In his reference to the English language as a hegemon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o talks about the imperial imposition of language. When one is compelled to use that language while voicing one’s concerns, it is a cultural bombardment. The ‘cultural bomb’ is to ‘annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves’.14 If the Dalit experience is not acknowledged and studied through its humour and language, the public and private spheres of Dalits face the threat of erasure.
