National Past and Political Present

Over the last couple of decades, electoral processes and policies of affirmative action have produced some powerful leaders from dalit and low caste communities. This has had an impact on the politics of historiography in India resulting in the democratisation of history as knowledge of the community and of history as a discipline. This paper attempts to explore the dalit relationship with the nation and deals with discursive strategies and politics of imagination, as well as the narration of the history of nation-making by dalit (oppressed) communities of Uttar Pradesh.