Relocating Subalternity: Dalit Rebellion in the Poetry of Sikhamani

Abstract

The poet Sikhamani is a teacher and a Dalit poet who writes in Telugu. His contribution to the corpus of Dalit poetry in Telugu is significant. Sikhamani’s poetry exposes the hypocrisy, inhumanity, exploitation, atrocities, discrimination, etc., of the caste Hindu society. The Black Rainbow, a collection of Sikhamani’s poems, portrays the problems of Dalit lives. His use of mythological figures, metaphors, similes, allusions, etc., enrich his poetry. Every poem reflects a protest/rebellious attitude from which the identity of Dalits emerges. He attacks the physical, cultural, social and even literary atrocities perpetrated over Dalits and interrogates Brahmanism.