Trauma Translates to Activism: A Study of Select Dalit Women Poetry

Abstract

Communities who have experienced trauma find a way of dealing and coping with it. Writing is a known coping-mechanism for people on a path to healing. Healing for Dalit community, however, seems a distant dream in view of their ongoing struggle over centuries. Until 1995, Dalit men politically spoke on the behalf of Dalit women that obliterated their voice and existence. Their political engagement thereafter, brought to fore their immediate issues and consolidated their standpoint as political agents. Dalit women’s position is understood as a unique one from an epistemological perspective, considering their identity lies at the intersections of caste, class and gender. Studies that mark them, only use an objective criterion while overlooking the anxieties and traumas of their lived-experience. Dalit literature began in the 1960s with the aim of representing the voice of Dalits in their own terms and language. An urge to intellectually deconstruct their position alienates the nuances of their existential reality. A holistic approach to the question of Dalit women will require an insight into their lives both on the academic as well as pragmatic level. Dalit women writings can pave a way to an understanding of this hybrid. This study will trace how Dalit women channelize their trauma into their writing for the purpose of activism. By segregating trauma into two categories, namely intergenerational and cultural, this study will highlight the aspect of trauma that Dalit women engage with through their writings. How does their revolt take shape and what are the issues that have contributed to their trauma are some of the ideas that will be addressed through this study.