‘Prisoner of Darkness’: A Literary Analysis of Gendered Violence Disguised as Caste Violence

Abstract

The Dalit feminist standpoint theory asserts that the issues of the Dalit women need to be addressed, as they have been ignored in both the Indian feminist struggle and the Dalit struggle, which has been primarily led by Dalit men. The author’s research provides an in-depth study of the dual marginalization of the Dalit body on the basis of caste and gender. This article aims to depict how caste-based violence is practiced through gendered marginalization. It discusses literature as a tool to analyse how caste violence is practiced by controlling or abusing women’s sexuality or by reinforcing the men’s masculinity. This article analyses the short story ‘Prisoner of Darkness’ by Baburao Bagul to depict how Dalit women suffer gendered marginalization in the name of caste punishments. The literary text represents issues of Dalit women who are sexually oppressed through socially allotted roles of a concubine, kept woman and publicly objectified female body. The text helps underline how gender violence is disguised as caste violence. The text also helps understand the intersecting questions of caste, gender, religion and superstition depicted in the short story.