Author: Pooja Patel, Dr. Mrinal Srivastava

Abstract: Dalit autobiography has become one of the most important modes of modern Indian life writing because it joins personal memory with collective history. This paper offers a thematic comparison of four major Dalit autobiographies: Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan, Sharankumar Limbale’s The Outcaste, Aravind Malagatti’s Government Brahmana, and Bama’s Karukku. The study argues that these works transform autobiography into testimony, social critique, and resistance writing. Across linguistic and regional differences, the four texts repeatedly engage with caste oppression, untouchability, poverty, labor, humiliation, educational struggle, gendered marginalization, religious contradiction, fractured identity, and the search for dignity. At the same time, each text gives these themes a distinct shape: Joothan foregrounds everyday humiliation and material deprivation; The Outcaste intensifies identity crisis and psychological fracture; Government Brahmana highlights irony, institutional contradiction, and modern caste continuities; and Karukku brings a strong Dalit feminist and spiritual critique. The paper concludes that Dalit autobiography is not only a record of suffering but also a literary form of awakening, self-assertion, and ethical resistance.

Keywords: Dalit autobiography, caste oppression, untouchability, identity, resistance, gender, memory, thematic comparison

Article Info: Received: 24 Feb 2026; Received in revised form: 26 Mar 2026; Accepted: 01 Apr 2026; Available online: 05 Apr 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.53