ABSTRACT
This chapter turns attention toward Dalit women as new subjects of investigation and objects of research, as current academic and political discourses on gender manifest an anxious interest in their life narratives. Sharmila Rege initiates a debate over the consumption of Dalit autobiographies by mainstream writers, and presents a comprehensive review of many Dalit thinkers and creative writers who have reflected on this issue. She concludes that these testimonies reveal that Dalit women have been strong agents and bearers of major social reforms through their valuable contribution in Phule-Ambedkarite politics, school education, literary and academic spheres of life.
