Thunderstorm: A Peek into Dalit Culture

The world of Indian Dalits is far removed from the urban metros in which most English-educated Indians live today, even when they live in the same physical areas. With most narratives written in local languages, they remain limited to the region. In this context, translations play a major role: writers create regional/national literature, translators world literature. To a great extent, they represent Fourth World Literature, a term coined probably by George Manuel and popularised by the realisation that even within the most developed regions of the world, we have people still denied even the basic necessities of life like food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, health-care and education. Though the term was originally used to refer to the aborigines of America and Canada, it may as well refer to the Dalits of India. The Dalits of India and their writings are indeed an inalienable part of this Fourth World. This paper attempts to analyse Ratan Kumar Sambharia's Thunderstorm, translated by Mridul Bhasin (Hachette, India 2015) in terms of thematic concerns which showcase the actual conditions of the Dalits of our country.