Sociology - I Project

Dalit Women's Narratives: Shaping a

More Comprehensive Understanding
of Dalit Struggles

Date of submission: 21 August 2023

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This paper has been written in response to the following prompt which is an extract from
Baby Kamble’s autobiography entitled: ‘The Prisons We Broke’.

‘The whole of Ashadh was hectic, but especially hectic were the Tuesdays,
Fridays and the full moon night of this month. There was a lot of work to do.
Women made the most of these days, exploiting this opportunity to the hilt.
Hindu philosophy had distracted us as dirt and thrown us into the garbage pits,
on the outskirts of the village. We lived in the filthiest conditions possible. Yet
Hindu rites and rituals were dearest to our hearts. For our poor helpless
women, the haldi-kumkum in their tiny boxes was more important than even a
mine full of jewels. We desperately tried to preserve whatever tiny bits of Hindu
culture we managed to lay our hands on. And yet no one tried to understand us.
Our minds somehow
kept on hoping against hope – that we too would be able to live like the upper
castes, the we also would be able to enjoy wealth like the Patil’s wife and
practise the same rituals as them. But when our very bodies were considered
worthless, who was going to spare a though about our minds?

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The book “The Prisons We Broke” is a personal memoir of Babytai Kamble. Kamble writes
about her own experiences as a Dalit woman, but she also offers a broader analysis of the
caste system and the oppression of Dalits. Being born in a Maharwada provides her with a
unique vantage point to observe the oppression first-hand. The book is a protest against the
inhumane conditions that Dalits have been forced to endure for millennia. It is more than a
personal memoir; it is a socio-biography that reveals the lived realities of Dalits that have
seldom been discussed in mainstream writings. The book further illustrates how Dalit women
experience dual subjugation and oppression, as they are oppressed by both the caste system
and by patriarchy, that is, being born Dalit and that too a woman. The dominant community
in India suppressed Dalits, both men and women. However, the conditions of Dalit women
were even more pathetic than those of Dalit men.

The text describes the daily life of the Mahar community in Maharashtra, focusing on the
rituals, customs, pain, and struggles they faced. It demonstrates the inner world of the
Mahars, including the abject poverty, the suffering of women during childbirth, the
oppression of women, and the superstitions that have blinded them.

Kamble in her narratives exposes the manifestation of exploitation and physical abuse
perpetrated by Dalit men against their female counterparts. This physical maltreatment
included not just bodily harm but also induced profound psychological anguish, imprinting a
lasting scar of humiliation in the minds of Dalit women (Kamble 2008).

The text also emphasizes the role of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in influencing the Mahars to
get educated and start fighting for their rights. Ambedkar belonged to a Mahar community.
He himself faced caste-based discrimination throughout his life. This experience inspired him
to fight for their rights. Kamble also talked about the speech of Ambedkar in which he asked
Dalits to educate their children and discard superstitions. He believed that education was
essential for Dalits to break free from the cycle of poverty and generations of discrimination.

He specifically called on women to take a leading role in educating their children and in
leading the fight for social change.

“Our women have had a major……give up these superstitions…… take a lead in educating
their children……I have full faith in you, my sisters. Go ahead, educate your children.”
(Kamble 2008)

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Ambedkar’s words were like an elixir to them and soon the wind of Ambedkar’s turned into a
whirlwind. Babytai Kamble was greatly influenced by Ambedkar. She even calls herself a
product of the Ambedkar movement.

This essay will primarily argue that the narratives of Dalit women hold a significant position
and potential in the broader discourse of social justice and empowerment. And how without
her part the Dalit literature is completely unfulfilled. This essay will first provide a brief
overview of the resistance that the Dalit women literature has faced and further delve into
why the need for an autonomous organization for Dalit women is justified. By examining the
unique lens through which Dalit women view their struggles, this essay aims to shed light on
the intricate interplay between gender and caste.

From Silence to Assertion

As modern education began entering the lives of underprivileged groups, it empowered them
to assess the world they encountered in their daily struggle for survival and enabled them to
articulate them into written words (Naik 2016, 16). “The Prisons we broke” is a seminal
example of this. The book abounds with repertoire of lived experiences, encountered and
recounted from a particular gender community perspective. These life narratives provide
some seminal glimpses into their world. But an equally important aspect is the determination
to assert their Dalit women identity. They show that they are far from being “silent subjects”
at the receiving end of humiliation (Naik 2016, 16-17).

In these narratives we see the disappearance of the archaic passive subject who endures
humiliation in silence. Here we see the emergence of a subject with a critical agency who
speaks up, writes out, and boldly confronts these challenges. The one-way smooth channeling
of the flow of humiliation (perpetrator and silent receiver) is seriously disturbed in the
narratives (Naik 2016, 17).

However, the issue of representing Dalit women has erupted time and again in the discourse
on Dalit women. Dalit women justify the case for talking differently on the basis of external
factors (non-Dalit forces homogenizing the issue of Dalit women) and internal factors, that is,
the patriarchal domination within the Dalits (Guru 1995, 2548).

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These external factors take away the agency with which the Dalit women speak and tend to
homogenize their voices. It dilutes their voice and undermines the subjectivity with which she
narrates her experience.

Thus, beneath the call for women's solidarity the identity of the Dalit woman as 'Dalit' gets
whitewashed and allows a 'non-dalit' woman to speak on her behalf (Guru 1995, 2549).

Besides these external factors, certain internal factors prompted them to organize separately
vis-à-vis men. Dalit women have voiced their disapproval of their male counterparts for
dominating the literary scene. Dalit male writers do not take serious note of the literary output
of Dalit women and tend to be dismissive of it (Guru 1995, 2549). Dalit men reproduce the
same mechanisms against the Dalit women which their high-caste adversaries had used to
dominate them (Guru 1995, 2549).

Understanding the need for an autonomous mobilization of

Dalit women
The autonomous mobilization of Dalit women can be understood from an epistemological
standpoint. This perspective maintains that the less powerful members of a society have a
more encompassing view of social reality than others because their disadvantaged position
grants them a certain epistemic privilege over others (Guru 1995, 2549).

‘Social location’ which determines the perception of reality is a major factor that makes the
representation of Dalit women's issues by non-Dalit women less valid and less authentic
(Guru 1995, 2548). As they experience inequality, discrimination, and humiliation firsthand,
their discriminating views and perspectives on discriminatory practices assume crucial
importance towards the annihilation of injustice (Naik 2016, 18).

Secondly, particularly noteworthy in Kamble’s and other Dalit women's literature is the
invocation of the communitarian idea of “we” with which they constantly identify their
selves. It unequivocally evokes the collective notion of "we" which appears ubiquitously
throughout in their life writings (Naik 2016, 17). The collective experience is emphasized and
outlined in the narrative of The Prisons We Broke.

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“Anyway, for me, the suffering of my community has always been more important than my
own individual suffering. I have identified myself completely with my people. And therefore
Jina Amucha was the autobiography of my entire community.” (Kamble 2008)

“We may be like rivers, streams, canals or even gutters; but all of us have to finally merge in
the ocean. Our ocean is the community.” (Kamble 2008)

The individual "I" is interlaced with the communitarian “we”. Thereby the individual
subjectivities enrich the meaning of collective identity and enter into dialogue with the larger
Dalit community.

CONCLUSION
Dalit women indeed write differently, it carries a distinctive voice in their writing. Her role is
undoubtedly indispensable. She breaks the prisons, in which she had been incarcerated and
asserts her identity.

Without incorporating her narrative and perspective, the Dalit community’s narration of
struggles, humiliation, pain, and suffering, the simultaneous quest for social justice and social
liberation would lack depth and remain unfulfilled (Naik 2016, 19). Through their writing,
they challenge the conventional narratives, rendering their voice indispensable in shaping a
more comprehensive understanding of dalit narratives.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

1. Kamble, Baby. 2008. The Prisons We Broke. Translated by Maya Pandit. Hyderabad:
Orient BlackSwan.

Journal Articles

1. Gopal Guru. “Dalit Women Talk Differently.” Economic and Political Weekly 30, no.
41/42 (1995): 2548–50.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4403327.

2. NAIK, PURNACHANDRA. “Baby Kamble to Bama: Dalit Women Write

Differently.” Economic and Political Weekly 51, no. 42 (2016): 16–19.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/44165812.