ABSTRACT
Dalit literature manifests a comparable subversive intention, wherein it seeks to establish a Dalit consciousness, which is distinct and unique. In Black American literature, there is an underlying sense of loss for the lost homeland, ancestors and culture; but in Dalit literature the inhumanity that is exposed is not due to a lost homeland but because of being the 'other', or peripheral, in their own country and silenced by a discriminatory cultural heritage. Both Black American and Dalit literature share a sphere of convergence since both are oppositional and resistant to the exploitations and persecutions imposed on them by the 'superior' race and caste. Dalit women's writing suffers from the same kind of condescension that is experienced by Black women's writing in that they are seldom considered mainstream. Even in academia, there is a tendency to include this body of work as modules or add-ons, indicating the difference in its treatment from 'major' or 'canonical' literature.
