ABSTRACT

The paper analyse the situation of vulnerable women who are trapped in a highly

caste based patriarchal society, these women are marginalized not only because of their gender ,

but also because of societal discrimination that prevails against Dalits. They face extreme

discrimination but are neglected . The paper uses the life experience of Babitayi kamble to bring

out the different levels of discrimination that Dalit women face in an Indian rural context. The

intersectional theory allows us to intersect different aspects such as gender and community to

identify the severity of discrimination faced by them. The autobiographical text gives us a clear

picture of how cruel and barbaric are the discrimination that they had to face, such as verbal

abuse , untouchability and many more. The pathetic situation of Dalit women is a bitter truth of

Indian cast and rural system and must be addressed as soon as possible.

Keywords: patriarchal society, abuse, oppression, gender discrimination, caste system.

Aswin B Nair (student)

Catholicate college, Pathanamthitta , Kerala, India 689645

aswinn092@.gmail.com

7025486439
Double Marginalization of Dalit women: An Intersectional analysis of Babytayi Kamble’s

The Prisons we broke

Dalits have been the most exploited , subjugated and oppressed class in India . Women of

this class are even worse victims because of their gender , as they face double marginalization

due to their caste and gender. The main source of this marginalization is due to the inequality

that is present in the society , this discrimination eventually leads to insecurity, injustice and

exploitation. Marginalized groups are always far from the mainstream society and their opinions

are not valued in any manner as they are considered inferior to other classes. Eventhough Dalit

women make a lion share of the population of India they are neglected by the mainstream

feminists as they focus more on a gender discrimination stand point which altogether ignored the

fact that a Dalit is not just marginalized on the basis of her gender but also as an inferior human

due to her caste therefore they feel isolated from the mainstream feminist movements. In short

we can assume that a conventional feministic approach might not be enough to analyse and

address the issue of Dalit women. Women of a higher cast might be able to relate to an orthodox

feministic movement as she faces no problems in the name of a caste hierarchy, which is obvious

but ignoring the problems of a huge portion of population might feel like a propaganda . Most

Dalit women do not have access to education , sanitation , food, proper shelter and not even a

clean source of drinking water . Even for those Dalit women who has a respectable education

and job may not get the same treatment as a privileged mainstream women at her work place or

at an educational institution . Even with so much advancement in time , not much has changed

for the women in Dalit communities. With such a status of being “doubly marginalized” makes

them a special category , whose needs and problems cannot entirely be understood from the
standpoint of either caste or gender , therefore an entirely different approach should be employed

to analyse the issue.

It requires an integrated approach that embraces the two-way interaction between

castes and gender identities as they are reinforced and reproduced in society. The concept of

interlacing has convincing applicability in the Indian context because it is recognized at a point

where several axes of oppression meet. The salient issues of gender inequality cannot be

explained by class analysis alone - a point of contention proposed by mainstream Indian

feminists. The reluctance of traditional Indian feminists to attach importance to differences on

the caste axis represents a blatant denial of the many previleges of the caste system.

Intersectionality indicates a multi-layered connection between race, gender, and other systems

that cooperate to permit and oppress privilege. Intersectionality is relative because it shows how

race, gender, and other factors work together to shape the experience of others. Crenshaw used

intersectionality to refer to how race, class, gender, and other systems combine to shape many

experiences by creating room for privilege. Here intersectionality is used to show the

disadvantages caused by overlapping systems that produce structural, political, and

representative dimensions of violence against minorities in the workplace and in society.

Carrying the burden of caste, class and gender, Dalit women advocate an intersectional approach

to address the roles of multiple sub-identities in shaping their experiences. Eventhough the

feminist movements emerged in the late 1800’s and those social evils prevailing at that time was

addressed such as the sati and other related evils , as the time progressed we had to wait for a

long time to witness a Dalit movement, at the time of Dr B.R.Ambedkar . But that too failed to

address the issues of women in Dalit community . only in the late 1900’ that we were able to

witness some Dalit women activists talking about their rights and also witnessed the rise of
literatures by Dalit women. In 1958, the term "Dalit literature" was used at the first conference of

Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha (Maharashtra Dalit Literature Society) in Mumbai . the real

originality and force of Dalit writing, which today constitutes a substantial and growing body of

work, can be traced to the decades following the late 1960s. Those are the years when the Dalit

Panthers revisit and embrace the ideas of Babasaheb Ambedkar, and elaborate his disagreements

with the essentially Gandhian mode of Indian nationalism, to begin a new social movement . In

the following decades, Dalit writing becomes an all-India phenomenon . Dalit literature started

being mainstream in India with the appearance of the English translations of Marathi Dalit

writing. An Anthology of Dalit Literature, edited by Mulk Raj Anand and Eleanor Zelliot. Later

on Dalit women started to write works on the oppression and discrimination and their creations

started to make an impact on the society. These writers have primarily used poetry, short stories,

essays and more to challenge the intersectional forms of oppression they faced. Dalit women's

literature reveal that systems of caste and gender are connected and particular disadvantages for

Dalit women result in experiences of oppression that are distinct from that of upper caste women

and Dalit men.

We can find many such writings of women who had to face marginalization on the

basis of gender , cast and sexuality , writers such as P.Sivakami and Babytai Kamble are the

pioneers of Dalit autobiographies , their works portrays extremely gripping autobiographical

account of all the trauma that they had to face as a women belonging to a lower class society .In

this particular paper Babytai Kamble’s autobiographical work The prisons we broke wil be

analysed with the theory of intersectionality to better understand the marginalization ,from a

Dalit women’s point of view .

 Babytai was born into an untouchable caste called the mahar, belonging to the

region of Maharshrta. She is one of the earliest women writers from the untouchable caste , her

distinctive writing style and auto biographical works set apart from the other authors from the

community. Kamble is acclaimed for her work called Jina Amucha which was later translated to

English . This work got critical appreciation from experts due to its exceptional portrayal of the

life of an untouchable women . One of the major portions of the book articulates caste and

gender discrimination and multilayered violence suffered by Dalit women at the hands of the

savarna (upper caste Hindus) and Dalit men. Kamble writes from an untouchable woman's

perspective, not deterring from naming patriarchy in the untouchable community nor sparing the

internalized patriarchy by Dalit women. This honesty and reflexivity has been largely missing in

upper caste women's writings. Kamble also underscores how the caste Hindu women and men

treated untouchables with contempt, disgust, and hate. This work became one of the most

powerful and poignant auto-biographical writing in Dalit writings from India .

In The Prisons We Broke, Baby Kamble guides readers through the

experience of living in a society deeply rooted in oppressive caste norms, and how to gradually

create space to break free from caste norms. Barriers to freedom here include not only the

restrictions imposed on individuals by others, but also the structures of control in society. As a

result, these restrictions are imposed on some and not on others. The most notable aspect of this

text is that it places the concept of self-liberation in the context of community. This self differs

from the concept of the abstract individual self that has traditionally been at the center of most

liberal theories of liberty. This idea of continuity between self and community is emphasized by

both Gopal Guru and Sharmila Rege when discussing the epistemological resistance of Dalit

women. Baby Kumble begins the story with a very personal account of her love for her
grandparents. She grew up with her brother in her grandparents' house in Virgaon, Talka, Pune

district, Maharashtra. The residents of Mahalwada lived in extreme poverty. Her father, who

worked as a local contractor, spent all his money on food, clothes, and tea. is the reason why she

is difficult to live with. This is a uniquely personal story, but it also points to the larger structure

of oppression that women face on a daily basis. As patriarchy takes hold in society, women are

beginning to accept similarly oppressive patriarchal norms. But what is important here is that the

author also speaks of the oppressive social and economic conditions imposed on him by the

upper castes. She writes, "Our women offer their entire lives to the service of the earth. But when

they themselves become mothers, what do they get? .... In those days there would be no food in

the house, not even the water leftover from boiling rice, to satiate the fire of hunger raging inside

the belly of the new mother”(pg,57). "A mahar woman would continue to give birth till she

reached menopause”, this line gives us a perfect insight of the mahar women. She further says in

the work ,"They had to cover themselves fully if they saw any man from the higher casts coming

down the road,when he came close, they had to say’ the humble Mahar women fall at your feet

master’. This was likea chant, which they had to repeat innumerable times, even to a small child

if it belonged to a higher caste”.(52). She says how a man would shame them , "Look at the

bhakris this slut has prepared. She cannot even make a few bhakris properly. Oh, well, what can

one expect of this daughter of a dunce? (94)." The author writes that outside the mahalwada,

mahar women had to bow and proclaim their submission to all passing upper-caste men. The

oppressive entanglement of caste and patriarchy has resulted in men living outside the

community, higher caste women, and sometimes Mahari women themselves, inflicting

humiliating experiences on other Mahari women and their children. It's evident from the way in

which they have pushed the boundaries of their personal lives together to ensure their survival.
And to ensure the care of children. However, in public spheres, the upper castes have made great

efforts to limit the movement of Dalit women. Caste and untouchable social practices allowed

mahar women to work for minimal wages. But the products of their labor are purchased by upper

caste households. They refuse to touch it , if these items have visible spots on their bodies. It was

in the time ashaad that they got a tiny bit of happiness. It was one of the years when a buffalo

was sacrificed and the whole community feasted and ate together. It was believed that women

could be possessed by the goddess and therefore treated equally as mother goddesses by men,

women and children. Even her husband bowed at her feet and asked for good omens eventhough

it was very ironical. The narrator writes that this prison of ignorance was purposely closed

because the upper castes were unwilling to control education and allow mahars and other lower

castes access to knowledge ( Kamble 37). When Mahal's children went to school, they were also

subjected to severe humiliation. She gives such real life account of how their community was

marginalized ,her stories are from her life which makes it more disturbing and dark. Towards the

end of the work she shows us how Ambedkar and his ideologies helped them to liberate

themselves from the grip of the crual and suppressing castsystem.

Thus we can see how Kamble portrays the miserable life of her

community and how much neglected they were , she also uses her work to disclose how two

elements can intersect to make a Dalit women double marginalized . Here it is evident that cast

and gender intersect , several instances that are available in the text are pointing towards the

same , thus her text cannot be just viewed as a personal work but can be viewed as a general

account of the situation of Dlait women. By the analysis that was done on the text , the evidence

of the double marginalization are very much visible and we can conclude that the text is a prime

example on how a particular class of people are harassed on the basis of things that they are not
in control of , and it is clear that how conventional feminism was not able to address the social

evil. Leaving the major portion of women population to the clutches of several levels of

discrimination is truly unjustifiable.