Depiction of the Hegemonic Internalization of Socio-Cultural Biases: A Study of Sharankumar Limbale’s The Outcaste

Abstract

Sharankumar Limbale (1956 b.) is a Marathi author who is primarily known for his autobiography Akkarmashi (1984) originally published in Marathi. Having been translated into several Indian languages, the English translation of the autobiography by Santosh Bhoomkar got published by Oxford University Press in 2003. This paper aims at the portrayal of the abject poverty, utter helplessness, and biases prevalent in the socio-cultural milieus while offering contemplation to the practices of untouchability or discrimination based on caste, like how the minds of the people in a particular culture or society are trained to internalize the particular behavioural patterns of the dominating class of society. The paper also analyzes the ironic attitude of the men of upper-caste like how do they wish to cherish the physical charm of the beautiful women of the outcastes secretly, whereas socially they seek complete dissociation from them. Everything leads to the ostracization of the outcastes overtly and the outcastes stop reacting to the discriminatory patterns of behaviour, thus, their indifference to these becomes their habit turning them senseless.