Subalternities in India and Latin America Dalit Autobiographies and the Testimonio

This volume presents a comparative exploration of Dalit autobiographical writing from India and of Latin American testimonio as subaltern voices from two regions of the Global South. Offering frames for linking global subalternity today, the chapters address Siddalingaiah?s Ooru Keri; Muli?s Life History; Manoranjan Byapari and Manju Bala?s narratives; and Yashica Dutt?s Coming Out as Dalit; among others, alongside foundational texts of the testimonio genre.

While embedded in their specific experiences, the shared history of oppression and resistance on the basis of race/ethnicity and caste from where these subaltern life histories arise constitutes an alternative epistemological locus. The chapters point to the inadequacy of reading them within existing critical frameworks in autobiography studies.

A fascinating set of studies juxtaposing the two genres, the book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of Dalit studies, subaltern studies, testimonio and autobiography, cultural studies, world literature, comparative literature, history, political sociology and social anthropology, arts and aesthetics, Latin American studies, and Global South studies.

Introduction Part I: Towards a Conceptual and Definitional Framework 1. The Touch of the Other: Testimonio and Autobiographical Writing in India and Latin America 2. Some Notes on the Testimonio 3. The Testimonio in Latin America and India: Critical Contestations of the Collective Voice 4. In Defense of the ‘Subaltern’: Tracing the Concept Through/Across South Asia and Latin America Part II: Autobiographies in the Pluriverse of Dalit Writing 5. Autobiography and the Defacement of the Self: Siddalingaiah’s Ooru Keri6. Muli’s Life History as a Dalit testimonio 7. Dalit Writing in Bangla: A Thematic Reading of Selected Narratives by Manoranjan Byapari and Manju Bala 8. Opening the Self, or the Other? On the Emergence of Bahujan Self-narratives on New Media 9. Studying Caste Up: Yashica Dutt’s Coming Out as DalitPart III: Revisiting the Testimonio with Cross-Cultural Readings 10. At the Threshold of Literature: Testimonios after Menchú 11. The Small Voice of History: Revisiting Biography of a Runaway Slave12. Resistance through Recipes: Locating Testimonial Aspects in Dalit and Chicana Food Narratives 13. Testimonio as a Repository of Subaltern Memory: Reading Women’s Narratives from Guatemala and India

Sonya Surabhi Gupta is a professor of Latin American studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.