Untouchable Fictions: Literary Realism and the Crisis of Caste

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Untouchable Fictions Untouchable Fictions l i t e r a ry r e a l ism a n d t h e c r isis of c a s t e Toral Jatin Gajarawala f o r d h a m u n i v e r si t y p r e s s New York 2 013 Copyright © 2013 Fordham University Press Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Abraham and Rebecca Stein Faculty Publication Fund of New York University, Department of English. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or thirdparty Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Fordham University Press also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gajarawala, Toral Jatin. Untouchable fictions : literary realism and the crisis of caste / Toral Jatin Gajarawala. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8232-4524-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8232-4525-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Indic literature—Dalit authors—History and criticism. 2. Indic fiction—History and criticism. 3. Realism in literature. 4. Dalits in literature. 5. Caste in literature. 6. Modernism (Literature)— India. I. Title. PK5410.D35G35 2013 891.4—dc23 2012027754 Printed in the United States of America 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1 First edition this book is made possible by a collaborative grant from the andrew w. mellon foundation. For Motamama A freedom fighter, at home and in the world ...