Gujarati Literature

Dalit writing, global contexts: Neerav Patel's Severed Tongue Speaks Out skewers casteism, with humour

Even as a bilingual writer (English and Gujarati) and despite being possessed of a poetic imagination far more creative than his contemporary Arun Kolatkar (upper caste, and bilingual), Neerav Patel wasn’t exempt from the prejudiced and casteist nature of Indian literary criticism. Savarna critics immortalised Kolatkar and invisiblised Patel.

Inequity of inequality: A lament in Gujarati

In the second part, Neerav Patel, pioneer of Dalit literature in Gujarat, poet extraordinaire, editor and translator, opens the window to his poetry.