ABSTRACT
In this chapter, an attempt has been made to critically read Punjabi Dalit autobiography in terms of its distinct pre-and post-production politics, its culture-specific structural configuration, its corresponding sociological make-up, and more importantly its participatory/activist potential in Dalit mobilization in north-west India. Except for Dil's Dastan which is relatively more unorganized and fragmentary than other Punjabi Dalit autobiographies, overall, there does emerge a palpable tropological constitution of this form of writing. Neither the degree of deprivation is exceptional, nor the degree of achievement phenomenal, yet there is a trajectory of evolution. Punjabi Dalit autobiographers do recount first-hand experiences of discrimination on account of their being treated as 'impure'; yet what distinguishes their autobiographies is predominant operation of another binary which has more to do with economics than with caste alone. Punjabi Dalit autobiographers do suffer agony and pain, yet the sense of injustice before it ossifies into potential emotion for sustained rebel gets distracted into discourses of reform and ideological appropriation.
