The Politics of Illegitimacy and Resistance in Sharankumar Limbale’s The White Paper (Akkarmashi), Dalit aesthetics

Abstract

Sharankumar Limbale’s The White Paper (Akkarmashi, 1984) stands as one of the most influential autobiographical narratives in Dalit literature and a foundational text in the articulation of Dalit subjectivity. The text foregrounds the existential crisis of the Akkarmashi—the “half‑caste” born of caste‑transgressive sexual exploitation—and exposes the structural violence embedded in caste society. Through a narrative that oscillates between personal anguish and collective testimony, Limbale documents the psychological fragmentation, social humiliation, and political invisibility imposed upon Dalits by Brahmanical patriarchy. This article examines The White Paper through the lenses of Dalit aesthetics, Ambedkarite thought, and subaltern studies, arguing that Limbale transforms personal trauma into a political document that indicts caste society. The narrative reveals how caste, sexuality, and illegitimacy intersect to produce a life of perpetual exclusion, while simultaneously asserting the agency of the oppressed through the act of self‑representation. Ultimately, the text functions as a counter‑archive that reclaims dignity through testimony, making it a seminal contribution to the canon of Dalit resistance literature.