Sanma Told Me

Abstract

Through the biographical narratives of a Kolam woman of a tribal village in western India, the article delineates experiences of violence which the victim is unable to articulate in her own world. Cultural discourse might simultaneously violate and obliterate comprehension of violence from the victim’s perspective. In such situations, what is experienced as violence by the woman constitutes is lawful activity in the eyes of the community. The article pithily dwells upon the duality of sexual norms in the village which has consequences for women’s agency and (in)ability to resist violence. It looks at the community’s inclination for boundary maintenance which is threatened through its women’s transgressive sexual acts. The fall-out is continual de-legitimacy for the concerned woman to invoke the communitarian justice system. This can happen even among communities practicing liberal gender norms. Resistance to cultural violence does require support systems outside the kinship domain. It does necessitate secular interventions; an unconditional legitimation of secular reasoning cannot, however, be warranted because it might have implications for erasing existing egalitarian norms.