ABSTRACT
Daya Pawar, born Dagdu Maruti Pawar (1935–1996) was a Mahar poet and author, known for his powerful and poignant Marathi prose treating of the harsh realities of Dalit life. He rose to fame upon publication of his autobiography, Baluta, in 1978, though he had been active in the Dalit literature movement for a full decade before. He was a follower of Dr. Ambedkar, and is credited for his part in the writing of the screenplay of Jabbar Patel’s celebrated film Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. This chapter presents Pawar’s autobiography in terms of the long-standing dualism between body and mind, but in this case the division is represented by Pawar through a technique of doubling – a phenomenon I call ‘Dalit doubling’. Pawar’s Baluta is a masterpiece because it depicts this doubling not only in content (that is, what Pawar writes), but also in form (that is, the way Pawar expresses himself, his use of language and other literary devices).
