Digital Cartography and Feminist Geocriticism: A Case Study of the Marichjhapi Massacre

Abstract

Dalit massacres in India are an understudied area of research, with even fewer works on the female experiences of the massacres. As part of a larger study that aims to create a spatial archive of the female survivors of selected Dalit massacres, this article maps the female survivors of the Marichjhapi massacre (1979). Being the first prototype of the forthcoming archive, a thorough analysis of the massacre is performed here using feminist geocriticism and digital cartography. The introduction gives the background to the massacre and foregrounds the absence of female narratives surrounding the massacre. The next section addresses the gaps in understanding the relation between space, caste, and gender in Dalit scholarship. The methodology section explains the steps involved in a feminist geocritical and digital cartographical approach, which is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research. The prototype of the cartographic visualizations using QGIS software constitutes the next section, along with a visualization of the results and analysis of the data. Dalit female experiences are foregrounded through a close reading of selected texts, both fictional and non-fictional. This will eventually result in the creation of an archive of female historiography by locating the survivors at the site of the massacre.