Excavating the Dalit Consciousness for the Subaltern History and Identity:

A Study of Bama’s Karukku and Sangati

Abstract

The word ‘History’ by itself ironically suggests that it is ‘his’ story, written by men from their point of view imposing their perspective and predilections. She has no say in it; ‘her’ story is never told, never heard rather. She has remained mute and voiceless. Her conscience was tamed into accepting everything that was forced upon her, by very many external forces, worked upon her by physical, psychological, social, cultural and textual conditioning. Denial and discrimination ruptured her voice, numbed her pain, whispered her cries and simmered her protest. The urge to liberate her self from the clutches of oppression was never spent. The vibration of her voice echoed vehemently shattering all the obstacles: Bama declares “I wanted to shout ‘these’ stories”. Such stories deconstructed those long-held (mis) interpretations of women.

Women being the marginalized of the marginalized are deprived of a voice against patriarchal world as well as a caste-centered society. A woman has a double edged sword against her with patriarchy and caste aiming her, endangering her human dignity as well as her gender. In this context Dalit women’s writing has evolved as the most powerful medium of expression, foreseeing the instrumentalization of the text to become a rebellious narrative.