Geroge Manuel and M Poslun's The Fourth World: An Indian Reality and George Brotherston's Book of the Fourth World paved the way for the `Fourth World Literary Identity' with Native American, Native Canadian, Australian Aboriginal, Indian Dalit and Maori New Zealand literatures. Among the Native literatures, Native American literature with its extraordinary diversity of subjective positions of natives created a confluence of narratives and dismantled the conventionally recorded history. It is in the light of the explication of the objective conditions of Natives of America and Dalits of India that a comparative study of Native American and Dalit literature of India is understood. Scott Momaday's The Ancient Child represents the Native American society and literature, which is a proud proclamation of the lost identity in the light of Western assimilation. Narendra Jadhav's Outcaste represents the Indian Dalit literature and the social metamorphosis of Dalits in India. The thematic concerns of these two novels are analyzed from the perspective of postcolonialism, postmodernism, narratology and the politics of reading to establish relative comparison.

Postcolonial literature has clearly escaped the danger of being branded as pedagogic with the inclusion of native literatures. Native American literature, Native Canadian literature, Australian aboriginal literature, Maori literature of New Zealand and Dalit literature of India have given a new direction to the postcolonial phase, which is addressed as the `Fourth World literature.' George Brotherston in Book of the Fourth World (1992) observes that the importance of native literatures lies in dismantling the conventional exegesis of literature. George Manuel and M Posluns in The Fourth World: An Indian Reality (1974) contend that North and South American Indians, Australian Aborigines, Saami in Scandinavia, and the aboriginal populations in other parts of the world struggling to retain their culture have come to be known as `The Fourth World.' This perception is illustrated and consolidated by Robert Paine in the essay "Ethno Drama and the `Fourth World': The Saami Action Group in Norway 1979-1981-1990" and also by Noel Dyck in the essay "Representation and the `Fourth World': A Concluding Statement." Though these illustrations are confined to the political identity and representation of indigenous people, its resonance is central to Native literatures. `Natives' has become the universal term that is used to refer to the multiple identities of natives in America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway.

It is pertinent to observe that the extraordinary diversity of the subjective positions of natives in America creates the confluence of narratives. Native American discourse is not a new phenomenon. It is always present and is the genesis of American life. It has dismantled the conventionally recorded history and enforced the theme of reaching back in time. This has exposed the propositions of pre-historians and colonizers in constructing the stereotyped images of natives as `primitive,' `savage' and `childlike.' As the reader's perception is constructed by the created images, native literature has successfully dismantled these constructions. Terry Goldie, in Fear and Temptation (1989), is of the opinion that the image of the natives is a constant production of the semiotic representation of the writers. These semiotic representations construct the reader's perception and participation in knowing the natives. Native American literature has led to the constant questioning of the epistemological dimensions of the writers' process of indigenization. It is due to the unavoidable influence of Native American literature that America is becoming more conscious of native concerns.

Fourth World Literature, Scott Momaday's , Narendra Jadhav's Outcaste, Geroge Manuel, Western Assimilation, Postcolonialism, Postmodernism, Postcolonial Literature, Australian Aboriginal Literature, Dalit Literature, Indian Reality.