Disability Narratives in Contemporary Bhāṣā Fiction and Poetry

Abstract

This research paper examines the emergence, evolution, and complexity of
disability narratives within contemporary Bhāṣā fiction and poetry, focusing on
Hindi and related North Indian vernacular literatures. Through textual analysis,
disability studies frameworks, and cultural-historical contextualization, this
study interrogates how disability is represented, embodied, metaphorized,
politicized, and resisted in literary forms shaped by caste, gender, class, and
linguistic identity. The study argues that unlike traditional literary depictions in
Sanskritic or early modern Bhāṣā texts—where disability often functions as
karma, divine punishment, moral allegory, or symbolic flaw—contemporary
Bhāṣā writings increasingly foreground disabled subjectivities as autonomous,
complex, and embodied agents. These narratives challenge normative aesthetics,
interrogate social exclusion, and reframe disability within relational, sociopolitical,
and phenomenological contexts. Drawing from key works of fiction,
poems by marginalized and Dalit writers, autobiographical accounts, and modern
anthologies, this paper explores how disability interacts with themes of rural life,
labor, gender, violence, trauma, environmental crisis, and modernity. Ultimately,
the study illustrates that contemporary Bhāṣā literature not only reflects shifting
cultural attitudes toward disability but also actively participates in reimagining
inclusive futures, linguistic representation, and literary ethics.