Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Mirroring the Minor within the Minor: Vocalizing the Self in select Bengali Dalit Women Narratives
Bidisha Pal
ABSTRACT:
The socio-political scenario of Bengal showcases a sort of “caste blindness” (Sabharwal 2023, 70) that vouches for the privilege the upper-caste Hindus have and makes the marginalized rendered along the liminality in a subtle way to entertain the progressive intelligentsia. This caste blindness has made Dalit men and women in Bengal victims. However, Dalit women reside in a very curious position in Bengal being bracketed within a non-entity and belonging to “Non-places (non-lieux)” (Ponzanesi, 2012). Select writings of Bengali Dalit writers Kalyani Thakur Charal and Manju Bala voice against the hypocritical and graded patriarchy of Bengal where the women are subdued and subsided. Their identities become ‘a minor among the minor.’ In Bala and Thakur’s writings, there are righteous approaches to observe the marginalized women of Bengal and their struggles for reclaiming dignity which certainly calls for a Dalit-feminist framework as Dalit women belong to a heterotopia (Foucault 1967), a world within a world (a world of minority) which is unseen but disturbing and unsettling much and upsets the existing social hierarchy in terms of both gender and caste discrimination. The article studies carefully the issues of Dalit women that reappropriate the question of belongingness and the powerful expressions of these Bengali writers that are potential enough to hold a substantial discussion.
keywords: Dalit women of Bengal, liminality, non-entity, powerful voice(s), minor within the minor