Foregrounding the Snake Charmers and Dalit Issues: A Study of Sapua Kela (The Snake Charmer) by Ramachandra Behera and Sapua (The Snake Charmer) by Kalindi Charana Panigrahi

Abstract

The present scenario makes it quite conspicuous that our society still grapples with a lot of pressing issues in this 21^st century which hugely problematize the existence of human beings. In spite of all the endeavours to eradicate a social evil like casteism, we have failed utterly to protect the interest of the Dalits who are still marginalized in one or other way. However, literature being a mirror reflection of society never hesitates to address various issues confronted by the so-called Dalits through various literary outputs. In this respect, Odia literature does not lag behind. Many of the Odia litterateurs have made sincere efforts in foregrounding Dalit issues in their writings. Sometimes, the attempt of Odia writers in highlighting Dalit issues is explicit and other times it is quite implicit. The main apogee of this paper is to interpret two of the Odia short stories, Sapua Kela by Ramachandra Behera and Sapua by Kalindi Charana Panigrahi with a view to examine the ways Dalit snake charmers have been represented.