Empathy of Power and Effect on Knowledge–Perspectives from Dalit Studies

Abstract

According to Michelle Foucault, truth, morality, and meaning are created through discourse. Every age has a dominant group of discursive elements that people live unconsciously. New approaches in Literature studies like New Historicists and Cultural Materialists are interested in recovering lost histories. Education and the idea of democracy reached many sections of the society after Independence, awakening the masses all over the country, as well as Dalits, Adivasis, and Nomadic and other tribes living in and outside villages. The democratization of education enabled its spread among farmers, women, and workers. The idea of the equal worth of all people was widely expressed, but social conditions did not change. There were revolutionary transformations in the lives of the nation, society, and individuals due to the consciousness of such humanistic values as equality, liberty, fraternity, and justice. Yet, at the same time, sentiments of pain and revolt were also kindled because of dissatisfaction with an inequitable system. This paper reflects upon some important areas of Dalit Studies where the subjugation of Knowledge is done through the power of caste supremacy.