(In)Visible Dalit Women: Collective Resistance for Dignity

Dalit students’ anti-caste and gender struggles against the dominance of the caste Hindus at the university have been examined extensively. However, while studying acts of resistance in higher education, dalit girls’ subjectivities are often overlooked or merged with dalit men’s narratives. Additionally, research on dalit women tends to focus on their conflicts concerning caste Hindu males or more generally. Their specific experiences and agency deserve more scholarly attention. This article draws on semi-structured interview data from a study of dalit women pursuing higher education at a university in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Through the narratives of 30 women in higher education, it explores how they support and empower each other to survive and succeed and questions their invisibility in everyday interactions with peers and teachers at the university.