Interrogating the Appropriation of Spaces of Caste in Pakistan: Ambedkarian Perspective on Progressive Religio-Political Representations in Sindhi Short Stories and in Everyday Politics

This paper is an attempt to understand the appropriation of spaces of Dalits by Sindhi Progressive activists and short story writers in Pakistan as they construct or rather undermine caste at the anvil of religion and gender to reframe their own religio-political agenda premised on political Sufism or Sufi nationalism. I specifically discuss the narratives emergent of the three popular short stories that are reframed as having exceptional emancipatory potential for the Dalits and (Dalit) women. Assessing the emancipatory limits of Sindhi Progressive narrative, I argue while that the short stories purport to give fuller expression to religious, gender-based and class dimension of the problematic, it elides the problem of casteism and the subsequent existential demand of Dalit emancipation. Given the hegemonic influence of local Ashrafiyya class, the internal caste frictions are glossed over through political Sufism or Sindhi nationalism. This gloss of politicised Sufism hampers Dalit agency and rather facilitates the appropriation of Dalit spaces by Ashrafiyya class. This leads to conclude that the seemingly progressive literarypolitical narratives framed in religio-political idiom may offer to the oppressed not more than a

the province of Pakistan, the Ashrafiyya elite frames and presents its narrative through Sindhi 4 , the dominant language of the province 5 . The supposedly Progressive section of Ashrafiyya elite frames its ideology in Sufi-nationalist idiom that I call political Sufism, ideology that asserts Hindu-Muslim harmony without necessarily confronting the issue of casteism and Dalit exclusion (see Hussain, 2019a;Hussain, 2019b). Inspired by the international modern progressive movement in politics and literature during the 1950s and 1960s, the Ashrafiyya (also Sindhi Savarna) writers identified themselves as ‗Taraqqi-Passand' (Progressives) (see Malkani,4 The bulk of the Sindhi literature is published in the form of books, magazines, newspapers .To 1993; Hussain, 1997;Memon, 2002;Siraj, 2009;Paleejo, 2012;Paleejo, 2016;Chandio, 2016). ‗Progressiveness' is explained by Dr. Ghafoor Memon, a Sindhi literary critic, as ‗an attitude, perspective and the movement that has been there in every era' such as during the Greek period ‗when Socrates rebelled against the traditions of his time and gave forth a new philosophy, and stood for truth.' (Memon, 2002, p.279), or when European populace began resisting against feudalism, religiosity and fanaticism during French and October (socialist) revolution, and in process, rationality and scientific thinking symbolic of ‗Progressive' attitudes, emerged (Memon, 2002, p.279). Irrespective of seemingly egalitarian modernist impulses of the Progressives, the postcolonial religio-political terrain led to the production of literature that undermined the subaltern question of internal colonialism of Dalits by the Ashrafiyya-Savarna classes.
It gradually became evident to me during my fieldwork in 2016 in lower Sindh that Dalit issues were greatly influenced and impressed by the popular literature produced by that Progressive class. It convinced me not only the level of ‗hegemonic' (see Gramsci, 1971;Hussain, 2019b) influence of Ashrafiyya 6 -Savarna class over Dalits, but also the epistemic freedom of the Ashrafiyya class to construct the narrative of their choice to relativise Dalit subordination and influence the Dalit's self-perception. For instance, I observed that when the ‗Dalit' question was invoked using the ‗Dalit' and the ‗Scheduled Castes' identity markers by the Dalit activists, the Sindhi nationalists and most of the contemporary Sindhi progressive writers and their followers attempted to reject Dalit activists' re-identification and their claims. 6 Ashrafiyya class (i.e. Sayeds or the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and the castes claiming to be of Arab and Central Asian descent. (see Hussain, 2019;Ahmad, 2003;Kazuo, 2004).
They discouraged the Dalit activists from problematizing Dalit exclusion beyond a certain threshold.
This neglect or rather the denial of casteism and Dalit exclusion was primarily legitimized through Political Sufism based on Hindu-Muslim harmony as against the two-nation of theory of Pakistan based on Hindu-Muslim binaries (see Hussain, 2019a;Hussain, 2019b).
Consequently, the Progressives did not consider casteism as the major problem, and did not make Dalit exclusion the subject of political debate or critical enquiry. Notwithstanding that, the Progressives did indulge in Dalit spaces on occasion and particularly when Dalit agency compelled them. In this article, I contend that this occasional intervention into Dalit spaces by the Progressives has been counter-productive for Dalits as it hampers Dalit agency and rather appropriates it. One of the potent ways to counter or legitimize narratives and thus dissipate dissonance is to use literary medium, such as short stories to render the narrative accessible to the common people.. I specifically critique the casteist aspects of the Progressive literarypolitical terrain as it manifests from the presentation of short stories in everyday politics by the Progressives, by the Ashrafiyya elite and by Dalits to create space for the Dalit. Despite occasional anti-caste and anti-patriarchal narration in a few short stories, the Progressives primarily frame these issues in a manner that makes them correspond with their agenda of ‗political Sufism' and facilitate the appropriation of the spaces and histories of Dalits. I interrogate this appropriation of Dalit spaces and Dalit identities as it is reflected in those Short stories considered as having emancipatory potential for the Dalits and women. To that end, I discuss three Sindhi short stories as the typical cases of the narrativisation by the Progressives', who construct and publicize and represent the intersectionality of caste, gender, religion and nation.
To shortlist the stories, I adopted the method of asking some 30 notable Sindhi literary scholars and the Progressive-minded readers to identify the short stories that may help interrogate Sayedism and Dalit exclusion along with the oppression of Dalit women. After a month's exploration assisted by the Dalit activists, I could only gather a few short stories that seemed to explicitly intersect caste along with religion, class and gender. I then analyzed three of them, namely ‗Dust of Earth and Stars of Sky' by Amar Jaleel 7 that related to the oppression of Dalit (women); ‗Infidel' by Naseem Kharal that brought into focus the trans-religious dimension of untouchability as it affects the Dalit's decisions to convert to Islam; and Prisoner of ‗Karoonjhar' 8 (Karoonjhar jo Qaidi), a short story written by Ali Baba (1994), which is based on the postcolonial reconstruction of the 18 th century anticolonial event related to the supposed bravery of Rooplo Kolhi, a Dalit hero.
I further validate my claims by adding a few but key ethnographic insights to the literary analysis 9 . Weaving my analysis with the narrative of short stories, I discuss certain events when 7 Amar Jaleel received Kamal-i-Fun award, which is the highest award in Pakistan in the field of literature. Apart from that he also received Pride of Performance (Pakistan) and Akhil Bharat Sindhi Sahat Sabha National Award of India. 8 Karoonjhar is an isolated mountain about 7 kilometers in length at the center of Parkar, the hiding place for the rebels during the British occupation of Tharparkar. 9 Informed consent was obtained from all participants. All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical guidelines recommended by the Department of Anthropology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. The permission was sought, where required, from the concerned persons to reproduce any picture, graph, table or piece of information.
Ashrafiyya class protagonist or the Progressive intellectual intervened in spaces, events and the narratives of Dalits, when they undermined the demand of Dalit emancipation or when they underestimated the hegemonic impact of Sayedism and Ashrafiyya hegemony.

Theoretical Framework
The Ashrafiyya-Savarna class of feudals, Pirs and Vaniyas (Hindu merchants) ‗imagined' (Anderson, 1983, p.77) social solidarity essentially on the basis of modern nation that could accommodate their tribal and casteist legacy. The ‗Sindhi nationalist' narrative (see for instance, Sayed, 1952;Sayed, 1974;Sayed, 2013), promulgated by these classes before and after Partition has grown over the decades through the extensive use of print media, literary circles, and lately through social media to construct the social imaginary that t hardly identifies the Ashrafiyya-Savarna elite as the internal oppressor. The local Ambedkarites, however, do not wholeheartedly accept the Progressive's narrative and complain of its casteist bias. While holding the Progressives and the society and state at large responsible for casteism, racism, and extremist tendencies, local Ambedkarites also criticize their own Dalit community for not ‗reacting against oppression 10 . They urge Dalits to unite by forewarning them that they can succeed in their goal only through their own politically conscious efforts, and that, ‗no other Mahtama, or emancipator, will descend to change their lot, neither did it come in the past, nor it will ever come in the future' (Bheel, 2017). This Ambedkarian trajectory of thought thus demands the 10 To have an idea of how local Dalit activists in Sindh connect themselves with the Dalits and Amedkarites in India or elsewhere and problematize politics, culture, society and the literature, read the literature on Dalits in Sindhi written by local Ambedkarites made available by me on Mendely, the online database (see Bheel, 2017;Hussain, 2019c;Hussain, 2019d;Hussain, 2019e). explicitly self-reflective anti-caste stance from the social critics, academicians and scholars ( see Ambedkar, 1944;(1991 ;Guru, 1995;Guru, 2000;Ilaiah, 2010;Guru, 2011a;2011b;Guru & Sarukai, 2012;Kumar, 2018;Hussain, 2018, Hussain, 2019aHussain, 2019b) 11 . This way of analyzing casteism from the Ambedkarian perspective (see Kumar, 2016a;Kumar, 2016b) considerably improves upon the existing critical approaches to the sociological and literary-historical (see Behdad, 2011;Damrosch, 2009;Eagleton, 2002). criticism. It differs from the Gandhian critique of ‗untouchable' treatment of Dalits that was first adopted by Munhi Premchand who wrote short stories both in Hindu and Urdu (See Bushan, 2002). Ghulam Rabbani (2016) writes: The Harijan lives like dead soul, having accepted all the exploitation and atrocities as their destiny. They might develop a defiant attitude against these injustices but it remains confined to their minds. On the contrary, Ambedkar's Dalit is audacious, courageous and infused with zeal and zest to fight against exploitation and live with dignity. His rebel doesn't just imagine being one but steps into the real world.
This critique of literary-political landscape will explain how the hegemony of Ashrafiyya-Savarna classes functions at the empirical level in spaces that otherwise should serve as anticaste anchor for the Dalit protagonists. It will enable to see if the historical narratives and their fictionalized characters allow Ashrafiyya intrusion in Dalit spaces; and it helps to invoke Dalits to protest against the oppressors, and achieve the egalitarian goal of caste-parity or social inclusion.

Situating Short Stories in Sindhi Progressive Literature
The Progressives boast of, and probably rightly so, that both in terms of quantity and as the instrument to create political awareness, after Urdu, Sindhi language has the second richest stock of literature in Pakistan (Paleejo, 2016, p.11). This richness to Sindhi literature, however, is not equally harmonized in terms of content and the sociopolitical location of the writers. Since the Sindhi Ashrafiyya-Savarna elite have dominated the literary-political domain for centuries, most of the prominent short story writers, poets and the scribes have hailed from Ashrafiyya castes.
Inspired by the Progressive movement that ushered in subcontinent in early 20 th century, the Sindhi Ashrafiyya class also evolved its own version of Progressive idiom framed in Political Sufism. Departing from their predecessors, they qualify their Sufism with the modern (Marxistnationalist and romantic ideas(see Memon, 2002, p.28;Jaleel, 1998;Jaleel, 2007;Shah, 2007a;Shah, 2007b;Jaleel, 2012).
Similarly, religious fanaticism and extremism is busted in stories such as, ‗Maan Insaan Ahiyan' (I am human) by Ayaz Qadri, and ‗Aman Maan School na Wendus' (Mom, I won't go to school) by Hafeez Shaikh (see also Memon, 2002, p 314-15). Notwithstanding the egalitarian import of when it comes to religious and gender-disparities, these stories or the narratives emergent of it do not intersect with the problem of casteism, and rather give an impression that casteism, particularly Dalit exclusion is a normative phenomenon about which agents of social and political change need not to worry about. Take another example of , the story in which ‗upper caste' Sammat-Baloch protagonist Pishu Pasha is depicted as the socialist revolutionary (see Abro, 2015) as against the local landlord. Pishu Pasha is depicted as the untouchable who dares to drink water in the glass of Raes Gul Khan, the local landlord. While narrating the incident, the writer uses the metaphor of ‗Chuhra' (Dalit caste) to explain the reaction against Pishu Pasha's daring act. He writes: Once, [Pishu] passed by the guest of house Raes Gul Khan. He was dying of thirst. Without caring for consequences, he entered the guest house and grabbed the glass of Raes Gul Khan. All present on the scene tried to stop him, ‗Nope, Nope!; But, by that time this gentleman had drunk two-three glasses of water.
Putting down the glass, [Pishu] said ‗Brother why!Did that glass belonged to any Chuhra?‖ (Abro, 2015) The last sentence ‗Did that glass belonged to any Chuhra?', clearly shows that while untouchability against Chuhras (Dalits) was/is normative, it is not as such practiced against ‗upper castes' to which Pishu Pasha belonged. Since Pishu Pasha was not a Chuhra, but an ‗upper caste' and equal in status to local landlord, therefore, they should not mind his drinking water in the same glass in which landlord drinks. The real thrust of the narrative here is not to bring to light to untouchability against the Chuhras (Dalits), but the class different within Ashrafiyya castes.
This portrayal of Pishu (upper castes) as the new ‗untouchable, and the projection of socialist confrontation depicted as merely lying between the two protagonists of the privileged castes, one dominating the other, may not be vouchsafed by the Ambedkarites who, first and foremost want to problematize caste-based discrimination and untouchability.
The Progressives have also written a few remarkable short stories that expose the exploitative character of Sayeds. For instance, Jamal Abro's (2015) story ‗Shah Jo Pharr' (Projeny of Shah) first published in 1959 directly confronts Sayedism, in which the discriminatory differentiation between Sayed and Ummati (Subject Muslim) is depicted (Abro, 1958, p. 325), and in ‗Mau Ji Jholi' (Lap of Mother) an Ashrafiyya class woman is depicted as embracing a Bhangi (Dalit) child (Abro, 1958, p.326). Similarly, Noorul Huda Shah 12 , a Sayed woman herself, has written a few anti-Sayed short stories that indirectly defend the Dalitbahujan right to equal social treatment (Shah, 2007 a;Shah,, 2007b;Memon, 2002 ). Her short story ‗Dozkhi' also brings to light the racism of Sindhi people against Sheedi caste of the Black African descent (Shah, 2007). To have an idea of Noorul Huda Shah's literary-political approach read her statements related to the literary production during General Zia's regime, the period during which she wrote several drama serials for state-sponsored TV channel PTV. Further read in DAWN, URL: https://images.dawn.com/news/1178036. (accessed June 7, 2019). even socially boycotted to the limits to eventually commit suicide 14 . Some of the leading Sindhi Progressive writers vehemently criticized him for his exposition of patriarchy embedded in Sayedism. Shaukat Shoro, a Progressive short story writer opined that, ‗Manik is merciless, murdering and oppressive writer. Amongst the comity of Sindhi writers, he stands apart and alone, to whom the most privileged Sindhi literary writers do not accept, while the readers, after having avidly read, begin abusing him' (Manik, 1992). This shows the level of the critique that Manik had mounted, and because of which he was deliberately alienated from the mainstream Progressive circles as he did not even explicitly subscribed to Sufi nationalist narrative and delved in existentialism.
Notwithstanding her extraordinary self-critical and anti-Sayed stance and the feminist inclinations, these selective Progressive writers do not draw the clear line between the level of exploitation and humiliation of the Sayed women and the Dalit women, or the Dalit Sindhi and Savarna Hindu. In fact, the Progressives applied their own standards of gender (dis)parity when it served their purpose. For instance, the two stories ‗ Mubarakhoon' and ‗Sagar Je Laharun Te' that show Sindhi women rebelling against patriarchy and the forced marriage, are not held in good light by the Progressives such as Rasool Bux Paleejo who considers it the prime illustrations of ‗negative' rebellion (see Memon, 2002, p.319). Moreover, the scathing criticism that a few of these anti-Sayed Ashrafiyya class writers faced is also an indicator of the lack of ‗shared space' for the Dalit intellectuals (mostly identified as Hindus as well) to expose 14 Manik's wife, however, maintains that Manik died of heart attack. Some of Manik's close friends argue that although Manik was bitterly criticized for his writings, particular for his purportedly ‗sexually explicit' depiction of patriarchal social reality and Sayedism, his circumstance of death has not much to do with it.
Sayedism. Hence, although their ideological and discursive trajectory was highly critical from the Ashrafiyya egalitarian or the Sufi nationalist perspective, it did not seem to qualify for the wholehearted approval by the Dalit-feminist intellectuals and or the Ambedkarites (see for instance, Guru, 1995;Lata, 2015;Kundu, 2017;Sripathi, 2017;Velaskar, 2012;Margaret, 2012).
In the sections that follow, I would further explain through Ambedkarian perspective, the excerpts from these popular short stories by Amar Jaleel, Naseem Kharal as regards how they (mis)fit as the anti-caste and anti-patriarchal Progressives.

The Reframing of 'Infidel' to uphold Interfaith Harmony
‗Kafir' (infidel), a short story written in 1960s by Naseem Kharal, the Ashrafiyya class feudal, furnishes one of the exceptionally counterintuitive anti-caste narratives. The patriarchal import of the ‗Infidel' is ignored, and often presented by the Progressives as the explanation of both the religious and caste discrimination and untouchability that pervades across religions in Sindhi society, and to prove that Sufi nationalist path is the most appropriate one for the (Hindu) Dalits to mutually coexist in the predominantly Muslim Sindh. Before, further elaborating upon it, I quote from the story a dialogue between a supposedly Hindu Dalit convert to Islam and a Mukhi (a community head): Mukhi, the panchayat headman of Oad [Dalit] community begged in the name of holy Gita and even threw his turban at Seetal's feet, but Seetal just didn't care much and replied: "Mukhi! Do whatever you like, but I shall change my religion. In this conversation, Seetal stands accused before the Oad (Dalit) community of betraying communal norms to convert to Islam, and proclaim that the Hindu religion is based on falsity.
Although infuriated, members of the Oad ‗panchyat' (caste council) were not very harsh at Seetal, as they believed that Seetal had been bewitched by a Mullah (Islamic cleric). They tried to convince Seetal that he had made a blunder, but Seetal remained adamant that he was happy 15 Source: 'Naseem Kharal Joon Kahariyoon' (2007), a compilation of short stories in Sindhi language by Danish Nawaz. Roshini Publications, Kandiaro. URL: www.sindhsalamat.com. This story was written in 60s by Naseem Kharal, the renowned upper caste landlord (wadero), and one of the leading Sindhi progressive writers of the 60s and 70s. with his conversion. Having seen his resolve Mukhi made the final attempt to convince Seetal saying, ‗Remember Seetal! No matter how lavishly you harness donkeys like horses, they will remain donkeys, and never become horses.' (i.e. no matter how good a Muslim you become, you will remain untouchable in their eyes).
Seetal's adventure eventually ends up with his realization that in case his ailing wife (who had also converted along with him) dies, he cannot be given woman for marriage from Muslim castes, simply because he was considered as ‗lower caste' or ‗untouchable'. Ultimately, Seetal converts back to his former faith. The story, thus, ends with the bigoted disappointment of the Molvi (religious) at the re-conversion of Seetal, who says the 'Infidel is after all infidel'. Hence, from this narrative, it becomes evident that the writer of story conveys the social fact that although Mullah (religious cleric) primarily expresses his social imaginary through religious binaries, yet caste comes into the foreground when it comes to actual relations. Unlike a Mullah, Hindu Dalit community is presented as more realistic as they imagine caste and religion as embedded in each other. They are presented as cognizant of the fact that they even cannot marry into Shaikhs (converts from Savarnas). But what if Muslim Oad families also existed as do Shaikhs converts from Bheels, and Baghri Muslim families? The story/narrative does not help understand the consequences of the voluntary conversions in such cases.
Hence, although at the generic level, the story brings out very sharply that caste discrimination is a trans-religious phenomenon, and even stronger than religious affiliations, yet the progressives try to bring into focus its religious dimension more than the caste-related. .Rita Kothari (2009), a Sindhi (Savarna) based in Ahmedabad in India has translated ‗Infidel' from Sindhi into English, and has discussed primarily to show that such stories were the product of nostalgia of business class (Jati) Hindus and the post-Partition redemption of Sindhi Muslims who desired to reclaim their imagined syncretism that supposedly existed before Partition between Sindhi Hindus (mostly Savarnas) and Sindhi Muslims (see, Kothari, 2009) 16 . With her emphasis on Sufi identity of Sindh 17 , Kothari, however, does not shed much light on the anticaste dimension of the story and rather treats both religion and caste as being equally implicated 18 . In this particular case, deviating from the Progressive's typical stance, Dr. Ghafoor Memon, however, argues that major import of the story is to show that cultural and class/castebased norms are stronger than religion. He argues that Muslims are proved to be hypocrites as on the one hand they believe that there is no discrimination in Islam based on caste; while on the 16 Rita Kothari (2009)  other hand they continue to discriminate as do the Hindus (Memon, 2002. p.345). Rasool Bux Paleejo, a leading Marxist-nationalist also affirmed the factual relevance of the story: One the one hand we surpass all limits of exaggeration and slogan mongering to prove that there is not caste system in Islam and on the other, in reality, we are the leading custodians of the system of untouchability and casteism. Rasool Bux Paleejo in Memon, 2002, p.346) The recognition of casteism, however, does not bar the Progressives to resort to Marxist and nationalist explanations as an antidote to it. The moral of the story that is often upheld by them emphasizes ‗interfaith harmony' instead of patriarchy and casteism that is embdedness under the gloss of religion. As Memon argues, this story ‗Infidel' supports the argument of the communists that social equality (devoid of casteism) can be achieved through socialist change or through communism, and that would eventually eradicate casteism and untouchability (Memon, 2002, p.346). In this manner, this conventional Marxist-nationalist approach relegates the problems of casteism and untouchability to the second order issues supposed to vanish away once communism would prevail.
‗Infidel' is also presented as the explanation of caste discrimination by the Muslims against the Hindus in general to convince the Dalits that conversion cannot bear the requisite benefits. For instance, motivated by Taj Joyo (the Ashrafiyya Sindhi nationalist activist and the writer), who projected that story 19 to prove that the recurrent abortive attempts at conversion to get rid of ‗untouchability' and religious discrimination do not work. Taj  As it is evident, Taj Joyo suggested the Dalits to get Sindhised without conversion. He tried to convince them that there was caste discrimination and untouchability even among Muslims. This suggestion was in line with the Sindhi nationalist ideology that desired unity between Hindus and Muslims, and that did not offer the political way out of the caste discrimination and untouchability. The best of the solutions that Joyo proffered to these structural and political issues was the uplift through educational achievement at individual level. Dalit activists seemed to take the suggestion of Joyo, as they began to discourage conversions.
Like Joyo did, the Progressives have convinced many Hindu Dalits not to convert and express their fidelity with the Muslim dominated and Ashrafiyya-led Sindh through the Sufi nationalist medium. This has rather led Dalits to get ashrafised or adopt certain norms of dominant Muslims that reflected in their expressed reverence for Sayeds, Pirs and Sufis. This form of ritual inversion to adopt Ashrafiyya values without conversion, however, does not seem to resolve the fundamental problem either, that is, caste discrimination and untouchability.
Resultantly ‗dissonance' (Festinger,1962;Hussain, 2019) persists between the assumption of being Sufi Sindhis and the empirically existing caste based discriminatory practices (see Hussain, 2019b). Moreover, contrary to the claims of Progressives, the Ashrafiyya intervention into Dalit spaces of decision-making and identity (re)formation proves the persistence of hegemonic influence of Ashrafiyya elite. This, I argue, tantamount to the appropriation of Dalit's epistemic space as it disallows and discourages Dalit activists to come up with their own alternative counter-hegemonic narratives (see Guru, 2011a).
There are, however, very few among Dalit activists, particularly the Ambedkarites, that radically depart from Sufi-nationalist trajectory. Consciousness of being sandwiched in between Brahminic and Ashrafiyya hegemons, these Ambedkarites have turned into crypto-Buddhists, that is, while politically they tend to follow B.R.Ambedkar and cherish Buddhist practices, but also loosely adhere to the normatively sanctioned Hindu and Ashrafiyya practices. These varied approaches to live a dignified life, however does not bar a common Dalit to try out conversion to Islam, Christianity or Ahmedia sect/religion. Generally, at the level of society, the voluntary conversions of Dalit families, particularly the poorest and the most vulnerable ones, continues unabated, and often go unnoticed (See Wajid, 2017;CIFORB, 2018). This proves that while Progressive's politically motivated narratives may influence Dalit activists, particularly the Dalit middle class not to convert, such as through the specific rendition of short story ‗Infidel', the poorest or the ultra-subaltern castes or sub castes and the most vulnerable Dalit families may often see conversion as an open option.

Invoking Self-pity in 'Dust of Earth and Stars of Sky'
The short story ‗Dust of Earth and Stars of Sky' (Dharti ji Dhoor, Asman jaa Taara) by Amar Jaleel arouses the compassion for Bali, a Bheel (Dalit) woman who had been seduced and raped by Shahu, a Sayed patriarch. Although, the story seems to be highly critical of Sayedism, which is a rare theme in Sindhi literary domain, it does not sufficiently invoke Dalits to resist against it.
The reasons for this epistemic and ontic lopsidedness can be partly attributed to the politicoideological predilections of the writer, and the targeted Progressive audience receptive to Sufinationalist narrative. To give the reader an idea of the ideological lens of the writer, I am quoting below the translation of selective sections of the story.
[Depicts the beauty and social vulnerability of a Hindu Dalit woman] The emotions of the youthful age cannot be controlled by the systems of caste or religion. He was consoling himself that he was killing a newborn daughter in the name of God, to save a Sayed child from wandering among the Bheels. In the afterlife, God will give him his due reward. In case it did not happen as planned, then at least he had that genealogical capital of being Sayed to intercede before God. (p.101) (Jameel, 1998, 68-103) The story depicts tragic socioeconomic vulnerability of Dalit women due to which they are often raped by Ashrafiyya men. The writer enters into the minds of both the oppressor and the oppressed and brings out the casteist arrogance of the Sayed, and the haplessness and humiliation of the Dalit woman. In a highly pro-Sayed society in which even the Progressive writers are reluctant to speak against Sayeds, the writer has shown a great dare to impute Sayeds, the risk that no Dalit intellectual can afford to take. Dr. Ghafoor Memon writes in his review of the story: There is a specific nature of the honor and the respect of Sayeds in Sindh, whereby people confer upon them the status of Murshid (spiritual leaders), and consider them as the continuation of Prophet Muhammad's progeny, and to themselves as ‗ummatis' (social subjects of Sayeds) thus assigning themselves lower status. No doubt, the respect for Sayeds in its own way is justified, but there have been Sayeds in history who has taken an undue advantage of that status. After the coming of modern progressive wave, the thinking has evolved not to discriminate on the caste and race. (Memon, 2002, p. 259) The Ambedkarites may not accept that apology and the conferring of credit to Ashrafiyya-laden Progressive class, and may raise certain fundamental concerns. They may acknowledge that although the story has considerable emancipatory value, yet may contend that the writer does not suggest any escape for the Dalits out of that situation thereby leaving them in the depressed state.
Hence, it fails to invoke agitation against the structural violence meted out to Dalit women and infuse the spirit of resistance against Sayedism. For instance, Bali, as a Dali woman, is shown to give birth to the child, but her psychological strength is not depicted as to surpass the social and political prowess of his Sayed seducer. Fearing that her child could be killed by the Sayed(s), she even hides the act of seduction and the fact that Sayed was a father of her child. Although this exemplifies the caste-based and religion-based structural violence of high order and the counterresistance by the individual Dalit woman, the Ambedkarites may have liked to take it further into the collective domain of resistance to enthuse the spirit of collective resistance. Hence, the story ends up abruptly leaving the Ashrafiyya reader in a state of compassion for Dalits, and to Dalits in a state of self-pity.
Although in many other short stories and public statements, Amar Jaleel certainly seems to stand against Sayeds and Pirs in so far as his own caste privilege (dis)allows him to be, yet the frequency and the number of such stories that depict Dalit oppression in relation to Sayedism is comparatively very low. This story, therefore, is the only one of its kind written by him that projects Dalit-women's oppression, but that too does not takes the reader towards Dalit emancipation and social protest deemed necessary by the Dalit activists (see Ramachandran, 2004). This fact then complicates the writer's personal life at the level of commitment to eradicate caste discrimination or to emancipate Dalits. Playing the role of the Dalit liberator, Amar Jaleel, in fact, defines the Ashrafiyya definition of ‗Dalit women's oppression. Colored in Sufi nationalist ideology of interfaith harmony, Jaleel condescends to take Sayed Patriarchy and misogyny to the task that does not help invoke Dalit women's emancipation as the Dalit women's depiction of her naivety and sexual vulnerability to Ashrafiyya patriarchy are not sufficiently counterpoised with the Dalits or Dalit women's agency to strive for emancipation.
Resultantly, the Ashrafiyya reader of the story instead feeling remorse or shame on his or her patriarchy is led to enjoy the Dalit woman's sexuality and body.
Hence, it can be safely assumed that the story does not specifically takes the anti-caste stance and wavers in its emphasis on Hindu-Muslim, Sayed-non-Sayed, Dalit-Sayed, women-men binaries. It, thus, casts the ambiguous and rather counterproductive impact on the public opinion as regards the nature and the level of religious and caste-based persecution. The sociopolitical consequences of this ambiguity can even be seen on the Sufi nationalists as well as problem identifier for the protagonists of Political Islam and Hindutva ideology. Hence, in this manner, these narratives of force, coercion, seduction and rape derived from the folktales and reframed by the Progressives in Sufi nationalist idiom are conveniently and uncritically grafted upon Dalit women's vulnerability. This re-framing of vulnerability in Sufi-nationalist idiom hides both the casteist and patriarchal bias of Savarna-Ashrafiyya Progressives and the hegemonic class to which they primarily represent.

'The Prisoner of Karoonjhar' and the Appropriation of Dalit Heroes and Spaces
The inversion of the history of a Dalit rebel/ fighter is exemplified in ‗The Prisoner of Karoonjhar' 23 (Karoonjhar jo Qaidi), a short story written by Ali Baba (Rind Baloch by caste). In this story, Rooplo Kolhi is depicted as the hero of Sindh who fought bravely during the middle of the 19 th century when the British attempted to establish its writ over Parkar, a small mountainous region surrounded by Rann of Katch on the south and Thar Desert of Sindh on the North (see Figure 1 pained by a Kolhi for book on Rooplo Kolhi). Rooplo Kolhi, as the locals believe, was a Girasia, that is, the tribal chief recognized as such by rulers of the time, particularly by the Mughals (see Mal, 2000;Kolhi V. , 2011;Kolhi B. M., 2014). Although the narrative depicted in Ali Baba's (1994) story is not much different than most of the Kolhis and Sindhi people believe in, yet it gets problematic when Dalit activists undermine its pro-Savarna history and let the Ashrafiyya elite to appropriate their agency.
Hence, it has both the emancipatory as well as hegemonoic and counter-hegemonic aspects depending upon who patronises whom. 23 Karoonjhar is an isolated mountain about 7 kilometers in length at the center of Parkar, the hiding place for the rebels during the British occupation of Tharparkar. For the first time, Trywhitt felt that no alien nation can occupy the lands of foreign nation for more than 25 years, but they might be compelled to vacate Karoonjhar probably even before 12 years.
As it is evident from the above excerpts of the story, Rooplo Kolhi is depicted as the independent freedom fighter who fought against the British to reclaim his ‗Mulk' (Parkar). The impression is created that Parkar was a part of Sindh and Rooplo, therefore, fought for Sindh. Karoonjhar symbolizes Sindh in miniature and the local castes symbolized the Sindhi nation that was resisting against the British. In a latest ‗progressive' compilation of essays in Sindhi, Rooplo Kolhi's confrontation with the British is represented not just as fidelity to the local ‗upper caste' rulers but to nation. For instance, equating tribal ethic to stand by the side of the local ruler with the national patriotism, Dr. Azad writes: By having a look on the overall scenario during that period, it becomes evident that it was the period during which to remain loyal to the local ruler under the given tribal system was considered as loyalty to the nation. By and large the same kind of struggles can be evidenced during Mughal era against British. (Qazi, 2015, p.11) This nationalist reframing, that legitimizes the subordination of the oppressed castes to the local oppressor castes for the sake of freedom from or resistance to the external forces (the British),  ( Mal, 2000;Kolhi V. , 2011;Kolhi B. M., 2014). This social imaginary often sometimes reflects in the political claims of ownership of Parkar made by Kolhi activists (see for instance, pamphlet in Figure 2, of local Kolhi leader which in reads ‗Parkar is not the private property of anybody, but our fatherland'). Rajputs /Sodha Thakurs were exempt from the land tax (Qazi, 2015, p.7-8).
While Parkar had its own semi-autonomous political economy, it was not completely independent of the influences of the rulers of Sindh and were given various exemptions and waivers to collect taxes from the local pastoralists and peasants. (see Ojha 1966, p.104). When the British conquered Sindh in 1847, they reduced the Rana's right and share of taxes to a half, while allowed them to maintain their own jagreers (fiefs) ( Qazi, 2015, p.7-8). Similarly, both the Ali Baba as well as Parkari Kolhis do not bring into framework the fact that Meghwar community (Dalits) had already submitted to the British to emancipate from the Sodha Thakurs.
They also undermine the fact that Talpur rulers of Sindh were also subdued by the British and even employed against the Sodha Thakurs ( Mal, 2000;Kolhi V. , 2011;Kolhi B. M., 2014). They also neglect the fact that it was the army of Talpur rulers of Sindh that fought together with the British to crush Sodha Thakur resistance in Nangarparkar (see Raikes, ((1856)  Emperor Akbar was a legendary figure for them only second to local deities, so was General Taroot (Tyrwhitt). Despite the fact that Taroot was the one who overwhelmed Sodha Rajputs and hanged Rooplo Kolhi, he was highly praised and eulogized by Tharis in folk songs, and folklore during and after Taroot's times. (Junejo, 2010, p. 126) This pre-colonial narrative was gradually overtaken bythe postcolonial nationalist narrative whereby the praise of Tyrwhitt was considered as symbolic of the slavish imperialistic attitude. Given this ambiguous history, it can be argued that the Progressive's narrative of Rooplo Kolhi, that is inadvertently, picked up by Dalits as well, is premised on the self-serving all-unifying nationalist fantasy that more than giving the emancipatory push to the Dalit cause rather hampers it. Kolhi activists, consider this representation as the sort of recognition of the value and worth of Kolhi community within the comity of Sindhi castes, and see this re-nationalization of ‗Amar (eternal) or ‗Shaheed' (Martyr) Rooplo Kolhi', as the drive to create social and political space for their marginal community ( Mal, 2000;Kolhi V. , 2011;Kolhi B. M., 2014).
Hence, except the minor antipathy towards Ashrafiyya-dominated Sindh that sometimes reflects in Kolhi's hidden script, Parkar is largely imagined by them as the integral part of Sindh, and Rooplo as the foremost Sindhi national hero, the recognition that could not be had without the approval of ‗authentic nationalists' (i.e. Ashrafiyya-Savarna elite).   Hence this Dalit agency that is carried away by the Marxist-Ashrafiyya ideology, many Kolhi activists see this re-nationalization of ‗Amar Rooplo Kolhi' as the drive to create social and political space for their marginal community ( Mal, 2000;Kolhi V. , 2011;Kolhi B. M., 2014). Given this ideologically confused nature of Dalit activism, many of them are not much optimistic that the social hierarchies would alter in any fundamental ways.
Looking  (Zelliot, 2011;Kumhoikar, 2012 Given the epistemological disparity between the huge volumes of the Progressive literature that ignores casteism, and the politically significant demographic strength, this Ashrafiyya (Savarna) intervention into Dalit spaces seems highly problematic. Ali Baba's (1994) depiction of Dalits and women, as it is inspired by their Gandhi-influenced Progressive predecessors, is comparable to the Hindi short stories of Munshi Premchand 33 who have given space to Dalit characters and brings forth Dalit's exploitation in his stories, but his antidote was inspired by the functionalist approach of Arya Samaj, Dayanand Saraswathi and Gandhi, and supported the idea of shuddhi (purity) and was against religious conversion (Rabbani, 2016;Trivedi, 2017

Conclusion
The analysis of the discourse emergent of popular Sindhi short stories reveals that even seemingly pro-Dalit narratives do not adequately expose the problem of casteism in the manner that could lead to Dalit emancipation. It was evident that although the Sufi ethic of interfaith harmony arbitrarily invokes Ashrafiyya morality, and temporarily creates an anxiety in Ashrafiyya consciousness to confront casteism, yet, at the empirical level, it facilitates the Ashrafiyya( but also Savarna) elite to appropriate heroes, histories, events and spaces of Dalits, and invokes token sympathy and compassion for the Dalits and women. Hence, the Progressive Ashrafiyya reader and the activist, instead of feeling remorse or shame on his or her casteist patriarchy, is led to objectify Dalit bodies and appropriate Dalit agency and spaces.
Given this hegemonic influence of local Ashrafiyya class, the internal caste frictions are glossed over through political Sufism or Sindhi nationalism. The seemingly pro-Dalit narratives are, in fact tropes of inter-faith harmony, such as in case of the exchange of persuasive dialogue in ‗Infidel' which is often interpreted by Sindhi nationalists and the progressive writers as a caution against the threat to an ‗exemplary' interfaith harmony that once existed between (Savarna) Hindus and (Sindhi) Muslims; Or they, at best, proffer self-pity as in case of short story ‗Dust of Earth and Stars of Sky'.
These narratives could be imagined out of the vague history, such as in case of Rooplo Kolhi's reframing as the Sindhi national hero along with Dalit hero, to graft the oppression upon the external ‗other'that previously was the British Colonial power, and now it has been identified as Pakistani state. Hence it does not help expose the internal-colonialism that predated the British. An Ambedkarite might have taken these stories or the narratives further and have inverted the individual Dalits' tension into the collective resistance at the level of community.
They may make the counterintuitive demands from the Progressives to invert both the pure fiction and the fictionalized history so that the frictions of caste and gender, or the embededness of caste, gender and religion could be brought to the fore. Most of the Progressives seem incapable to fulfill that demand as it conflicts with their Sufi nationalist narrative.
Contrary to what Ambedkarism may demand, the stories, in general, did not seem to sufficiently grasp the Dalit lifeworld. Resultantly, instead of giving Dalits emancipating thrust, the stories end up abruptly leading the Ashrafiyya reader (for whose consumption they primarily write) to pity the Dalits and sympathize with them, while leaving Dalits in a state of self-pity.
The occasional appearances of Dalit men and women in Progressive narrative rather prove the periherality of Dalits in Ashrafiyya-dominated spaces, and rather furnish the Ashrafiyya reader and the activist with the reasons to objectify Dalit's vulnerability, helplessness and women's body. This Ashrafised and appropriated reframing of Dalitness by the Progressives and Sindhi civil society leads to conclude that although Dalits assert against the caste oppression by priding in their past, their agency to subvert Ashrafiyya-Savarna hegemony is considerably hampered and appropriated to sever the interest of their oppressors. It can, therefore, be argued that colored in Sufi nationalist ideology, the Progressives' definition of ‗Dalit's oppression does not help invoke Dalit agency to emancipate from Sayedism or Ashrafiyya domination.
Moreover, Progressive's narratives resonate with the functionalist approach that does not allow for radical questioning of caste. Amar Jaleel, Naseem Kharal and Ali Baba (1994)  intervention into Dalit spaces seems highly problematic.
Related to this epistemological disparity, is the lack of privileged space afforded to Dalit writers to express their feelings and emotions that no Ashrafiyya writer can. Except a few, which lie at the margin, there is not noteworthy Dalit short story writers found among the comity of the Progressives in Sindh. This situation, at least, at the level of epistemic justice or equality, continues to be heavily tilted in favor of the Progressive Ashrafiyya writers whose primary aim, even while giving voice to the Dalits, has been to suggest the unity of all Sindhi castes including Dalit castes against the external Ashrafiyya oppressor. can be argued that the Progressives' social imaginary defies the Ambedkarian approach to society and politics that argues for the eradication of casteism through concrete measures and conscious engagement. It can, therefore, be concluded that the seemingly progressive narratives framed in religio-political idiom may offer to the oppressed not more than a token sympathy, compassion, self-pity and false pride in vague history. Instead, they allow the appropriation of spaces and events of the oppressed, and the objectification of oppressed bodies by the oppressor.