Harijan versus Dalit: A Comparative Study of Bakha and Bhikhu

Abstract

Many Indian writes have depicted the problematic life of the Dalits in their writings. Munshi Premchand’s Rangbhoomi (1925), Rabindranath Tagore’s Chandialika (1933), Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935), D.M. Borgaonkar’s The Temple Entry (1957), T. Sivasankara Pillai’s Scavenger’s Son (N.D.), Shanta Rameshwar Rao’s Children of God (1976), Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1998) and Mastram Kapoor’s Kaun Jaat Ho? (2003) fully or partially deal with the themes of untouchability. A great deal is common in such writings despite the different ages and languages they wrote in. In the writings of these writers the reader is given a realistic picture of Indian Society. The Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, the Shudras, the untouchables, the labourers, the zamindars, the mahajans, the lallas, the rajas and the nawabs, all seem life-like in the writings of these writers. It is against the broader framework of Untouchable and The Road that a comparative study between Bakha and Bhikhu, the two untouchable characters in the novels specified hereunder is sought to be focused on in this research paper.