Can Subaltern Speak?

         In many cultures of the world, women are victims of socio-cultural suppression. In their struggle for women’s freedom, feminists have argued that the plight of women in modern society cannot be attributed to natural or biological factors. Feminists are convinced that women are not inferior to men, and are advocating for autonomy and self-actualization for women in a male dominated society. The title of this paper is inspired from Gayatri Spivak’s work on Subaltern theories. This paper aims to analyze how society tries to maintain its control over minorities, here taking the case of Women, Aborigines and Dalits. Secondly how one can help them get their get voice. In addition to that we will also look into Aboriginal literature, what its form, how it is perused by the world, and what actions have been taken to fight the stereotypes.

        Starting with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak who is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. In her work "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Spivak discusses the lack of an account of the Sati practice, leading her to reflect on whether the subaltern can even speak. Spivak writes about the process, the focus on the Eurocentric Subject.

        The term Subaltern is combination of two words first being Sub means under and secondly being Alter meaning other, which put together means being under someone's thumb and at same time being discriminated against for being other and not a part of the mainstream clan.

For centuries we have seen the hierarchy practiced in our houses, it alway flows in a pattern wherein the men of the house are given first preference over the women:

The problem here is not the boys or men in the house receiving the first preference, but the problem over here is women not getting enough chances to voice out their opinions and for making them believe that their opinions really do not matter. Once these women begin to believe this, they really don't realize that what is happening with them is wrong, and they themselves start criticizing the people who are fighting for their rights.

          Many times women are made to believe that they need men to look after them, as these men are responsible for them, and will do things which are better for them. In this way women are being civilised by men.

The process of civilising women starts in a slow course; wherein first they are made to believe that they aren't smart enough to live in this harsh world, hence need to go by the rules and traditions set by the society. Secondly by manipulating them to compromise with their identity or personality in any given stage of their life.

       We can similar fight been fought by Aborigines of Australian, who in are using literature to overcome their situation and the way they're presented to the world. Let us begin be studying what an Aboriginal literature is all about.

            Indigenous literature of Australia initially descended from folklore, which was passed on in the form of storytelling. This storytelling tradition is significant in the lives of Aboriginal people. Hence, it was considered essential by the elders of the Aboriginal communities to pass on this knowledge to their next generation. Because of various reasons a lot of stories were forgotten. There have been numerous Aboriginal stories known across Australia, and each community has its own stories which differ from other communities and regions. A common characteristic of Aboriginal groups is their similar belief systems which are called the Stories of the Dreaming. They instruct the people on the rules of living, ancestral being, history, teachings on the natural environment, teachings on the spiritual world.

         The knowledge gained through the stories is part of Aboriginal life. They speak of social, moral, ethical values besides spiritual and transcendental truths. They also teach us about geographical and environmental knowledge, which help the people to survive in the harsh environment of Australia. The moral lessons generally enlighten and teach them the gap between vices and virtues. Because of this, stories are important for younger generations to lead a better life and to enrich people’s knowledge on aspects important to Aboriginal life. More specifically, according to the Australian Museum website, Aboriginal dreamtime stories, myths and legends are told to educate the people, and especially the younger generations, about their community and their people’s history.

         After the arrival of British Colonizers the story and lives of aborigines changed forever. To top it off their lives became part of exotic  stories of colonizers. As the colonizers portrayed a very dreadful picture of Aboriginal people and their cultures to the world. These Aboriginal people are  marginalized in their own land and several Aboriginal tribes and many native languages have been wiped out.

         In the article “Dalits and Tribes: The People of Fourth World” (2016), Swamy has observed that Dalits, Indigenous people of America, Aboriginal people of Australia are the native people who lived before Europeans or other colonizers invaded and settled in their  lands. Therefore, the time has come for the Dalits, tribals and other native people to fight the battles against their subjugation and retrieve their space in social, cultural, and political realms of the earth. It also reveals that the evolution of the fourth World writing is a reflection of the socio, economic, literary and cultural circumstances that affected the lives of the natives.

But there’s always two sides to a coin, same is the case with subaltern literature where subaltern consider their literature as a platform to put forward their views and a space to show the world what they really are. On the other hand we have critics who classify their work as Resistance literature.  Lucashenko has similar views, who states “Indigenous literature is protest literature”, but she doesn’t rule out the possibility of other themes. Other writers with similar mindset don't feel hesitant while presenting natives in an unjust manner. Here natives are simply represented as offenders and criminals by the colonial masters. The colonial rule marginalizes the indigenous people through many processes and that include “depopulation, legal control, the use of ideology through religion, education, media, urbanization, and paternalism”.

Similar case can be seen in the paper “Situating Dalit Literature in Indian writing in English”(2014) by Ramanathan. Where Ramanathan says that in the Indian subcontinent, the Aryans have no culture of their own and importance. They settled down and created and propagated the caste system by treating the indigenous natives as untouchables. This paper also proves that Dalits have their own culture and traditions, but many works written on them did not mention their cultural aspects but focuses merely on oppression due to upper caste Hindus.

          Aboriginal literature in English has shown the spark of great literary tradition, something on the lines of British and American literature. The strong gesture towards an effective literature is possible because both white and indigenous writers have grasped and been writing about the Aboriginal conditions.

Indigenous writing has not only concentrated to Aboriginal issues such as denial, oppression, dislocation, racism, assimilation, and activism. Aboriginal writers have dedicated themselves to express the facets of Aboriginal culture and society, which include its stories of dreaming, traditions and practices. Besides these there are writers who write neither about Aboriginal issues nor Aboriginal cultures. They write about day to day things and have tried their hand in different genres. With all the above mentioned diversities, Aboriginal literature expanded and became a dominant theme in the World literatures.

            The socio literary and cultural expansion during the period of 1945-1961 is believed to have been limited by the writings of Judith Wright and Patrick White. Both the writers have shared poetic and metaphysical depiction of Aboriginal culture. Judith Wright has succeeded in developing her literary contribution into fruitful collaboration with Aboriginals. However, in the light of contemporary Aboriginal literary consciousness, even her contribution is found to be lacking in genuine representation.

It is proved that these mainstream Australian writers who dealt with the Aboriginal portrayals stick to the notion that Aboriginals were mindless and be put down whenever needed. On the whole, none of the writers during this period succeeded in presenting Aboriginals as fully intelligent or self-aware individuals. They were only treated as subjects for creative exploitation. This conceptual failure has been fleshed and clothed by Aboriginal writers from the 1970s onwards.

         To represent these minorities, George Manuel (1921-1989) introduced the concept of The Fourth World, a “term synonymous with stateless, poor, and marginal nations.” (Griggs, Richard) George Manuel was an influential Indigenous personality of Canada who advocated the political unification of Indigenous people across the globe and the creation of the Fourth world movement. Indigenous people across the globe have much in common and in the face of adversity, unity becomes the binding factor. To promote the perspective of ‘Fourth World’, with the assistance of Michael Posluns, he published The Fourth World: An Indian Reality (1974). Manuel’s campaign from brotherhood to nationhood found its resonance in all the aspects of Indigenous peoples lives.

         Lastly one can say Aboriginal literature has three major elements: cultural nationalism, literary talent, and Aboriginal pride. Above all, the Aboriginal literature deals and fights for identity, an impetus for many native literatures across the world. Along with this it also tackles the theme of Australian history in many ways. It is by studying Aboriginal oral tradition, by raising a sense of Aboriginal pride in the heroes of Black Australian past and through reevaluation of interracial relations. Australians attempt to identify themselves with the feeling of guilt and injustice. Subscribing to this perspective, most of the Aboriginal writers are preoccupied with the theme of past injustice and emphasize in creating autonomous Aboriginal history. One of the reasons for this preoccupation is to distort the European version of history and to establish Pre/Post European contact history. Secondly the marginalised sections are distanced from the dominant people or power centers due to the deprived economic, political and religious power.

         Coming back to our question, “Can Subaltern Speak?” To which my answer is, yes subaltern can speak provided there are made to feel safe and equal. Secondly when they are provided with correct education, thirdly when people around them come together to help them get their voice out and lastly when they themselves feel confident enough about their personality and identity.

         From what I have discussed above, we can say that as long as we have leaders who are hungry for power, till that time discrimination against minorities will continue. To maintain this control over masses they have always used cultural hegemony, convincing people to believe them in the name of religion and culture. The only way to overcome this hegemonic evils, we should start educating ourselves and the people around us with genuine information from authentic sources.

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