Date:09/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/08/09/stories/2004080909820500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Dalits kept out of writers meet: Kancha Illaiah

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, AUG. 8. The Commonwealth Writers' Triennial concluded here on Sunday with the issue of the exclusion of the "underprivileged" making its strident presence again. Kancha Illaiah, Professor of Political Science in Osmania University, accused the organisers of excluding 70 per cent of the Indian Nation, the "Dalit-Bahujans," from its proceedings.

Calling himself "an uninvited guest" at the gathering, Prof. Illaiah, who was sitting in the audience, questioned the absence of "Dalit-Bahujans" on the dais.

In her hesitant reply to this charge, Susie Tharu, Professor of English, CIEFL, said that it while it was true that large sections of the underprivileged were blocked from access to schools, universities, professions, jobs, power and resources it would be unfair to pin the blame on an individual or a group of individuals for this predicament.

Clarification

Chairperson of the Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS), Meenakshi Mukherjee, clarified that this was a triennial meeting of a professional body and only members of ACLALS were participating. She said that it was necessary to clear the air of "repeated allegations about ACLALS being elitist

Focus on colonialism

Earlier, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize winner for 2003, Canadian Caribbean writer, Austin Clarke, spoke about how colonialism had usurped the voice of the black slaves.