Casteism and India’s Failing Democracy in Bama’s Karukku, Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke, and Baburao Bagul’s When I Hid My Caste

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to discuss three representative works by Dalit writers—Bama’s Karukku (2014), the first autobiography by a Dalit woman, Baby Kamble’s memoir, The Prisons We Broke (2015), and Baburao Bagul’s collection of short stories, When I Hid My Caste (2018)—that reveal how, despite some improvements in their condition, the Dalit community continues to be subjected to various, at times, subtle, forms of discrimination in present-day India. The analysis of these works suggests that, while India is the most populous democracy in the world (1.3 billion), its democracy is tainted by a remnant of the past: its caste system. Although the practice of untouchability was legally abolished after India’s independence in 1947, and the overall living conditions of the lowest caste, the Dalits (25% of the population) have slowly improved over the years, the legal measures undertaken by the government have failed to guarantee their equality and inclusion in all social spheres. The three literary works reveal that casteist discrimination has not ceased but rather has changed its appearance, which is why, in the words of Urvashi Butalia, “there is still a long road to be travelled” before India overcomes its democratic deficit, its inherited casteism.