Dr. Namaedo Nimgade’s In the Tiger’s Shadow: A Study of Cultural Transgression

Abstract

Culture has always remained a dynamic phenomenon just like literature. They both complement each other. In fact, culture directly or indirectly affects the literature. Culture has the power in itself to transgress from non material aspect to material one. In fact, the novel of Dr. Namdeo Nimgade, In the Tiger’s Shadow is an appropriate example of cultural transgression from rural setting of culture to modern urban set up.  Dr. Nimgade was born in a very desperate poor family from Mahar untouchable caste. His family comprises of landless bonded labourers, who was settled in the dustbowl of Sathgon on Western India. He was fourteen years old when he finally managed to attend his school.  He was beaten and humiliated because he was an untouchable Dalit caste.  He was forced to stand on the hot verandha and listen at the window lest his touch should pollute the others and at the same time was smarter than the rest of the upper caste students of his classroom. Inspired by the life of B. R. Ambedkar, he pursued his education and revolt back at the atrocities of the upper caste people in a dignified manner. In a conventional narrative technique, he expresses his anger and resentment towards the social inequality. The aim of this paper is to present the changing aspects of life from non-material culture (rural aspect) to the material culture (urban aspect) through the life of Dr. Nimgade as exhibits in the novel.