A Comparative Reading of Bama’s Karukku and Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke : A Dalit Feminist Approach

Abstract

Using Kimberlé Crenshaw’s method of ‘representational intersectionality’, this article seeks to compare two Dalit women’s autobiographies—Bama’s ¹ Karukku (1992/2012) and Baby Kamble’s ² The Prisons We Broke (1986/2009)—in terms of their representation of various social locations within hierarchical power-dynamics where systems of class, caste and gender converge. Intersectionality proposes to identify multiple systemic subjections informing Dalit women’s unique social location, which is substantially different from that of both Brahmin women and Dalit men. Patriarchal representations of Dalit women, located at the intersection of class, caste and gender systems, contribute to the unique form of their domination. Translated into the context of the present article, representational intersectionality is used to analyse how various myths and narratives, presented within the autobiographies—The Prisons We Broke and Karukku—contribute to the intersectional subordination of Dalit women. Additionally, it is applied to show how Dalit women demonstrate their collective agency, which is exemplified by the autobiographies, emerging as resistance narratives against intersectional subordination. Chosen together, these two texts span distinct regions (Tamil Nadu/Maharashtra), religions (Christianity/Hinduism–Buddhism), and decades of publication, thereby foregrounding the comparative benefit of an intersectional lens.