Women in Selected Dalit Narratives in India

Abstract

The postcolonial project rejects colonial representation and constructs a nation with hopes of an egalitarian future. Along with it there is an awareness that all is not well in the new nation. Every power structure creates its own ‘Others’, its own subalterns. And within the postcolonial nation state, inferior classes, castes, minority groups, women, and Dalits became ‘others’. The question is how far do writings about Dalits show factors like caste, class and gender as permeable/non-permeable. This paper will look at writings by Dalits and writings by others about Dalits and analyse how such borders can be crossed. For the pupose of detailed study, the paper will deal with Om Prakash Valmiki’s Joothan, Sharan Kumar Limhale’s Akkarmashi, Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance. The paper will focus on the presentation of gender in the above-mentioned writings. A Dalit woman is a Dalit amongst the Dalits as she suffers ‘double oppression’ ― on account of her caste as well as her gender. This paper will discuss the issue of space and voice with regard to the female figures. How much space is given to them? How far do we really hear their voice, their travails and sufferings? Taking into account Marx’s concept of ‘commodity fetishism’, the paper will discuss whether the Dalit women are valued for themselves or for the work they perform. Are they fetishized with phallic objects and reduced to a stereotype where they fulfil certain masculine needs? If we look at the family as the basic unit of society, then how much ‘space’ is given to Dalit women in the family or are they just treated as ‘objects’? What kind of treatment is meted out to Dalit women by the society or the upper caste? How far do Dalit women undergo acculturation? The paper will also discuss the issue of representation of Dalits by non-Dalits, which has often been said to lack ‘a visceral impact’. Using the concept of ‘Manichean allegory’, the paper will discuss how the upper caste/class use certain differences to justify domination, and this is true in the case of gender as well. The paper will attempt to deconstruct master narratives, interrogating systems of representation, understanding the dynamics of power and examining the role of ideology in the construction of the self, especially the female self.