Gandhi Ambedkar complementary: Dalit writer Ajay Navaria

Mahatma Gandhi and Bhim Rao Ambedkar are complementary to each other, said Dalit writer Ajay Navaria today, while asserting that it was time for fellow writers from the community to break the stereotypical image associated with them.
"I see Mahatma Gandhi and Ambedkar complementary to each other. We are living in 2017 not in 1936. We are strenghtening our bonding with others. Why cannot we see a dream in the literary world to make a society where everyone is above the casteism?" Navaria said at a session at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival here.
He said that Dalit writers, who have not yet shunned their traditional thoughts, should break out of their "depressing" image, and not run away from the fact that the current generation wants to hide their identity.

"Dalits are into their stereotypical image which has remained frozen for years and that needs to change. Dalits should look into their families... That their new generation is trying to escape from their social identity.
"A picture is presented that we have been victimized and tortured. I do not differ from such facts, but I feel it is time to change this image. We should fight for our rights but that should not stop us from changing our stereotypical image," he said.
The Hindi writer whose works highlight the hypocrisies and indignities of the caste system, was speaking at a session titled, 'Look Back in Anger: Writing and Remembering', said that literature does not perennially have to be anger-ridden.

"You may see anger in initial works of writers, be it Dalit or otherwise, but with the course of time, this anger transforms and vanishes from these writings," Navaria, who has penned several collections of short stories like "Patkatha Aur Anya Kahaniyaan", said.