LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:1 January 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Double Oppression in Bama’s Karukku and Sangati

K. Latha, M.A., M.Phil.


Abstract

Bama, originally called Faustina Mary Fathima Rani is a Paraiyar, Christian Dalit activist. Her novels focus on caste and gender discrimination. They portray caste-discrimination practised in Christianity and Hinduism. Bama's works are seen as embodying Dalit feminism and are famed for celebrating the inner strength of the subaltern woman. Bama rose to fame with her autobiographical novel Karukku (1992), which chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christian women in Tamilnadu. Bama's Karukku (1992) and Sangati (1994) narrate the painful and tormented life history of a sensitive, insightful and perceptive Dalit woman. The word 'sangati' means 'events' and thus the novel, through individual stories, anecdotes and memoirs, portrays the events that take place in the life of women in the Paraiyar community. The novel also reveals how the Paraiyar women are doubly oppressed.

Bama’s Karukku and Sangati show various aspects of caste discrimination and gender discrimination. These novels show the sufferings of Dalit community in the hands of “upper-caste” communities in church, places of education and society. These also show the sufferings of the Dalit women in the hands of the upper caste men and also in the hands of their own husbands.

Keywords: Bama, Dalit literature, karukku, sangathi

Dalit and Dalit Literature

The terms ‘Dalit’ and ‘Dalit literature’ have been a subject of arguments, controversies, etc. The term ‘dalit’ refers to the vision of caste binaries and caste based oppression, discrimination and celebration of the politics of ‘otherness’. Most of the thinkers and creative writers related with dalit literature have expressed their consensus on the inference that dalit literature is a manifestation of cultural conflict of the society, economically and culturally deprived groups of society. It is not a literature of caste but of a specific consciousness that deprives innocent individuals from their basic rights of self-survival, self-preservation and self-expression.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


K. Latha, M.A., M.Phil.
Assistant Professor f English
P.S.R Engineering College
Sevalpatti
Virudhunagar District
Sivakasi 626140
Tamilnadu
India
latha@psr.edu.in
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