Quest for Needs Social Realism and Maslows Hierarchy of Needs in Select Dalit Novels

Abstract

Every human being on this earth has a set of rights to live peacefully. Discrimination newlineoccurs when an individual or a set of people is restricted and denied to relish their newlinerights on an equal basis with fellow human beings because of an unfair distinction newlinemade in policy or treatment. Discrimination is a global problem that has not left out newlineany country enlisted in the world map. In India, caste discrimination is significant newlinediscrimination that keeps many people away from society s mainstream. Despite the newlinecaste-discrimination, every individual has a craving to attain their common needs. newlineAbraham Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs classifies the needs of human beings into newlinefive levels. Without exception, everyone in a society tends to progress from one newlinelevel to another in their individual or social needs. In the process of fulfiling the newlineneeds, the Dalits who are frequently discriminated against in the name of caste are newlinecompelled to face many difficulties and hindrances in their journey of progression in newlinethe Hierarchy of Needs. This study attempts to analyse the Dalits quest for needs in newlineG. Kalyana Rao s Untouchable Spring, Indira Parthasarathy s The River of Blood, and newlineCho. Dharman s Koogai: The Owl, with the help of Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs newlinetheory of psychology. Besides analysing the needs, the research correlates the novels newlinewith real-life incidents and examines social realism in the Dalit literature. These three newlinenovelists visualise the caste discriminations, which they attempt to bring in their novels newlineto make awareness of Dalits struggle lives. newline newline