Mapping Dalit Feminism

In this path-breaking study, a first in many ways, Anandita Pan argues that dalit women are an intersectional category, simultaneously affected by caste and gender. The use of intersectionality permits observation of the ways in which different forms of discrimination combine and overlap, challenging the apparent homogeneity of the categories 'woman' and 'dalit' as seen by mainstream Indian Feminism and Dalit Politics. This points to the difference between women and dalit women and the latter with dalit men, which leave them unrepresented. The book investigates the questions of 'selfhood', identity, representation and epistemology which reveal the 'savarnanization' of 'Indian woman' and the masculinization of 'dalit'. There is an incisive discussion of knowledge produced about dalit women and the intervention and contribution of Dalit Feminism therein. The book concludes with the question of who can be or become a dalit feminist, intriguingly, not a limited category.

Dalit Feminist Theory: A Reader radically redefines feminism by introducing the category of Dalit into the core of feminist thought. It supplements feminism by adding caste to its study and praxis; it also re-examines and rethinks Indian feminism by replacing it with a new paradigm, namely, that caste-based feminist inquiry offers the only theoretical vantage point for comprehensively addressing gender-based injustices. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, the chapters in the volume discuss key themes such as Indian feminism versus Dalit feminism; the emerging concept of Dalit patriarchy; the predecessors of Dalit feminism, such as Phule and Ambedkar; the meaning and value of lived experience; the concept of Difference; the analogical relationship between Black feminism and Dalit feminism; the intersectionality debate; and the theory-versus-experience debate. They also provide a conceptual, historical, empirical and philosophical understanding of feminism in India today. Accessible, essential and ingenious in its approach, this book is for students, teachers and specialist scholars, as well as activists and the interested general reader. It will be indispensable for those engaged in gender studies, women’s studies, sociology of caste, political science and political theory, philosophy and feminism, Ambedkar studies, and for anyone working in the areas of caste, class or gender-based discrimination, exclusion and inequality.

'The women tell it like it is... So riveting is the narration that it is difficult to put down the book until their stories are finished. For a non-fiction academic work this is no small feat.’ — The Hindu Sharmila Rege’s path breaking study of Dalit women’s writings and lives offers a powerful counter-narrative to the mainstream assumptions about the development of feminism in India in the 20th century. Extensive extracts from eight Dalit women’s writings cover issues such as food and hunger, community, caste, labour, education, violence, resistance and collective struggle. The voices that resound throughout the book, reveal that Dalit feminism, far from being ‘silent’ as so often presumed, is rich, powerful, layered – and highly articulate. Published by Zubaan.

This translation of the Tamil novel Sangati is a fine example of Dalit writing, and flouts any received notions of what a novel should be. It has no plot in the normal sense, nor any main characters. In terms of structure, it seeks to create a Dalit-feminist perspective and explores the impact of a number of discriminations--compounded above all, by poverty--suffered by Dalit women.

Originally published in Marathi in 1989, this contemporary classic details the history of women’s participation in the Dalit movement led by Dr B.R. Ambedkar, for the first time. Focusing on the involvement of women in various Dalit struggles since the early twentieth century, the book goes on to consider the social conditions of Dalit women’s lives, daily religious practices and marital rules, the practice of ritual prostitution, and women’s issues. Drawing on diverse sources including periodicals, records of meetings, and personal correspondence, the latter half of the book is composed of interviews with Dalit women activists from the 1930s. These first-hand accounts from more than forty Dalit women make the book an invaluable resource for students of caste, gender, and politics in India. A rich store of material for historians of the Dalit movement and gender studies in India, We Also Made History remains a fundamental text of the modern women’s movement.

This Collection Of Essays Spans The History Of The Movement From Its Nineteenth Century Roots To The Most Recent Growth Of Dalit Literature, And Includes The Political Developments And The Buddhist Conversion. In All 16 Essays Are Collected In The Volume. They Are Thematically Divided Into Four Different Parts, Viz., Background, Politics, Religion And Dalit Literature.

This book maps the intersections between sociology and feminism in the Indian context. It retrieves the lives and work of women pioneers of and in sociology, asking crucial questions of their feminisms and their sociologies. The chapters address the experiential realities of women in the field, pedagogical issues, methodological frameworks, mentoring processes and artistic engagements with academic work. The volume’s strength lies in bringing together Indian scholars from diverse social backgrounds and regions, reflecting on the specificity of the Indian social sciences. The chapters cover a range of key areas, including sexuality, law, environment, science and medicine. This volume will greatly interest students, teachers, researchers and practitioners of sociology, women’s studies, gender studies and feminism, politics and postcolonial studies.