ABSTRACT
This article explores the interconnected ways through which land and caste work together to reproduce caste and gender hegemonies in the regional space of Kerala. It follows analytical methods to understand how geographical spaces act as sites that maintain caste in modern times. This is all the more significant for the fact that space has been a significant vector through which the caste structure was maintained historically. This is done by analysing the life narratives of Saleena Prakkanam and C. K. Janu, who led some of the important struggles for land in postcolonial Kerala. At a conceptual level, the chapter attempts to explore the mutually constitutive nature of spatiality and subjectivity. Specifically, the constitution of Dalit and Adivasi women’s subjectivity in negotiation with the spaces they inhabit/interact with is the focus of analysis. This understanding unsettles the existing ideas about the relationship between space and womanhood. In other words, the progressive mode of understanding women’s subjectivity in terms of the private/public dyad becomes insufficient to understand the specificities through which Dalit/Adivasi women’s subjectivity gets constituted in diverse spatialities.
