OPPRESSION OF DALIT WOMEN IN BAMA’S SANGATI

The paper attempts a close textual analysis of Dalit women’s lived experiences and concerns in Bama’s novel, Sangati (2005), originally written in Tamil and published in 1994. It focuses on multiple oppressions that Dalit women suffer due to their positionality as Dalit and as women in the Indian social structure. Using Dalit feminism as the critical lens, it studies how the systems of caste and gender intersect to produce layered oppression on Dalit women. The demonstration of intersecting dominations reveals Dalit women’s marginality and restraints in raising their voice. Through an articulation of the social condition, the text addresses Dalit women’s issues as pressing concerns within the broader continuum of caste and feminist struggle. It is an agential form of reaction to all sorts of atrocities and violence subjected to Dalit women by consciously evoking them to take up the cudgels against patriarchal constructs. The paper further sheds light on the need for emancipatory education for all and the empowerment of marginalised communities to break free from their subservient state. It conclusively foregrounds the writer’s act of representing women of her kind as a challenge to dismantle the systematic oppression of Dalit women.