Marginalism within the Margins: the Evolution of Dalit Women's (Mis)Representation in Narendra Jadhav's Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Journey Out Of The Caste System in Modern India (2005) and Baby Kamble's The Prisons We Broke (2008)

Abstract

Dalit women have traversed a long path over the last four decades. During this time their consciousness has evolved in many ways as reflected in Dalit writing. Life narratives function as the locus of enunciation where agency and self-identity are attended and asserted by Dalit women, through different approaches. As the social location determines the perception of reality, this paper attempts a look at how Narendra Jadhav and Baby Kamble tackle and bring to the centre the gendered nature of caste and the power-relations that still affect Dalit women. Form, language and subject matter are some of the resources that Dalit women use to defy generic conventions, depart from imposed identities, and build up resistance against an enduring double oppression which insists on homogenising Dalit body politics.