Casteism as a Panoptic Edifice as Represented in Cho. Dharman’s Koogai and Sharankumar Limbale’s Hindu

Abstract

Varnashrama Dharma propounded by Manu forms the basis of caste system in India. The dearth in exercising mobility and communication among the sub-castes of the Dalit community, to bring harmony and have a unified protest and resistance against the caste Hindus, have had always been challenging for the Dalits. Panopticism and the structure of a panopticon comes as a robust tool to penetrate the hierarchical structure of casteism, approbated by the Hindu Religion. This also provides a perspicuous explanation of how and why, casteism ceases the members of the periphery from vertical mobility and communication among its sub-groups/sub-castes and also provide a unison voice of protest. The ideation on power, discipline and surveillance of Foucault in tandem with the normative ideology of Manusmriti, magnifies the strictures imposed on the avarnas (not belonging to the Varna system) by the savarnas (communities which belong to one of the four Varna); maintaining the status quo even after mass movements of protest and awareness in life and literature.