The Dalit Resource Centre:
In view of the socio-political stigma among the Dalits since their birth and given gloomy past and the need of creating a salubrious future, it is important not only to document the various elements of their deprivation and their assertion but also to create a data base for the role of intellectuals and also social and political activists. In view of this, the GB Pant Social Science Institute has established a Dalit Resource Centre within the Centre for Culture, Power and Change, which focuses on the creation of a corpus of knowledge related to the emergence and self-assertion of Dalit communities, especially in the contemporary socio-political arena of Uttar Pradesh. This helps in understanding the process of creation of Dalit public sphere and the contribution of Dalit popular booklets, print media, and cultural resources in its evolution. The DRC has identified and interviewed popular Dalit writers, activists, performers residing in different pockets of Uttar Pradesh. A comprehensive map of Dalit publication centers has been developed with a view to identify these writers and publishers.
DRC’s research is not limited to oral sources alone. Whatever relevant written or printed materials like, essays, poems, songs, discourses, couplets, etc. are available in the DRC’s archive. This will ensure continuity and will fill up gaps in the understanding of the emergence of Dalit public sphere.
The following types of documentation are undertaken in the project: Conducting interviews and constructing biographical notes of the Dalit popular writers earmarked in the map; making abstracts of Dalit Popular booklets, preparation of anthology both in Hindi and English of a few selected booklets; audio-visual documentation of informal meetings, conferences and socio-cultural activities in Dalit communities, the cultural narratives created during the Bhakti period laid the foundation of Dalit consciousness in north India which further took a radical form in the modern period and is increasingly developing as an integral component for the Dalits to claim space in the mainstream public discursive sphere in the contemporary period.