ABSTRACT
Bama is perhaps the most prominent of contemporary Tamil Dalit writers and also figures among the best known Dalit writers across India. Writing from the periphery, Bama’s literary writing is a pioneering invasion in Tamil Dalit fiction. The intersectionality of her gender, class and religion creates her marginalised position in the society. From such a position, she investigates the multiple layers of oppression that operate in the lives of Dalits and more specifically in the lives of Parayar women of Tamil Nadu. Her novels Karukku (1992) and Sangati (1994) are autobiographical literary narratives which are as much about her as they are about her community. She writes as a Dalit woman about the experiences of Dalit women in her works. Karukku is in many ways an uncommon autobiography. It grows out of a particular moment: a personal upheaval and turbulence in the author’s life which drives her to make sense of her life as woman, Christian and also Dalit. The events of Bama’s life are not arranged according to a simple, linear or chronological order but rather repeated from different perspectives, grouped under different themes. It is her driving quest for integrity as a woman, a Dalit and a Christian that shapes this autobiographical novel. This chapter focuses on the intersectional marginalities expressed in Karukku. It also traces the close link between education and empowerment that Bama posits as tools that could liberate women from her gender, caste and religious identity which otherwise only ensure their degraded and repressed existence.
