Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Through my paper, I review the changing discourses of power, identity, and experience as written by Dalit women in their autobiographies written across different timelines. It will trace the trajectory of the changing experience of caste oppression faced by women from the initial writers where poverty struck, economically unstable Dalit women who spent a major part of their lives in rural areas were writing, to the modern period where when financially independent, well informed, and educated Dalit women living in urban spaces and even abroad are writing. For the purpose of this study, I have divided Dalit women writers into two generations based on their timeline, first-generation writers include autobiographical writings by Baby Kamble, Urmila Pawar, Kumud Pawde, Bama and Sumitra Bhave written in the 20th century. The second generation includes autobiographical writings written in the 21st century. It includes writings by authors like Meena Kandasamy, Sujatha Gidla and Yashica Dutt. While the earlier writers restricted themselves to the collective oppression experienced by them as women from the community the latter did not restrict themselves to their collective experience of oppression. The later generation also focused on the individual feelings and psychological impact of gendered caste oppression on their individual personalities.