A Contextual Study of Selected Dalit Texts in Relation to Foucaults Philosophy of Power Normalization

Abstract

As per Michel Foucault, a French philosopher and historian, power is a dynamic concept newlineinvolving different aspects like domination, ability, agency, and potential. His theory newlineexplains differences in various modes of power. Monarchies being a thing of past, in newlineFoucault s view, a more finely tuned theory of power is devised that can help us newlineunderstand the many ways power operates when there are no dictators, normalization newlinebeing one of these. Foucault describes normalizing power as the construction of idealized newlinenorms of conduct where normalization of power can be used as a tactic for exerting newlinemaximum social control with minimum expenditure of force. newlinePresent research aims at applying Foucault s conceptualizations of the norm and newlinenormalization of power in the context of Indian Caste System. For this study, the thesis newlinefocuses on the selected works of Dalit literature. Balbir Madhopuri s Changiya Rukh: newlineAgainst the Night: An Autobiography (2010), Urmila Pawar s The Weave of My Life: A newlineDalit Woman s Memoirs (2008), and Sheoraj Singh Bechain s My Childhood on My newlineShoulders (2009) are the three autobiographies of Dalit writers which have been selected newlinefor the study. Besides these, The Last Flicker (2010) by Gurdial Singh has been selected newlinein order to consider the non-Dalit perspective regarding caste. newlineThe broad objective of this research is to study the selected texts in light of newline