Subverting Oppression: The Politics of Deification in Cho

This paper examines the subversion of caste and patriarchal hierarchies in Cho Dharman’s Koogai, focusing on the deification of violated Dalit women. Through an analysis of the Homo Sacer status of Dalits, the paper discusses how Dharman reclaims the agency of Dalit women by transforming them into goddesses, thereby overturning their position in both the social and spiritual hierarchies. This embodied resistance not only challenges the caste system but also reimagines “untouchability” in a positive light. Drawing on the indigenous folk tradition of Amman worship, this study further explores how Dharman uses these religious tropes to liberate Dalit women from patriarchal and upper-caste control. The divine possession, a common feature in Amman traditions, is reinterpreted here as inhabiting not living bodies but the bodies of women already marked by caste and sexual violence creating a powerful form of resistance and reclamation.