Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the production of untouchability through a sensory politics of smell and odours by locating it in Hindi Dalit autobiographical literature.

Paper long abstract:

George Orwell writes in 'The Road to Wigan Pier', "…the real secret of class distinctions can be summed up in four frightful words - the lower classes smell." The politics of the sensory is invested heavily in systems of power and hierarchy. The caste system in India employs this power of the sensory with a great force. The untouchability of leather, tannery and sewage workers is maintained primarily through the unhygienic and smelly conditions that characterize their work. However, discussing the olfactory register of untouchability poses a huge methodological challenge - How does one write, talk or read about odours? Since this is largely an experiential and subjective task, autobiographical accounts could possibly be one arena where odours creep into the narrative, largely unnoticed.

This paper looks at what it then means to be able to 'smell someone's caste', by examining the phenomenological archive of odours made available through Hindi Dalit autobiographical narratives. The paper discusses the role played by the sense of smell in the creation and operation of untouchability. The discussion then moves to the phenomenon of the reproduction of this olfactory sensorium in autobiographical literature and the consumption of these smells by the reader. The odours of blood, raw meat, tanned skins and fecal matter gets translated into words and becomes a part of the reader's ontology thereby invoking repulsion, amazement and disgust. The paper thus examines the relationship between untouchability, sense of smell and odours by locating it in act of writing and consuming autobiographical literature.