Interaction of Caste and Gender in Bama's Karukku from an Intersectional Perspective

Bama’s autobiography “Karukku” raises a powerful and universal voice against all forms of oppression that exist in the caste-ridden patriarchal Indian society. In the novel, Bama narrates her experience as a marginalised Dalit woman who gains enough courage and mental strength to invert the structures of domination prevalent in Indian society. While exposing the hypocrisy of the high-caste people, she reinstates the marginalised Dalit women and asserts the distinctive voice of Dalit women who speak differently from the savarna women. The present paper is an attempt to examine how the interaction of caste and gender function simultaneously in the subordination of Dalit women in Bama’s “Karukku.” By drawing upon the framework of Dalit Feminism, the study explores how Bama’s novel transcends the 'victim' trope by positioning her life story as a place of social and political resistance. It argues that Bama's use of local Tamil dialect and her criticism of religious and social institutions that serve as vital tools for reclaiming organization in a setting of systemic exclusion. The paper explores the novel’s reliance on subaltern orality and folklore and argues that Bama’s use of dialect and communal memory transforms the memoir into a political 'testimonio.' Finally, the study concludes that the novel “Karukku” serves as a linguistic and cultural manifesto that reclaims the Dalit woman's body and voice from the margin of Indian literature to its center to acclaim liberty.