Storied memories: gendering Dalit memories in Urmila Pawar’s The Weave of My Life

ABSTRACT

The present article intends to explore how gendered Dalit¹ memory enables one to reclaim the female ‘self’, more explicitly female subjectivity through Urmila Pawar’s The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoirs. Taking cues from the theoretical framework of Uma Chakravarti Guru, and Sharmila Rege, it will interrogate the contentions about the construction of a casteist gendered body. Further, it will substantiate the delineation of memory in the form of text as a social resurrection that builds resistance towards social exclusion and injustice. The literary representation of caste and gender has emerged as a new trend in Dalit women’s memoirs and autobiographical narratives in contemporary India. The long-silenced voices become visible through the intersectional private and public memories reconstructing their caste identity from a feminist perspective. Such gendered narrative perspectives articulate the lived experiences of the Dalit women within and beyond marginality. It further recreates alternative understanding of gendered Dalit ‘self’ as well as community.

KEYWORDS:

• ‘Gender
• ’ ‘memory
• ’ ‘dalit
• ’ ‘memoir
• ’ ‘feminist.’

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The term ‘Dalit’ traces back etymology to its Sanskrit origin ‘Dal’, which means ‘scattered’, ‘trodden’, ‘cracked’, and ‘broken’ (Kumar, 2019, p. 3). It refers to the lowest section of the castes who are excluded from the four fold varna systems of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras in Indian society (Kumar, 2019, p. 20). Even after seventy-five years of India’s Independence, the Dalit people are exploited and maltreated by the upper castes (Kumar, 2019, p. 36).

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Joy Das

Joy Das presently teaches English at Saheed Kshudiram College which is affiliated with the University of North Bengal (India). His areas of interest include ‘Postcolonial Literature’, ‘Cultural Studies’, ‘Environmental Humanities’ and ‘Gender Studies’ among others. He has published several research articles in reputed journals like ‘Contemporary Voice of Dalit’ (Sage), ‘Environmental Philosophy,’ ‘Asian Ethnicity’ (Taylor & Francis), ‘Media Asia’ (Taylor & Francis) and others. He has also presented a range of research papers in national and international seminars.

Bibek Adhikary

Dr. Bibek Adhikary currently teaches English literature at the University of Gour Banga, West Bengal, India. In his doctoral research, he read intertextually the selected short stories of four contemporary female writers. His research interest includes intertextuality studies, marginality studies, refugee studies etc.