The refugee has always occupied an abject position within the official discourses of nationhood, citizenship and belonging. Politically and legally identified as an ‘other’, the refugee’s personhood, most often, fails to receive acknowledgement of its due humanity. Not only do refugees lose voice and identity in relocating to a new country but often the essential dignity of life itself is compromised for them to the greatest possible extent. Characterized perpetually as aliens, intruders and villains who constitute a drain upon the economic resources of the host country, they are always held under suspicion – legal and cultural – and constitute the most marginalized population group in any society. This paper seeks to read Dalit refugee life as put forward in the short fiction of Jatin Bala and seeks to pay attention to its invigorative potential in crafting a discourse of human dignity.
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Karim City College, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand
