Dalits and Memories

This paper explores the various ways Cakkiliyar people, a Dalit community, relate, through memory, to their past and their history. Far from constituting a homogeneous group, the more than 60 testimonies collected among Cakkiliyars reveal a diversity of perspectives on the past, strongly influenced by the situation in the present and aspirations for the future. Three distinct ways of thinking and three prototypes emerge from the testimonies; each one is defined by a specific way of positioning oneself in relation to various historical times.