Jaydeep Sarangi in conversation with Harish Mangalam

About Harish Mangalam
Gujarati Dalit Literature is enriched by many dedicated Gujarati Dalit Writers after the mid 70s of 20th  century. Among all the Dalit authors of Gujarat State (India), Harish Mangalam is the leading figure because of his commitment to raise Dalit’s issues through his creative capacity. Because of his lifelong dedication to Dalit uplift, empower and awakening, as the appreciation and honour to his life time contribution to Gujarati Dalit Lierature, he is awarded ‘Saint Kabir Dalit Sahitya Award-2002-03’ and ‘Mahatma Jyotiba Phoole Journalism Award’ by the Government of Gujarat. He is recipient of many literary awards from the various literary organizations of State/National level. His anthology of short stories ‘Light of Darkness’ has been translated into German as ‘AUS DEM ZWIELICHT’, edited by Stephanie Kreiner (Heinrich Hein University, Dusseldorf) and Helmuth Niederlie (President PEN Club, Austria) which has been is published by penLOCKER, Wien. His own published books come to 35 including compilations of various forms of Dalit of literature in various language i.e. English, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi et al.
 He was born at the outskirt, in the Dalit ghetto of village Falu of Mehsana district of North Gujarat (India). His parents were traditional weaver. From this untouchable ghetto, he emerged as a sound voice of Dalits with the cardinal help of education. With the help of education, he achieved his position as an Additional Collector. He completed his schooling in the village and B.A., LL.B. completed from the Gujarat University, Ahmedabad. Right from the childhood, he was highly influenced by Buddha, the great saint poet Kabir, the first Mahatma of India, Jyotiba Phoole and the great personality of the world Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. His writings are highly mature, artistically appealing and visionary. Anger, protest and cry for justice are the centres of his works but he gave more priority to education and through education, Dalit’s empowerment. Contact:     9408229253 (M), Email: prakamp1979@yahoo.com.
 About Jaydeep Sarangi:
Jaydeep Sarangi is a bilingual writer, academic, editor, interviewer, translator and author of a number of significant publications on Postcolonial issues, Indian Writing in English, Australian Literature, Marginal literatures and Creative Writing in reputed journals/magazines in India and abroad. He is in the editorial board of several refereed journals in different continents. Widely anthologised and reviewed as a poet and a critic, he has authored  five poetry collections in English and one in Bengali. About his poems Keki Daruwalla says, “Jaydeep Sarangi gives a fresh paint to everyday living. ‘Small rivers’ near tribal villages are his haunts. His language can be unorthodox, where a rock can turn into a ‘reckless flow”, but his poems are a rewarding read, with the scent of herbs coming through the pages.” With Rob Harle( Australia), he has authored five anthologies of poems from India and Australia.  With Angana Dutta, he has transliterated and edited Surviving in My World: Growing up Dalit in Bengal which has been reviewed favourably in many leading journals in the world like EPW, Biblio, Commonwealth Essays (Sorbonne University),South Asia Research (London), Indian Literature, Voice of the Dalit (Sage Publication),The Book Review , etc.  His another pioneering anthology (with Usha Kishore), Home Thoughts : Poems of the British Indian Diaspora is just released. He may be reached at: jaydeepsarangi@gmail.com
Jaydeep Sarangi: What has motivated you to join the movement? Has there been any personal  experience of discrimination on you?
Harish Mangalam: Indian society is totally based on four-fold stratification of castes with high and low discrimination among unaccountable numbers of castes and sub-castes. Apart from four-fold stratification of castes (Varnashram), fifth community called ati-shudra (Pancham Varna) i.e. untouchables were there but completely ostracized, socially, economically, culturally, educationally and politically. There ghettos are always out of the main village periphery. Since ages they have been segregated by its murky social disorder. And even at this juncture, there is not at all change in the whole rural India. All kinds of cruel atrocities are perpetrated on the untouchables. Here, I must illustrate the recent example of monstrous atrocities on the Dalits of village MOTA-SAMDHIYALA, Taluka Una, District Gir Somnath (Gujarat-India). Immediately after the ruthless incident took place, it was spread and became video viral across the whole country and wide spread all over the globe. I have had perceptual experiences of injustice, inhumanity, insulting, mental and physical atrocities, segregation and the worst treatment than animal etc. during my cherished childhood span of life. After that I went to Ahmedabad City for further higher study. At that time, I witnessed bloodthirsty atrocities on Dalits under the guise of ‘Anti-reservation Stir’ and later on in a blink of an eye, its flames of fire leapt up the whole country. In fact, it was not at all ‘Stir’, but it was well organized casteist attack direct on Dalits. Such inhumane and casteist macabre dance motivated me to drip on the paper and ink Dalit literature strictly following the ideology of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the real emancipator of downtrodden communities in India. In 1954, in Nagpur literary meet he addressed to the writers:
“Human values and cultural values, recreate through own literary creation. Do not keep own aims limited or conventional. Keep them vast and let them expand. Do not restrict your pens up to only your issues. Use your pens in such a way so that can bring light to darkness of rural India. There is the vast world of depressed people and marginalized in this nation, this fact should not be forgotten. Their misery and pains must be properly felt and by you writing try to make their life excellent, this is the genuine service to humanity”

Jaydeep Sarangi : How old is Dalit literary movement in Gujarat?
Harish Mangalam: By following the unjustifiable and irrational law of Manu Smriti, Bhratiyas Varnashram (Indian four-fold stratification of caste-system) has turned untouchables into animals. In Buddhist writings, first time the protest against the varnavyavstha (four-fold caste-system) is noticed. It means, it is assumed, from that eara Dalit literature has come into existence. Buddha’s thoughts on protest against the Varanavyavastha  are available in the Buddhist writings. In this connection, Tripitaka Castes, class, thoughts on highbrow, lowbrow and purity of lineage are considered as unsociable. In the Therigatha, the consequences of caste-system are presented as it is presented in modern media. As far as it concerns to the Dalit writings, Dr. Ambedkar’s social reform movement has remained the core of the writings. So, largely he is accepted as the father of modern Dalit writings. Dr. Ambedkar’s thoughts  
In Gujarat, first Ambedkarite poem was published in 1912 in the compilation of folksongs by Ranjeetram Vavabhai Mehta, see:
                                 In one hand there is a Hukka1 and his silver anklet.
                                Uncle Chunilal2 Mojanivala3 thus has gone to Dalits ghettos
                                Dalits ask what we can do for you brother
                                Dalits reply what we can do for you brother
                                Our wages are not paid,
                                Our money he has taken
                                We do not have clothe to cover our bodies
                                And how he would give us clothe?
                                If he dies, ends our all misery

1.       Hukka – Kind of smoking apparatus
2.       Chunilal – Name of a Surveyor
3.       Mojanivala – Surveyor
(‘Hindu Varnavyavastha, Samaj ane Gujarat’ – By Makrand Mehta )
The second Dalit poem was published by Amrutlal Sundarji Padhiyar in 1918 was ‘Antyaj Stotra’(Hymn of praise of untouchable) see:
Oh miserable Antyaj Stotra, you face poverty because of cruelty in spite of that you follow  our Hindu religion, so we respect you….

The elaborate preface to the booklet was written by M.K. Gandhi (Gandhiji’s Akshardeh, Volume-14, p.299-300)
Thereafer, ‘Antarvedana’ poem by Manor Jivram Gangera is  unique, which was published in 1928, see:  
                                   Oh mother in your lap, I am the unhappy now,
                                   I am pained as I am known as Antyaja, untouchable
                                   I worship Ram and Krishna, perform rituals, recite the slokas of Bhagwat Geeta,
                                   I take care of cows but still misery of mine does not end.
                    I become happy to be born as a human being
           
                    But felt pain as insulted and live life like an animal

 Over and above, during this era, 60 to 75 Dalit periodicals played the chief role to proliferate the ideology of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Thus, in Gujarat, Ambedkarite literature has neither emerged in 1975 nor in 1978, but has emerged in 1912. The Ambedkarite literature is the sound platform for the Phoole-Ambedkarite ideology in Gujarat. The poems published during this era have the remarkable elements, the expression of liberty in comparison to artistic aspects of poems. Thus, the poets and the editors of the periodicals as mentioned above are the pioneer poets and pioneer thinkers of Gujarati Ambedkarite literature in Gujarat. They are Vishram Solanki, Kasturbhai Shah, Jivram B. Maheriya, Purushottam Vaghela, Mafatlal S. Parmar, Bandhu Madhav, Babaldas Chavda and Himmatsinh Vaghela.

Jaydeept Sarangi: Are there specific activists in the movement or outside who have inspired you to join the movement?
Harish Mangalam: Bharatiya Dalit Panther movement in Gujarat has inspired me a lot. My contemporary activists-cum-writers also increased my passion.  From the very inception,  Kardam Bhatt, Aswin Desai, Raju Solanki, Nayan Shah,  Sahil Parmar, J.k. Barot and J.K.Chauhan and myself were very actively associated. Some of them were live members of ML party and some of them were member of CPI and some of them following the ideology of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar for the cause of downtrodden community. The Dalit writers like Joseph Mecwan, Praveen  Gadhvi, Chandu Maheriya, Balkrishna Anand, Bipin Meshiya, Jivan Thakore, Manishi Jani, Swaroop Dhruv, Dr. Ratilal Rohit,  Neerav Patel and Bipin Gohel etc. are the specific Dalit writers who have inspired me.

Jaydeep Sarangi: What is the role of Dalit literary activism in the Dalit freedom movement?
Harish Mangalam: Dalit literature is basically based on the ideology of great sociologist, historian, philosopher, economist, anthropologist,father of our constitution and the real emancipator of downtrodden communities in India, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. The Dalit literature depicts and advocates about humanity, liberty and fraternity. These are the basic objects for unity of the people-nation and the globe. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar has laid down the strong foundation of our independent India. And on the other hand, we have to awake the marginalized sections to follow an aphorism “Educate, Unite and Agitate” given by him, the great visionary. The ignition of torch of social awareness and revolutionary zeal amongst the intelligentsia as well as activists to eradicate social pollution of inhumanity, injustice and untouchability is the chief motto.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Do you have any opinions for the present Dalit freedom activists in Gujarat?
Harish Mangalam: In Gujarat, Dalit freedom activists are very active, they create in all the genres of Dalit literature to awake the suppressed people and the downtrodden communities apart from any castes and creeds. At any cost, we want to annihilate murky disorder of Indian society to attain complete revolutionary change so that there should not be any kind of discrimination-not even gender discrimination too. But, before that the Dalit writers-cum-activists have to be committed with full dedication and everybody should see that there should not be a hair-space for tying and untying in commitment. In Gujarat, I observe that some Dalit writers use to write in both the streams i.e. in ‘Lalit’ (entertainment literature) and Dalit literature to have a curry favour of both the streams which is not only contradictory, ridiculous but severely harmful to the Dalit movement. It proves that they write for their own ambition, self-entertainment, art for arts’ sake and not for the cause of their own society, which since ages been crushed by the hegemony powers. It realizes that they do not write for their brothers and sisters who have been ruthlessly suppressed and deprived of from all the fundamental rights. Therefore, I have divided such Dalit writers in three divisions and tried to create and establish new criticism of Dalit literature as mentioned below:
(a)    Those Dalit writers write only Dalit literature for the downtrodden communities following the ideology of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, should be considered as  ‘Committed Dalit writers’ ( Now we name it as ‘Ambedkarite literature’ instead of ‘Dalit literature’).
(b)    Those Dalit writers use to write in both the streams i.e. ‘Lalit’ and ‘Dalit’ should be considered as ‘Wavering Dalit writers’.
©     Those Dalit writers are untouchables but use to write only ‘Lalit literature’ should be considered as ‘Fallen Dalit writers’ as they shirk from the social responsibility, they do not follow the ideology of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. Actually, such Dalit writers might have been co-opted to weaken the whole movement of Dalit literature because one can minutely observe the prevalent monotony in ‘Lalit’ literature. The Dalit literature is being written so powerfully that most of the Universities of the whole world have been attracted at and impressed upon by this new literary stream. This is a great challenge in the world of literature.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Who are important academic reviewers of our work?
Harish Mangalam: My Dalit literary works have been reviewed by the below listed academicians:
Raghuveer Chaudhary (Gnanpith Award winner-2016), Pri. Mahaveer Sinh Chauhan ( Pro. V.C. of Hemchandracharya University, North Gujarat, Patan), Dr. Pathik Parmar, Dr. Ratilal Rohit, Dr. A.K.Sharma(editor of ‘Contemporary Vibes’), Dr. M.B. Gaijan, Dr. Jaydeep Sarangi, D.C. Chambial(editor of ‘Poetcrit’ Dr. Bharat Mehta,  Dr. Kanti Malsatar, Dr. Kailash Ahluvalia, Stephanie Kreiner (Heinrich Hein University, Dusseldorf, Germany), Helmuth Niederlie (President, PEN Club, Austria), Joseph Mecwan, Dr. Girishkumar Rohit, Ramanika Gupta (editor of Hindi magazine ‘Yuddhrat Aam Aadami’), Madhukant Kalpit, Arvind Vegda, Praveen Gadhvi, Dr. D.M. Bhadresariya, Dr. Vidhyut Joshi, Pri.Jayendra aRajesh Makwana, Dr. Akshaykumar R. Desai, Dinesh Desai, Pro. Tulsibhai C. Patel, Mohandas Naimishray, Pramodkumar Patel, Manilal H. Patel, Radheshyam Sharma, Dr. Praveen Darji, Dr. K.M.Makwana, Dr. Silas Pateliya, Natvar Tirgar, Dr. Sejal Shah, Anil Waghela, Pro. A.G. Vasava, Dr. Pandya, Suresh Salil (Rashtriya Sahara), Promila, Dr. Prabhu Chaudhary, Pri.Ravindra Thakore, Dr. Nalin M. Ramlingam, Harish Khatri, Pro. Padmaben Patel, Dr. Naresh Shukla, Dr. Rajendra Rohit, Pro. Jayant Gadit, Pro. Shirish Panchal, Amrapali Desai Chandu Maheriya, Ramesh Devmani, Chinu Modi, Dr. Sunil Jadav, Bipin Patel, Jayshree Zaru, Yoseph Mecwan, Pro. Manilal Ranveria, Pri.Natvarlal Kuberdas Pandya ‘Ushnas’, Balkrishna Anand, Natubhai Parmar, B. Kesharshivam and Dr. Keshubhai Desai etc…..

Jaydeep Sarangi: Will you enlighten us about ‘Kalo Suraj’ (The Black Sun)?
Harish Mangalam: In 1930, Lallubhai Dudhabhai Makwana had started a periodical titled ‘Navyuvak’ from Gulam Husen’s Chawl of Ahmedabad City and as I earlier mentioned that 60 to 75 Dalit periodicals were published. Bharatiya Dalit Panther organization under the leadership of Rameshchandra Parmar  was very forcefully active for awakening the untouchables. They started ‘Panther’ (editor: Naran Vora) magazine in 1975 wherein Dalit poems were published. This magazine has played very important and effective role to awake the educated Dalit youths. Other Dalit magazine ‘Kalo Suraj’ (The Black Sun) was published by Dalpat Chauhan in 1978.Myself was one of the consultants and had extended all the support wholeheartedly. This magazine was irregular and like a pamphlet, rather to say a little magazine. Without fund availability and lack of management skill, there was no continuity. It was published hardly, once or twice in a year. But, in the movement it had its’ own role. Here I should emphasize that the great role of Dalit magazines in Dalit movement goes to ‘Samajmitra’(editor: Rasilaben and Natubhai Parmar) and another great role of ‘Hayati’ magazine (editor: Harish Mangalam with the compilers Madhukant Kalpit, Arvind Vegda and Pathik Parmar) the mouthpiece of GUJARATI DALIT SAHITYA ACADEMY, AHMEDABAD. It was started in 1997, till to-day, without any delay has been publishing with its consistency and continuity.

Jaydeep Sarangi: What are your important books of poems, stories and prose essays?
Harish Mangalam: As I was a revenue officer in the service of state government of Gujarat, I had to remain ever ready for uncertain frequent transfer as a Damocles sword. As an Additional Collector, I was always in short of time and hardly getting a scope to write literature, even though, I developed skill to steal the time and made committed efforts for the Oppressed people. Till the day, I have published 35 books and other 14 are under pipeline, including compilations. The following are my important books:

1.       Prakamp (Quivering), Poetry-1991
2.       Talap (Craving), Short stories-2001 ( Translated into Hindi, Marathi, English and German) In Hindi as ‘Talab’ by Dr. Phulchand Gupta, in Marathi as ‘Tallaf’ by Sushma Lele, in English as ‘Light of Darkness’ by Dr. Rupalee Burke and in German as ‘Aus Dem Zwielicht’ by Stephanie Kreiner and Helmuth Niederlie.
3.       Tirad (Crack), Novel-1992, 2nd edition-1995 (Translated into Hindi as ‘Darar’ by Dr. Hasmukh Barot).
4.       Chowki (Guarding), Novel-1992, 2nd edition-1995 (Translated into Hindi as ‘Chowki’ by Surendra Doshi and Harshad Rana).
5.        Aganzal (Burning rage), Autobiography Part-I -2008 (Under translation process by Dr. Santoshkumar Das and Dr. Deeptha Achar).
6.       Samvitti (Consciousness), Criticism-1987
7.       Vidit (Known), Criticism-1989
8.       Panachh (String of arrow), Taste of poetry-2001
9.       Ekvachan (Nothing but true promise, ) Criticism-2006
10.   Pratidhwani (Echo), Criticism-2006 (Translated into Hindi as ‘Pratidhwani’ by Dr. Girishkumar Rohit)
11.   Sarjak Parichay : Dr. Pathik Parmar (Biography of Dr. Pathik Parmar, a prominent Dalit writer)-2009

ACADEMY, AHMEDABAD of which I am Managing Trustee and General Secretary too. No other Such an Institutional work in Dalit literature world of our country.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Tell us about your experiences of workshops in Germany.
Harish Mangalam: It was really a wonderful opportunity for me to have such an occasion to go on a literary visit to European Countries Germany and Austria, for that I must accolade to Stephanie Kreiner (Heinrich Hein University, Dusseldorf, Germany) and Helmuth Niederlie for preferring my collection ‘Talap’ of my Gujarati Short Stories translated into English as ‘Light of Darkness’ by Dr. Rupalee Burke for a translation project to translate the short stories into German. I was so eager to solve all the queries and questions to be raised by the translators in the workshop. It was in the interest of all the literature lovers and in particular of Dalit literature world to have lucid translation. I was able to solve their problems to the great extent with the live support of Stephanie Kreiner. In some queries, I gave illustrations and drawn the pictures on black board of the particular word of Gujarati and persuaded the translators. Likewise the word of noun ‘Kitali’ (vessel to serve Tea/Coffee), ‘Hal’ (Plough), and a stone kept out of the Dalit house for bathing and washing clothes etc. When I talked about our day-to-day habits, in particular of our habit of going to ease nature in open space/fields in rural India, they were not ready to believe it and for them it was completely beyond their imagination and I observed from their gestures that they were not happy with such worst condition of our rural folks. The students and translators were so eager to know the proper word of Gujarati word. I had an android cell phone which I used for the correct/proper word from the ‘talking translation’ and dictionaries of various languages. Even I helped them to find out the proper/correct word of German too from English to German dictionary. I had also been impressed by the whole halo of Heinrich Hein University, Dusseldorf. I found the city well planned with huge buildings with typical European architect. I liked wide and clean roads with systematic plying of the vehicles. I didn’t find overcrowd of the citizens and the weather was very pleasant, so no suffocation. I observed the citizens well disciplined, post-modernized and straight forward. The people are very punctual in timing. Stephanie Kreiner had come to receive me at the all the facilities of transportation, railway, restaurants, shops and library were available. I realized that the people are not hypocrites. Their xenodochy is without hypocrisy. During the workshop and after the end of the workshop, I delivered lectures on the Dalit literature and spoke much more on the life, struggle of Dr. B.R. AMbedkar and his  ideology. The audience was completely unaware of discrimination, untouchability, atrocities, inhuman treatment prevalent and caused to the Dalits in India by the so-called upper castes people. Knowing this, they had become unhappy and shocked.

Jaydeep Sarangi: How will you define the term ‘dalit’ in the present context?
Harish Mangalam: In Gujarat, we define ‘dalit’ means ‘downtrodden apart from any castes and creeds’. This term is inclusive of all – the have nots –the deprived of  and exploited segments of the society- may be socially, economically, morally, religiously, and politically- may be individually or collectively. But now onward, we have decided and passed unanimously the oral resolution in the National Seminar held in Gandhinagar National Law University on 30thand 31st January, 2016 the nomenclature ‘Ambedkarite literature’ instead of ‘Dalit literature.’

Jaydeep Sarangi: Do you think a literary association and forum can reform a society from caste stratification?
Harish Mangalam: Yes, Dalit literary association and forum not only reform the society but can make revolutionary change, but the activists-cum-writers should come out of the house for the effective and continuous actions. We may peep into the world history which is sole witness of revolutions took place in Russia and France. Nothing is impossible. In Indian society, first and the foremost the Oppressors need to change their mentality. For that bigotry should be scrapped and scientific syllabus should be introduced in all the institutions of education from top to bottom.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Who are important dalit activists from your state and how far are they influenced by other dalit activists from other states?
Harish Mangalam: In Gujarat about 100 Dalit writers are active in literature but writers-cum-activists are in very less numbers and full-fledged activists are a few. But, Raju Solanki, Sahil Parmar, Chandu Maheriya, Arvind Vegda, Dr. Ratilal Rohit, Madhukant Kalpit, Jignesh Mewani, Dr. Sunil Jadav and the members of the core group of GUJARATI DALIT SAHITYA ACADEMY, AHMEDABAD are very active. The present awareness prevalent in the state of Gujarat has been influenced by the ideology of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, E.V.Ramaswamy Periyar, Narayan Guru, Achhutanand, Guru Ghansiram, Chand Guru, Mukund Malik, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule etc.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Can you call your writings as part of literary weapon?
Harish Mangalam: Yes, I can call my writings not as part of literary weapon but ‘only and only a literary weapon’ instead of a scripture.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Are you familiar with Bangla Dalit Literary Movement?
Harish Mangalam: Ours is the great problem and main obstacle of  translation of Dalit literature from one Regional language to another Regional language and that is very scarce. Till my last visit to Kolkatta, made possible by my dear friend Jaydeep Sarangi to attend the National Seminar on Dalit literature, I was only knowing that Dalit literature is being written in Bangla. Your National Seminar(2011) on Dalit literature was wonderful and worthy of imparting deep knowledge of Dalit literature being written in Bangla. During that period of National Seminar, I happened to meet many Dalit writers and personalities and exchanged knowledge while conversations. Recently, I read Surviving in My World: Growing up Dalit in Bengal (2015), a translated autobiography of Manohar Mouli Biswas. Amazing! My heartfelt thanks to Angana Dutta and you for making this book available in English.

Jaydeep Sarangi: How far are you associated with the other Dalit activists and writers?
Harish Mangalam: I do believe that Dalit writers should simultaneously be an activist. At present, not only myself but all the members of our GUJARATI DALIT SAHITYA ACADEMY, AHMEDABAD are closely associated with all the activists those who are committed. We associate to any activist, writer,social thinker and NGO, but our condition is that he/it must be committed. If there is  no commitment, we would not like to associate.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Will the Dalit discourse travel?
Harish Mangalam : Yes, Dalit discourse is must, nobody can abstain because now a days, it has become mainstream in the world of  literature. No programme of literature in the world goes without Dalit discourse because in its centre is humanism. Feminism, Progressivism, SC-ST-OBC –isms, Marxism and all other marginalized and oppressed voices are inclusive in Dalit literature. So, this is an age of ‘Dalit literature age’.

Jaydeep Sarangi:  What is the role of little magazines in Dalit Movement in Gujarat?
Harish Mangalam: Now a days In Gujarat, only ‘HAYATI’ is playing the major role in Dalit movement. Other fortnightly ‘Deesha’ (Muljibhai Khuman) and ‘Dalit Adhikaar’ (Chandu Maheriya) are being published regularly and their role is also very important. Other magazine recently started is ‘Samvedanana Soor’ (Kishore  Makwana), who is closely associated to RSS and you know better (everybody knows better, it is not at all trustworthy so far Dalit movement is concerned). I firmly believe that little/big magazine is not concerned much, but commitment is pre-condition in Dalit literary movement.

Jaydeep Sarangi: Can a subaltern speak ? If he speaks, can be retain his position as the subaltern?
Harish Mangalam: Sorry, my dear friend, Sarangi ji ! I do not believe/accept a term ‘subaltern’. Those who are associated with the Dalit movement are either ‘Captains’ or ‘Lieutenants.’ So, his position as the subaltern doesn’t arise and tenable. 80% of the total population of our country is involved in Dalit literature and it represents them, therefore, Dalit literature becomes main stream. 

Jaydeep Sarangi: How about translation (into English) of your works?
Harish Mangalam: Light of Darkness’, a  collection of my short stories has been translated into German as ‘Aus Dem Zwielicht’ and other short stories in various regional languages. My autobiography, ‘Aganzal’ Part-I is under process of translation into English, may we hope its early sprouting.
I thank you Jaydeep Sarangi ji for preferring me for the interview.