[x] Cherabandaraju . Ye Kulamabbe , Dalit Manifesto, p.2
[xi] B.N.B. Mallollamantavu, Dalit Manifesto, P.9
[xii] Masterjee. Manamenabaiayudu satham , In Jayadheera Tirumala Rao and K.P.Ashok Kumar (ed) Dalita Geethalu
[xiii] Mastejee Ee desavasulam , Dalit Manifesto p.32
[xiv] Siva Sagar, Nallati Sureedu In Siva Sagar Kavitvam (1968-2004) , Swecha prachuranlu: Khammam , 2004 . p.268

Friday, May 25, 2007

Politics of Cinema:
Fans and Dalit Audiences
Dr. P. Kesava Kumar

The central theme of my paper is to understand what cinema means to Dalit audiences and how they negotiate their social identities in the context of cinema /star. I assume that watching cinema is a social activity located in its specific social, historical and political context. Broadly; the paper addresses three main points. Firstly, the entry of the Dalits into Public Space such as cinema hall and especially to the Balcony. The cinema hall is a site of Struggle between Dalits and the upper caste. Secondly, the responses of fan about cinema and its star, in terms of their specific caste/class identities. The complex process of the caste identity of the fans-both upper-castes and Dalits is negotiated in terms of their control over specific public places such as centers in a town, barber shop; 100 days celebrations, leadership in fans associations, and the visibility of a particular fans association/particular individual/social group into cinema hall and outside cinema hall. Thirdly, Dalit audience reception to the representation of them in cinema. This response is often contradictory , and very complex. Some Dalits are resent the way they portrayed in cinema, some others accept some roles as role models. I tried to analyze these responses.

Film as the text acquires meaning because of its viewers. The point is, film consumption seen as a site of cultural struggles in which variety of forms of power are exercised with different sorts of effects. This cultural struggle is, on going process over meaning and pleasure, which is central to construction of everyday life. The embeddedness of audience activity takes place a complex network of ongoing cultural practices and relationship.
Dalit audiences are not a unitary category. Within it there are men and women, urban and rural, old and young, rich and poor, and also differ with region. Because of these differences, there might be multiple meanings and multiple negotiations of film images. But at the same time all of them are victimized by the caste. It implies Dalit audiences how different they might be, heterogeneous seemingly free, but are related to the operations of forms of social power. Thus, watching film is also social and even collective practice rather individual. And the circulation and the reception of cinema situated in particular historical, social and political contexts of the audiences.
I am not discussing film and audiences as two separate categories. Film is located within society and audiences do exist prior to the institution of cinema or outside of it Audience may go on changing with time along with cinema. However, cinema acts as a mediating structure between hegemonic groups and subaltern groups. The conflict among ruling block and the subaltern groups trough various internal equations used to manifest in cinema. Cinema is one of the important cultural form is used to act as space to meet various social subjects of the society.
Political struggles and Cinema
The themes of films go on changing with the changing social circumstances. The early films of fifties (Mythology, fantasy, and folklore), reflect the general wish of Nehruvian reform of feudal structures. Later green revolution produces huge agrarian surpluses and wage labour, and this surplus turned into the capital for cinema. Around the same time, feudalism received serious blows from Naxalite movement (late sixties and seventies). The corresponding cultural form is depicting the crisis in feudalism through NTR films, followed by void of feudal patriarch. This was filled by Telugu nationalism. Later in eighties, rich peasant who also invested in cinema try to depict a situation of hero as an agent of condemning feudalism and assigning legitimacy to state. This can be seen as the popular expression of anti-feudal struggles. Green revolution in its dialectic, also had the seeds of assertion of dalits, which happen through wage labour, and state led developmental programmes. This culminates in massacre in Karamecbedu by upper castes over Dalits. An equally significant event disturbing the foundation of modern secular state is Mandal agitation. These incidents are symbols of increasing expression of dalits in public spaces from which they are hitherto excluded. In representing the turmoil, it has been increasingly difficult for dominant ideology to reproduce itself. The hero, usually representing the subaltern, has traveling through various routes, and in the climax used to resolve the crisis. Traveling through disturbed zones of social turmoil lower castes hero confronts upper caste female which had generated lot of anxiety among the middle class upper caste audiences. It has increasingly become difficult for film industry to produce a film acceptable to all audiences, which is posed as a crisis of mass film. This has met with several responses, one is increasing the importance of story line, and second one is the reshaping of star image.
Post nineties witnessed economic liberalization and the rise of Hindu fundamentalism. As a response to economic liberalization, reviving of local culture/ traditions has been shown as resolution of the problem, which can be seen in the films of S. V. Krisna Reddy and Krishna Vamsi in different form. At the same time, state in AP emerged as an agent of 'change', 'progress' and 'modernization’. There also emerged consumerist middle class audience totally devoid of any social concerns, as a propagators of the ideology of the state in the liberalization era, it can be seen m the films of Mani Ratnam and Ramgopal Varma. Surprisingly, there has also been large number of box office hit movies like Erra Synyam, Ose Ramulamma, a gap which is mass film, is left filled with it.
The composition of national modern is being continually challenged by the assertion of political identities based on caste and community. And the growth of cinema as a cultural phenomenon was coeval with series of political struggles by new constituency such as tribals, landless peasants, Dalits and women- altered the dominant political discourses in significant way.
Audience response: A case study of Coastal Andhra town, Tenali
This study basically depends on my interviews of Dalit audiences of Tenali, a coastal Andhra town and its surrounding villages namely Nelapadu an Amrutalur.
Tenali is a very important town of having 2 lakh population of Guntur district of coastal Andhra. Tenali has been an important center of education and cultural activities. Andhra Praja Natyamandali, the cultural organisation of the communist movement was strong in Tenali and surrounding villages. Most of the first generation Telugu film actors, producers, writers, musicians, came from Tenali town. Tenali town was known for its tradition of several theatre groups.
In recent times, Tenali in Particular and Guntur district in general became center of Dalit movement The emergence of a small section of very articulate educational middle class challenged the social oppression by the upper castes especially the Kammas. The Tsundur massacre(1991), of datits led to a long battle with the upper castes. Tsundar is a village very close to Tenali Town.. In brief, one can argue that the Guntnr district-especially places like Tenali and nearby villages have educated and politically conscious dalits. There is always a situation of tension between the upper caste kamma and dalits in Tenali and other villages. Politically active and conscious dalits have serious contradictions with the land owning dominant upper castes- kammas,
I interviewed old people, youth, students, woman, and Fans Association members of the town and its surrounding villages. In order to get the feed back for better understanding of the audiences I interviewed theatre/film personalities such as Andhra Praja Natya Mandali activitsts, civil liberties persons, student leaders, Dalit activist*, Recording dancers, theatre owners and even police.
Dalit audience's responses are very varied. We have diverse accounts- younger
generations and older generation, rural urban audiences, fan association members and
other dalit men and women on film stars and their preferences of themes/stars.

Dalits entry into Balcony

Cinema hall, being public place feciliate a meeting of all sections of the society. In the cinema halls of villages, entry / non-entry into chair class is a serious issue for dalits. The fellow from Dalit community who wishes to sit in the balcony has to face problems from upper-castes. It is no way comfortable and creates a psychologically tease situation.
G. Ravichandra of age 34 years agricultural coolie, of Amartahur village near Tenali says: " I never went to chair class (balcony). I always go to bench class. We are workers in their fields. Though I can afford money to go to that class, voluntarily I dropped that idea to sit with them. The upper caste fellow Junks that the fellow who works in my field everyday is sitting beside me. If it is in town nobody bothers".
I have already mentioned Tsundur massacre, in which eight Dalits were killed. This massacre was a result of an incident took place in a cinema hall. Ravi, a college going Dalit student and son of a teacher went to a cinema hall. Ho sat in the Balcony. The upper caste Reddy Youth reacted violently and further in the course of time the massacre took place. The upper caste alleges that Ravi kept his leg on the chair of upper '
caste boy. it seems to be a spontaneous attack but it is not Already, in the village, there was a charged atmosphere between Dalits and upper caste people. Three months before the incident, dalits were socially boycotted by the upper-cast© people and were not allowed to work in their fields. On various small issues, these are ten cases filed in the police station on both sides. The conflicts among dalits and upper caste people reached a flash point in the cinema hall. In recent years, not only in Tsundur, bat conflicts took place in many villages. Reasons may be different, but the already existing conflicts and contradictions in the villages simultaneously reflecting in the cinema halls. There are incidents in Amrutalur between Kapu-Muslims vs Dalits and in Bbattiprolu between Dalits vs Kapus. These took place on the pretext of touching or pushing at ticket counter or spitting the pan on other unnoticed.
Entry into a cinema hall is theoretically/democratically available to every body but in practice it is not Entry into balcony does not depend on the capacity to buy a ticket to that class.
Fans Associations and Dalits
In day to day struggles, cinema increasingly playing an important role from eighties onwards. Various social and political issues fought around cinema - in cinema halls and outside. At the individual level one's emotions and aspirations are negotiated by identifying with the cinema stars. When the individual becomes a fan /member of fans association, we have a small collectivity which uses their star as a symbol to negotiate their identity with the cinema
NT RamaRao's entry into the politics (1982) brings lot of changes in the composition of audiences of cinema- in terms of political affiliations with stars. In coastal Andhra, NTR's entry into politics helpful to Kamrnas for establishing their supremacy. In that situation, Dalits who bad already conflicts with kammas started' disowning NTR in politics. After the Karamchedu massacre (1985) in which upper caste kammas killed 5 Dalits, Dalits kept themselves away from NTR and his TOP.
As the recording dancer, Mohan Rao, Dalit aged 50 years, of Tenali who gave number of programmes in coastal area says:
"I danced as NTR as long as NTR continued to act in films. When NTR entered elections, Christians(Read Dalits) did not like NTR' songs. After Karamchedu & Nirukonda they are telling me directly not to play NTR. After that I played Krishna for sometime."
Dalits and students struggles
Before Karamchedu massacre, the violent conflicts between Kamma and non -kamma can be seen in the college campus. In Tenali VSR&NVR college, which has the strength of 6,500 (1980) is always in a tense situation .Winning the Students Union Elections, is prestigious not only to the students different communities, politicians and the area as a whole. Against the Kamma domination in the college, an anti kamma bloc was framed in 1978 in which Dalits (particularly Itanagar , a Dalit locality of town) were the key players. This bloc consisted of Dalits, Kapus, Reddy, Brahmins and some B.C.*. In 11198-0-81 Dalits Student Devasahayam of Itanagar elected as President from non-kamma bloc with huge majority. IN the same year, Kamma Students with the help of outsiders stabs a Dalit student named Kennedy under the pretext that he harassed upper caste women students. This was followed the retaliation from Dalits. They beat the kamma Students wherever they found either in college or in Town. This issue further triggered the conflict between Kamma and Dalit students in remaining colleges of the district-Pedanandipadu college, PBN college, Ponnur, JKC College, Guntur etc. The consequent years in the V.SJL College Kammas beat up other students belonging to Reddy and Kapu castes for supporting Dalits.

Community identity and Fans associations
In this context, NTR's son Balakrishna entered the cine-field and his fans association was formed immediately in Tenali. This mainly consists of Kammas with some fans of NTR's extended support to his son. We may find Dalits are in Krishna fans initially due to this affiliation with congress. Even some were continuing today. And later many of them started liking Chiranjeevi as non-kamma hero. Chiranjeevi being a Kapu, almost all the Kapus owned him. Chiranjeevi became a rallying point of not only Kapus but other non Kamma and Congress sympathizers.
Among the audiences, the members in fans association are visible by their activity. Many of them cause from the lower classes of different castes and are more vocal. As S.V. Srrinivas who worked on Fans and Stars' argues: “Fan are talking public based on the ability of members of FA's to talk back to the star, to media, to film industry and different social-strata Fans became a public by talking among themselves with others. Fans provide the institutional space to do so.”
Fan associations shall be read in the light of the crisis in national-modern resulting from pressure exerted by the political society. Theatre based activity of fans associations assume tremendous political significance, because it involves challenging established modes of reinforcing of social hierarchies in public spaces. The take over of the theatre as well as public spaces by fans need to be read at an attempt by non -elite to make these spaces more inhabitable by establishing their physical presence and visibility.
Fans are always competing with members of other associations in every aspect There has always been a battle among the fan groups to establish their supremacy over the other. In a sense, these are struggles/assertions of social groups one over the other.
For instance bi the film Vaarasudu, Krishna acted as a father of Nagarjuna. In one of the scenes Nagarjuna pulls the color of Krishna. Immediately the fans of Nagarjuna take it as a sign of supremacy over the fens of Krishna. For that Krishna fens reacted and beat up the fans of Nagarjuna and even succeeded in removing that scene from the film. As the fen of Krishna, Amrit Raj, electrical worker , aged 27 years of Itanagar of Dalit locality of the Town felt "When he ( Nagarjuna ) caught his shirt, Nagarjuna fans were in a dominant position, no ! So they had to beat them up. He (Nagarjuna) came only recently no, so these groups went and bashed those. It happened on a large scale. Krishna fans are sick of him because of his acceptance to that scene: What is this we are so sincere and this guy had to go and agree to such a role. This scene was cut because of the protest by the fans"
In the VSR college around the year 1986, the conflict among the students groups took place in other form, Le. of the student's identification with Film Heroes. One's Social and political identifications reflected in the preferences of star and the differences led to conflicts. Students who are fans of Balakrishna are used to tear up the notebook covers having the picture of Chiranjeevi and Krishna. The fans of Chiranjeevi and Krishna use d to do the same with the fans of Balakrishna
Gondi Bhaskar , fan of Balakrishna , President of Yuvaratna International, 27 years, kamma, and also active worker of Tetugu Desam who proudly says without any hesitation:"So far we have beaten up everybody- the followers of Krishna, Akkintm Nageswar Rao, and confronted with Chiranjeevi we have upperhand in every thing. Either it is because of our influence or other reasons. No body tries to fight with us even by mistake. Even we are advanced, others will not. Others never invite confrontation with us.
Mangamma gari Manavadu, a film of Bala Krishna was shifted to some other theatre to have Krishna's Kanchu Kagada when the banners of KanchuKagada are being put, in the theatre premise, Krishna fens made an insulting comment against Balakrishna fans. ' This fellow is a hero and those are his fans'. Those Balakrishna fans, we are passing by beat up Krishna fans. In the town, main confrontation is in between Chiranjeevi fans and Balakrishna fans. There is other hero a fan like Nagarjuna and Venkatesh- they are not in a competition for stardom. These stars nave no particular social group's support
The major confrontation of Balakreishna fans with Chinanjeevi fans took place at the time of Chiranjeevi's Attakuyamudu Ammayikimogudu-- Muddula Mamayya of Balakrishna. The conflict took place on streets under the pretext that fans of Chiranjeevi were circulated pamphlets and put banners. They indirectly wrote comments about Balakrishna and in insulting language -one bastard is there. For that Balakrishna fans also responded by using the artistic dolls- they also put banners by writing against Chiranjeevi-' one crook is surrounded by ten.’ This leads to conflicts and both are confronted on the streets.
Chiranjeevi had multi associations and there are conflicts within Chiranjeevi fan's associations on various issues— this was a significant feature in 1990. BY the time 1990s non-kamma bloc became weakened and their internal contradictions were exposed Dalits were on one side, the kammas were on other side. Carte groups like Kapu and B.C's and Reddys are oscillating between them. At the time V.M. Ranga's assassination incident, kapus took initiative against Kammas and damaged the shops of Kammas and burnt the college belongs to them, ft took place with the moral support of Dalits, And there are occasions; the Dalits had conflicts with kapus and Yadavas (BC.'s) in the town. After the Tsundur massacre, against Dalits all upper caste people formed as a group, named, 'Sarvajanabhyudaya samithi' includes all upper castes-kamma, kapu„ Reddy, Brahmans and some B.C. caste groups and campaign that dalits were harassing women.
In the same year, 200 kamma youth from the town and surrounding villages, without having any context, unexpectedly came to VSR college, and beat up whom ever seem to be black in colour. Having the impression of Black being the Dalit.
Among non-kammas yadavas were also emerging with their economic rise and they also tried to maintain/ assert (heir identity in public. This background helps in understanding the fans of Chiranjeevi.
There are five major Chiranjeevi fans associations in Tenali. Among them Chiranjeevi swachanda seva samstha mainly lead by the kapus of Ramalingeswarapct, Tenali. Town wide Chiranjeevi fans association lead by a Muslim youth with the support of yadavas (BC) . There were some conflicts between these two fan association s of Chiranjeevi over issues such as one's banner is covered by others banner, the blocking of the name of the one Association, sharing of tickets issued to fans on the release of a new film, and so on, what is important here is struggle between various social groups for prominence, public visibility and also to acquire tickets and to sell them in Black market in some cases. The controversies at the time of release of Alluda Majaka and Hitler, arc two examples to cite. The conflicts between the fan groups are continuing.
Most of the dalits are fens of Chiranjeevi. As Dalits were not given prominent positions, the Dalit youth of Mutyamsetty palem, Dalit locality in Tenali, formed a separate association. This is one way of asserting their right to lead an association and also to have an identity of their own. In another controversy, Dalits of Mutyalamsettypalem and Kapus of Ramalingeswarapeta, entered into a fight on the occasion of 100th day celebrations show at Baavagaru Baagunnara", at Veda Deluxe, on the occasion of 100th day celebrations, there was a exclusive show for chiranjeevi fans at Veda Deluxe. When the fans were watching the film a dalit boy happened to hit a kapu with hand(in a drunken state) during a group dance of the fans. This small incident led to serious fight between the Dalits and Kapus. It resulted in breaking the chairs, beating up each other, the existing social tensions and the struggle for dominance at the Veda deluxe center is at the root of the conflict between fan groups.
Caste is an important factor in several conflicts among the fan associations. Fans agree that caste has become an issue among the Chiranjeevi fans. A staunch Chiranjeevi fan, Y. Anil Kumar, a Brahmin aged 30, spent Rs. 12000 to put up a cut out of Chiranjeevi on the occasion of the release of Hitler. He is slowly withdrawing from fan activity. He says, "Caste feeling is there (in fans associations). We don't like it. And also felt, kammas, have lot of caste feeling here at Tenali.”
The result of the search for onefs own carte hero in that the dalits started looking up for their own hero in the cinema field. One can see the mood of dalit fans in the comment made by Amrita Raju, who is a staunch fan of Krishna He says, “Recently a Prabhu Deva came here in the field. tSoirie (Dalits) said, "Arey! Until now we never had some one who belonged to us. Now Prabbudeva came .Let us focus on him, let us all contribute. 1 also would have contriibute like our fellow Dalits. But when they told me it is at fan level, I said, I am sorry". “They (read Dalits) said , that guy is Nayudu. They say, this guy is karama it seems. Why some obscure guy? Now our Prahhudeva came - A Christian. Let us form a fan club". "I said, No, every one has his own feelings. For me, it is Krishna, Krishna, Krishna"
The result of this kind of a debate is the formation of a Prabhudeva’s Fans Association by the Dalits of all the localities of Tenali. The Dalits used blue banners, which are symbolic of Bhahujana Samaj Party. Prabhudeva is seen as a Dalit because he is a Christian. Most of Christians in coastal Andhra happened to be Dalits. The fans believe those Prabhudeva dances faster than Chiranjeevi.
Barber's community who happened to be OBC’s, one , a marginalised community in the town. They are fans of Kamal Hasan. Most of the discussions about stars among various Social groups in the saloons. As a barber, he can not enter into a discussion and support a particular star. So they have Kamal Hassan as their star who is seen as non-controversial". One of the reasons for their liking Kamal Hassan could be the fact that Kamal Hassan played the rote of Barber in Aakali Rajyam.

Representation of dalits in cinema
Cinema has seen by its audiences as the institution has the modernistic feature of Secular-democratic. We can not find explicit statements about caste and religion. The discourse about the dalits takes place in the guise of class. Identification of character’s caste is left to one's guesswork. But in recent days, with the rise of dalit movement, Mandal Agitation- it is inevitable situation to film Industry to speak about issues related to caste in their own way.
The representation of Dalits in films and their response is interesting to examine. Ravi Kumar, a dalit (Madiga) working in a courier Service, (at (iuntakal) is a Ian of Chiranjeevi. He says that he has seen Pasivadi Pranasn 42 Utncs. In response to a question he says
"The story of Swayam Krishi is good But I Ad not like the role played hy chirajeevi as a cobbler". Another dalit (Madiga) Ananta Rao. , a Dalit student of B.Ed says ' Chiranjeevi has become a model for them(Dalits)'
Swayam Krishi was a film made by K. Viswanadh. K. Viswanadh tries to reform Dalits by Brahminising them. The theme of swayam krishi, is that one can become a bigman by doing hard work as a cobbler.
I conclude my presentation with the comment made by Yelamanchi Venkateswarlu, a barber of Tenali aged 24 years. He says," whenever the scenes relating to our occupations are shown (in the films tike Mondi Mogadu- Penki Pellam, Hittlcr, Aavokkati Adakku); we feel insulted and ashamed at that moment We have to become so self-conscious and look around the audience. The barbers are shown as comedians and jokers played by minor actors. That moment is really painful. What right does the cine person have to ridicule our occupation?

Amrit Raj a Dalit boy responded, ‘since we (Malas and Madiga) are fighting against each other, we became cheap in the eyes of cine people. If we don’t, then there is scope for cine people to make film on them’.

Changing Notion of Freedom

Dr.P.Kesava Kumar

In Telugu society, one must accept that the new millennium started with the celebration of dalit novel. The birth of dalit novel has significance in many ways - culturally, historically and ideologically. Dalit novel emerged in a unique way by challenging and shattering the existing genres and canons of Telugu literary world. The novels of dalits are enriched with the content and descriptions of dalit struggles for human dignity. There has been a constant effort from dalit writers in translating the condemned life styles and practices of marginalized people into symbols of protest and pride. Altogether, these dalit writers gave the rich meaning to dalit life that brought respect for them. Dalit writers had a forceful attempt in constructing the social history of "an historical" people, whose struggles were not recorded in the so-called history texts. In words of a dalit writer, we have to dig more to unravel the past as well as to bury the constructed history of the dominant social groups. In the process of writing their own history, they thoroughly interrogated the existing histories of dominant caste/class groups in their literary writings. Their novels arc much more realistic and political in nature to overturn the hierarchy. Ideologically, they declared uncompromising war against brahminism /upper caste social and literary hegemony. At the same time, they are critical about other alternative political streams. The criticism reached a definitive stage and the political positions are getting consolidated. Dalit novel is culminating point of all these discourses that internalized all the arguments from the perceptions of gender, class, region and sub-caste.

In fact, Dalit life has been found its highest expression in folk songs and other mass per formative arts like street/stage plays. Most of their literature is in oral tradition. However, only in post independent period, considerable number of dalits got access to education, therefore were late to enter into the print mode. This gave the way to enter into the literary modes of dominant social groups. It took almost hundred years for dalits lo enter into the literary genre of novel writing.
The production of novel as a form of expression is obviously linked to the rise of middle class that happened only during colonial period and their need to articulate their problems and consequent social struggles they had to carry on. In the west, novel emerged as a new genre to represent the social aspirations of middle classes created by industrial revolution. In India, novel came into existence as a logical outcome of the colonial influence. The first novel in almost all the vernacular languages came into existence in last quarter of the nineteenth century. Western rational ideas influenced middle class, those who later played a major role in moudling the nationalist struggles, involved in the production of this new literary form-novel writing. It is obvious that only the educated upper caste perceptions and aspirations reflected in literature too. The social groups, which are acquired political and economic dominance, had also enjoyed the privileges creation of culture and cultural production. The other voices were existed less articulate.

Over the period, there was a significant change in themes and politics of novels with changing socio-historical conditions. There were only few novels to talk about dalits and their life. These novels came out either as a sympathetic treatment of upper caste writers or as a part of the class struggles. In most of the novels, the protagonist is from superior caste groups. He, therefore, shoulders the responsibility to reform/educate dalits. These kinds of novels lack the authentic dalit life and their experiences. In examining the novel, we have to see the connection between particular literary form and the consciousness of that particular social group associated with it. The ideological structure of social groups that give the birth to particular form has to be noted.

In post independent India with given opportunities, dalits too emerged as a middle class. This class started organizing the dalit masses and started questioning every sphere of the public activity, in which so far they were either humiliated or marginalized. Most of the questions raised through literature and constantly engaged in a dialogue with civil society. In late eighties, issue of caste came into the forefront in Andhra Pradesh. This can be seen symbolically in massacre of Karamchedu. As a consequence of conscious mobilization of dalits, the issues related to caste got articulated in literature in late nineties. Many anthologies of poetry came out in this period. In the initial days, the dalit literature mostly in the form of poetry came to limelight. The quest for the search of their own dalit identity makes them to broaden the literary horizons. As a result, dalit novel took the shape of serious existence reflecting the real dalit aspirations. When dalit novel took an upper hand, the dalit poetry writing started trickling down. Dalit writers questioned not only the basic premises of literature but also the epistemological positions of the existing writers. They supplied the new prism to perceive the crude reality of casteist society. With the well-debated question of representation and subjectivity, the upper caste writers were either silenced or sidelined. The death of upper caste writer coincided with the emergence of dalit novel in Andhra.
The dalit novels are not only of the authentic life experiences of dalits but also depict the agony of dalit by targeting the hegemony of upper castes in society. The celebrated novels2, which came in the year 2000 are ‘Antarani Vasantam’ of G.Kalyan Rao, Kakka of Vemula Yellaiah, and ‘Panchamam’ of Chilukuri Devaputra and ‘Khaki Bhatukulu’ of Spartacus (G.Mohan Rao) Though all these novels depict the dalti lives of Telugu society, there is a significant difference between the novels as they are set in different regions and context. These novels are underlined by different political lines within dalit literature.
Interestingly, the literary expression of dalit writers started with poetry, which has enjoyed the power over other forms. To suit the authentic expression of their lives they also selected the other forms like short story and novel. The inner urge or struggle within them has propelled them to write short stories and novels. This is a significant transformation of dalit writers. Of course, poetry had more emotional value and had the power to mesmerize the masses. However, the poetic form has its own limitation and become an escape route due to its nature as Meta language. Sometimes it could bypass the reality/history. It created confusion in locating the history. Novel and short story not only broadened the canvas of the writers and made them more accountable to history. The characters of the novel have to be situated in specific time and space. The dalit writers probed the history and brought into the literary world many things, which were not touched earlier by other superior caste writers. In fact dalit novelist narrated the submerged culture, philosophy and histories of dalits. The political discourses within the Marxian revolutionary and feminist movements also influenced the Dalit novelists. It made them sensitive to the struggles, while writing about Dalits. Wherever it is necessary, they deferred with revolutionary politics and its practices. After Dandora movement of Madigas, which basically came with the demand for categorization of dalit sub-castes to ensure the benefits of reservations to all the communities within the dalits. The rise of sub-caste consciousness among the dalits helped the writers to speak about the concrete life-styles of dalits sub-castes rather than political rhetoric and language of the given time. Dalit novel is culminating point of all the political movements since dalit novelists had internalized the essence of all these struggles.
During anti-imperialist struggle the nationalists constructed the Indians as a homogeneous community of same ancestry to turn them into nationalists against the British the ‘other’. There was a feeling of threat to Hindu social order by large-scale conversion of Dalits in to Christianity. Malapalli of Unnava Lakshmi Narayana is an example of this trend. He tried to establish the ideal of concept of Ramarajya through this novel as a way out for dalits. The background to such need was the tendencies of disunity of various communities became acute in 1930s with surfacing of various identities. There was a considerable social change in socio-political life of Telugu Society with class/caste polarities that have taken place. Writers have started articulating individual problems as part of collective life. Viswanatha Satyanarayana in his celebrated novel Veyipadagalu expressed resurrection of dharma as an answer to this crisis. He tried to establish Hindu dharma as a solution for social problem through a leading character of the novel Dharma Rao. Negative character of the novel, Ranga rao represents a modern man in the 1930s, who opposes desiya vidhya and desiya vydyam (indigenous education and indigenous medicine). Viswanatha emphasizes the need to protect the Hindu family values where as another celebrated writer Chalam argued for a radically opposite ideal. Chalam identifies family itself as a constraint for women's freedom. He vehemently argued for woman liberation from the family and male dominated society. Chalam as a critical traditionalist offered a new conception of freedom that was different from western idea as well as from the Indian tradition. He desired woman to be an autonomous gender in the matters relating to sexual choices and family life. In all these novels, nationalistic hero has been dominant cultural ideal.

By the time, it comes to 1945 most of the novels became psychological in nature. They tried to probe into complexities of individual lives. The basic philosophical question they raised about was meaning of life and human existence. At this juncture society could successfully talk about modern cultural ideal of autonomous individual free from social constraints and traditions. While translating this ideal into practice, writers thought there was an existential crisis to individuals in terms of meanings of these ideals. This can be seen in Gopichand’s Asamarduni Jevanayatra and Buchibabu’s Chivaraku Migiledi. Butchibabu points out that human existence is based on lovelessncss. Foreseeing the ideals that are difficult to realize, they brought out a new language of humanism expressed through love and compassion for others.

Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao tried to portray the difficult process of realization of imagined cultural ideal of equality and freedom in all its variety and depth as they are practiced in specific cultures. He has x-rayed middle class life from multiple angles and presented realistically. By late 1960s institutionalization of writers took place in literature under the banner of communist ideology. The content of the novels of this are mostly of peasant/tribal rebellions. Prior to the formation of left writer’s organizations, there were novels like Prajalamanishi of Vattikota Alwar Swami, Chillaradevullu and Modugupulu of Dasaradhi Rangacharya from the Telangana region. In post-independence period, modern state was unable to uphold the promised ideals of good life and better society to the vast number of oppressed masses of the country. In the political novels of this time, there has emerged an upper-caste middle-class man as a protagonist sympathetic to lower classes, articulating and mobilizing the oppressed masses.

Most of the writers came from the Brahmin middle class family. Since they live in their respective caste styles they are constrained to perceive the lives of other communities. A writer and journalist Puranam Subramanya Sharma rightly pointed out that since most of the writers came from upper castes very particularly from Brahmin caste, as a result, only middle-class life of Brahmins reflected in their novels. The life of these Brahmins tough a minority in terms of numbers but become a prototype of middle class values. Thinkers like Gopichand came from non-rahmin family that influenced and led the anti-Brahmin movement. Writers like Chalam, Butchibabu and Gopichand, however, moved towards spiritualism in the latter part of their life. As they could not mobilize the support of their communities to their ideals, they got disillusioned and moved towards spiritualism. In the latter days the communist ideals too failed to capture the dalit imagination and caste pursuits. And thus the question of caste did not find place in their discourse.

Till the 1980s entire literary discourse centred around abstract human being evasive of all cultural markers like caste, colour, religion, region and gender. The radical contribution of entire dalit literary movement is to bring to fore the dalit cultural experiences characterized by humiliation, insult and suffering based on caste. By 1980s there emerged a considerable dalit middle class, which consists of small jobholders like teachers, clerks, constables, nurses and at tenders. Their exposure to education and economic security opened up new possibilities in politics and literature. In Andhra politics, dalit movement is known for the innovation of new category called dalit, making discrimination on the basis of caste explicit. In the left parlance, the amorphous landless masses were being replaced by category dalit, which actively captured the notions of self-respect. The Gandhian term, harijan has been pushed aside. The conceptual innovation has opened up new ways of articulating dalit cause. This is clearly visible in every field of activity from theory to art. In literature the questions which are very well debated in telugu society are - who are dalits? And what is dalit literature?

It was defined that dalit constitute SC, ST, BC and other minorities. As per the other definition dalits are primarly constituted of labourers who are socially politically, economically and culturally oppressed in the name of caste. Whatever has been written exclusively by dalits with dalit consciousness is considered as dalit literature that may be sympathetic to non dalits too. After a serious debate ensued for some time through literary writings and political debates, on the whole only the Malas and Madigas were considered as dalits. Writings by dalits are naturally considered as dalit literature since it has specific authentic life experience. Writings by non-dalits on dalits are considered as only sympathetic writings to dalit cause. The debate has spread to all forms of dalit literature. There has been an unended debate over the path to be followed for dalits liberation.

A view was presented, mostly under the influence of Marxism, in the literature that liberation of productive forces automatically leads to the solution of caste problem which is considered a super structural phenomenon. Other perception felt the need to articulate the caste discrimination at various levels and capture the state power in order to democratize the social relations to abolish caste and discrimination. To put it in other words, it is to look at the state as an instrument to attain equality. Regarding the means to capture political power -one section argued that armed struggle of dalits as a means and others disagreed advocating a path of peaceful democratic means.

The dalit novel that came in to existence late the 1990s touches many facets of dalit life. It introduced new idiom and expression to the Telugu literature. The first novel in this period is Kakibatukulu depicts the dalit entry into modern administrative institutions created by the British, for instance Police Department. Kakka, another novel is about the life of Madiga labourers in Telangana villages. The novel Panchamam emphatically presents the view that the caste related problems persist in village life unless and until there is a change in the basic structure of society. In this novel though the hero becomes a deputy collector, problem of caste continue to haunt him. This novel is located in a Rayalaseema village. The novel Antarani Vasantam is an attempt towards writing history, philosophy, politics and culture of dalits in comprehensive form. The writer has succeeded in bringing all these aspects of life by depicting the concrete lives of dalits.

Antaraani Vasantam is a story of seven generations of dalits. This novel is of dalit history, culture and their living worldview. More than that, it is a struggle of dalits at different points of time. In this novel the lead character named Ruthu is a writer. The novel runs with the recollection of repeated memories. These memories are not simply of the past, they are living afresh in the present. The memories are loaded with suffering, pain, agony, anguish and struggle. This is the case with every dalit life. Precisely because of this, author hints that memories are of not the past but they have their continuity in present and also projected into future. The story of dalits narrated for the period of more than hundred years in the form of women's memories. Her memories go back to four generations before and two generations after her. This novel is a significant piece of dalit literature to trace back the dalit struggles to generations. Along with the explicit depiction of dalit suffering in contemporary dalits writings Antaraani Vasantam gives an excellent description of joyful moments as well.

Kakka is the novel about the Madiga community of Telangana region. In the history of Telugu literature this novel has multifold significance. This is the first novel on Madiga community as such by a Madiga writer Vemula Yellaiah. At his 40s Yellaiah stated writing dalit poetry in late the 1990s. The author's quest to capture dalit life as a whole he opted the form of novel as a medium of expression. This piece has been written in the backdrop of Madiga Dandora movement. This novel projects madigaisation (dalitisation) as an alternative to the predominant upper-caste ideology. It also opens up the internal contradictions and violence within the community. The other striking feature is that the whole story runs in Telangana dalit dialect. So far the dominant dialect of costal Andhra has been used in writing of novels. This novel came from the place where revolutionary struggles are prominently took place. The writer seems to be uncompromising with radical dalit identity and indirectly criticizes the prevailing left culture and tries to critically read the left tradition. This may be considered as both strength and weakness of his work. This novel ends up with conscious educated dalits along with civil-rights groups together fighting for the cause of dalit struggles of village.

The idea of freedom described in these two novels differs in a significant way. In Antaraani Vasantam, constraint to freedom of the dalits comes from an enemy who is an upper caste. The idea of dalit itself indicates for Kalyan Rao a perpetual flow of resistance by dalit community to an upper caste community. Dalit community has been described as a focal point of creativity, resistance to oppression and a character of purity. This is effectively indicated through central character Yellanna who eloquently represents a creative, upright and assertive individual. This is one way of expressing dalit freedom or a mode of being dalit. One of the characters, in difficult times of community life says, we have born just not to be killed but to live too.

On the other hand the idea of being dalit in Kakka is different. It identifies that constraint to freedom to dalits is not just from an outsider but also from the very community. The central character kakka faces too many hardships from within community as well as outsiders. For instance, the mother of kakka was accused of an illicit relation and was subjected to social boycott by the community. Kakka was denied an opportunity to take up the duty to perform madigarikam (caste profession) that is considered a honour in the community. Thus, the constraint within the community that projects a different community and a different kind of self- awareness. And of course, he has to fight a valiant battle against the other communities, which has traditionally been dominant in the village. It is also shown that in times of struggle against upper castes, dalits came together and fought valiantly.
These two novels are significant because they involve a deep exploration into dalit culture. They tried to bring out various positive aspects of dalit culture to the fore. Antaraani Vasantam has celebrated rich and vibrant cultural traditions of dalit community by going to origins. The novel Kakka could effectively brought out some of the inhuman social practices of dalit communities, which may be helpful in reforming of them. Thus a deep exploration of dalit life through novel may result in strengthening of dalit cultural identity. There is a scope to come up with much more serious dalit novel in future by touching all aspects of dalit life.