‘An Ocean in a Well’: Tamil writer D Ravikumar’s stories reimagine contemporary Dalit struggles

Influenced by Ambedkar in his life and work, D Ravikumar’s prose claims the political through personal narrative stylistics. Apart from being a Dalit activist who writes conscientiously about the Dalits, he is also a Member of the Parliament. In the ten stories collected in An Ocean in a Well: Stories and translated by V Ramakrishnan, one finds his aesthetics blend with the social and the cultural.

The stories reflect an uncanny realisation of what it takes to live life on the fringes. Most of the characters remain unnamed, a deliberate erasure to highlight how societal injustice is frequently nameless. The storytelling is mostly linear, with the actions happening in real time. The protagonists, whether because of their positionality or their social capital, are unable to take charge of the events around them. Often, they end with the same sense of loss that they begin with and Ravikumar underscores that it so happens because of the socio-political setup around them.

A broken social system

In the very first story, titled “Thambi”, which translates to “younger brother,” two eccentric strangers come together to highlight the misery of helplessness. The unnamed “thambi” moves from one place to another in search of food and shelter and when a kind merchant helps him, his...

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