ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the intersectionality of caste and gender in the Dalit literary discourse in contemporary West Bengal through a close reading of the writings of ‘Chandalini.’ The term ‘Chandalini,’ a self-referential identity marked by caste and gender, is the penname used by Dalit author Kalyani Thakur, who has been an active member of Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, a forum of Dalit writers in the state, for the last three decades. In spite of a long engagement with the Dalit literary movement, Thakur’s works have largely remained unacknowledged outside a limited readership. Based on multiple interviews with the author and literary analysis of her texts, the chapter documents the life and works of Chandalini and shows how her journey as a Dalit woman writer represents emancipatory feminist politics that simultaneously challenges the non-Dalit forces which homogenise the women’s question as well as fights against the shackles of Dalit patriarchy.
