Among the basic issues that continue to occupy a prominent place in the arena of American politics is that of race-relationship. Being situated in both the superstructure and base of society, ‘color prejudice’ is a personal as well as a political reality. The pervasive presence of the color line in a nation dedicated to the avowed ideals of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness remains a cause for concern even after 225 years of the Declaration of Independence. No less problematic is the issue of caste for the world’s largest democracy, India. In the words of Arundhati Roy, the Dalit struggle for justice and equality would be, “and indeed ought to be the biggest challenge that India would face in the next century…this particular war will be an immense and complicated one. It will be waged in all sorts of ways, by all sorts of people in all sorts of places.”
The paper examines the paradigms of the dilemmas of race and caste as reflected in the works of two poet-activists: Ethelbert Miller, a contemporary African American poet, and Namdeo Dhasal, a Dalit poet based in Mumbai, India. While Namdeo Dhasal gives lyrical expression to the agony of the Dalits, Ethelbert Miller optimistically reaffirms: “I can write. My prayers are songs. I can make music. I can give color to the world. This is my life. This is my gift.”