IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

SUBJUGATION IN BAMAS KARUKKU

G. Anitha
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Pachaiyappas College,Chennai, Tamil Nadu

The word dalit is originated from the discrimination, inequality, and injustice

predominate all over Indian society which is based on the caste system. The most

suppressed and oppressed part of our country are none other than the Dalit women.

they have the burden of being a woman and side by side of being a

Dalit/untouchable. Dalit women are the worst affected and suffer the three forms

oppression- caste, class and gender. The caste system declares Dalit women as

impure therefore untouchable and hence socially excluded. In a male dominated

society, Dalit women suffered unimaginable oppression, through not only caste,

but gender too, from which there was no escape. The laws in the Manusmriti and

other Vedic scriptures close economic, political, social, educational, and personal

channels through which Dalit women could be uplifted.

Dalit women face extreme hardships and violent conditions in their struggle

for livelihood. Sexual and other forms of violence against Dalit women, who make

up the majority of agricultural labourers in India, has become a potent weapon in

the hands of the upper-caste community in preserving the deprived status of the

Dalits. Class, caste and gender triply marginalize Dalit women and their feminist

19
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

movement differs from that of the mainstream movement of high caste women.

Men look down upon women only upon the basis of patriarchal notions. The

prevailing concepts of gender that are conceived to constitute what is masculine

and what is feminine in identity, personality and behavior- are largely, if not

entirely, cultural constructs that were generated by patriarchal biases.

The agonizing experiences of discrimination, oppression and exploitation

endured by the marginalized sections of Indian society based on caste and colour

paved the way for Dalit Literature to assert itself as a literature of resistance.

Bama, a Tamil Dalit writer, has witnessed many instances of violence against

dalits. Her grandmother and mother were humiliated in the fields and homes of the

landlords. It is remarkable that Bama has already formulated a dalit feminism

which defined woman from the socio-political perspective of a dalit, examining

caste and gender oppression together. Modern Indian writers like Bama tend to

depict the oppression of women with greater self-consciousness, deeper sense of

involvement and often with a sense of outrage.

The literary napping of the many faces of the female subject in India by

women writers has often been by the elite, about the elite, for the elite. Rarely have

women writers ventured outside middle class consciousness and experiences.

Being a dalit, a women and a writer, Bama presents her story with obvious

aggressive protest against dalit women oppression. The title of her very first work
20
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

(Karukku) becomes a symbol of dalit resistance. Born as Faustina Mary Fathima

Rani in a village called Puthupatty (near Madurai in Tamil Nadu) , she accepted

the pen name Bama. Her family consisting of her father Susairaj, employed in

Indian army, and her mother Sebasthiamma was converted to Christianity way

back in the 18th century. Bama has an urge to create a new society made up of

justice, equality and love. She dreams of the oppressed dalit community getting

united and fighting for their right as the blacks did in America. Her works break

the tradition and propose a new order. Quite appropriately, her language too breaks

all barriers of approved norms of decency and dismantles the mask of middleclass

morality. Karukku, her autobiographical novel, was not originally intended to

published. It recreates her past life as a Paraya girl, a teacher, and a nun. It grows

out of a particular moment : a personal crisis and watershed in the authors life

which drives her to make sense of her life as woman Christian, and dalit. The chief

source of creative tension in Karukku becomes the identity crisis that she

experienced during a decisive situation in her life (Ajayakumar 126). It is true that

Karukku is her autobiography. But it is also the autobiography of Dalits in India, in

a general sense. Each first person narrator in the novel represents one aspect of

dalit womans existence.

Kurukku is the childhood memories written in Tamil by dalit writer Bama.

Kurukku, voiced the joys and sorrows of her people, oppresses by higher castes in

21
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

India. She saw the humiliation my grandmother and my mother faced in the fields

and the homes of landlords. Despite the miseries we had a carefree childhood. In

the Afterward Bama says that there are thousand difficulties which beset a dalit

woman living on her own, yet the truth is that in her position as an independent

woman, there are many oppurtunities for her to spend her life usefully and

especially, to work for the liberation of dalits. Karukku flouts the established

conventions of writing an autobiography. Karukku is a painful journey that is

open-ended and many questions are left unanswered. It is not a complete success

story like a conventional autobiography. It is rather a revelation of bitter reality of

the social ills confronted by a dalit woman. Bama gives us a clear picture of the

caste oppression faced Dalit Christians not only by the upper cast society but more

so within the catholic church itself. The book is about Bamas inner quest for self-

discovery and the resultant courage, which forces her to move away from the life

of a nun to live the life of a dalit woman. Bama says that both her grandmas

worked as servants for Naicker families. In the case of one of them, when she was

working in the fields, even tiny children would call her by name and order her just

because they belonged to Naicker caste. Bamas other Patti was the same. As soon

as the dawn broke, she would go to the Naicker homes, sweep out the cowshed,

collect up the dung and dirt and bring home the leftover rice and curry. When

Bama said to Patti that she should not accept leftovers, then Patti said:

22
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

These people are the mahajans who feed us our rice. Without them, how will we

survive? havent they been upper-caste from generation to generation, havent we

bear lower-caste? Can we change this?(14)

Annan told Bama about the reason of marginalization and subjugation of Dalits.

He said that because they born in the Paraya jati, they were never given any honour

dignity or respect. They were stripped of all that but if they study and make

progress they can throw away all these indignities. The words that Annan spoke to

Bama that day made a very deep impression on her.

Bama was ill-treated in school on the basis of caste. One day Bama was

playing with other children, she climbed the coconut tree and coconut fell at her

touch. She says, next morning in the assembly, the headmaster called out my name,

You have shown as your true nature as a Paraya(16). The headmaster was of

Chaaliyar caste. At that time there was a battle going on between the Chaaliyar

people and Parayas. But Bama says that because of her education alone she

managed to survive among those who spoke the language of caste-difference and

discrimination. When Bama analyzed the caste difference in society, she began to

wonder, what did they mean when they call us paraya? Had the name become

obscene? But we too are human beings (13), Bama started to look out for means

to uplift herself and her community from this trampled existence. Her annan shows

her the right part and tells her that education is the only way to attain equality.
23
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

Bama took her studies very seriously and she always stood first in class. In fact,

because of that she says, Many people became my friends, even though I am a

paraichi (15). Throughout her education, Bama found that wherever she went,

there was a painful reminder of her caste and untouchability. The financial grants

and special tuitions that the government offered the harijans were more of a

humiliation than consolation, mainly because it singled out her caste identity.

When Bama wrote Karukku she didnt have the courage to reveal her Dalit

identity. She didnt have the courage to retort. She swallowed the very words that

came into her mouth. She say that in this society, if one is born a low-caste, then he

has to live the life of humiliation and degradation until his death. When Bama was

eleven years old, there were continuous skirmishes between Paraya and the

Chaaliyar community. Police supported the Chaaliyar community. Most of the

males of paraya community were arrested and a few had disappeared into the

mountain jungle. The police behaved deplorably towards the women. They uses

obscene language and swore at them, told them that since their husbands were

away they should be to entertain the police at night, winked at them and shoved

their guns against their bodies. The women in Karukku are marginalized but they

have the courage to bounce back, to live and to earn their livelihood.in the absence

of males, the women returned to the streets as usual, and set off for their customary

coolie-work. The police was furious that women were smart enough to continue

24
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

working and taking care of their children enen without their men, and so they

rounded up all the women workers, forced them into their lorries and dropped them

off on the other side in the village.

Bama says that rules of the village ensured that none of the women from the

community went to the cinema. They said that this was because the boys of all

other castes would pull Paraya women about if they were seen in the cinema hall.

Then there would be fights all around. Bama tells the position of girl child in her

community. She says that in the face of such poverty the girl child cannot see the

sense in schooling, and stay at home, collecting the firewood, looking after the

house, caring for the babies and doing household chores. Bamas father was not

interested to send her to college. When she joined college, her father wote to her

from army, very abusively, You listened to the nuns advice advice and joined the

college; so now ask them to give them money; go on, go to them. Bama wanted to

become a nun because she wanted to help the people of her Dalit community.

She worked in a convent and found that the nuns working there constantly

oppressed the Dalit children studying there and treated them with contempt. After

Bama became a nun, she joined the convent with the single purpose of serving the

underprivileged. But she found that the convent is not devoid of caste

consciousness. Having come out of the religious order, Bama feels a sense of

fulfillment and belonging to the community of dalit women despite the fact that
25
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

she is economically insecure. Karukku is thus an autobiography of the suffocation

and suppression of the trampled and marginalized existence of a Dalit woman.

The book is also a revelation of the inner strength and vigour of dalit women

as represented by Bama. Bamas experiences open up new perspectives for dalit

women. We find that centuries of oppression have not succeeded in completely

draining the vitality and the inner strength of the Dalits. Dalit women, in particular,

have enormous strength and vigour to bounce back against all odds. If Karukku

exploded with the realistic description of the subjated existence of the dalits,

sangati celebrations with pride the resilience and dauntless spirit of the dalit

women. Book talks about Bamas dalit experience in different areas of her life.

There are places where she is proud and happy the way she is but is angered by the

treatment given to her, her mind is always crowded by numberless questions;

Are dalits not human beings? Do they not have common Sense? Do they not have

such attributes as a sense of honour And self-respect? Are they without any

wisdom, beauty, Dignity? What do we lack? (24).

WORKS CITED

Primary Source

Bama. Karukku. Chennai: Macmillan, 2000.

26
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4
IJARRAS ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

Secondary Source

Ajayakumar, P.P. Karukku: Essentialism, Difference and the Politics of Dalit Identity. Littcrit
33.63(2007) : 124-32.

Interview with Bama, Conducted by Maria Preeti Srinivasan, 15th August, 2006.

Kumar, Satendra Kumar. Unheard Voices of Dalit Literature. Jaipur: Yking Books, 2012.

Rege Sharmila. Real Feminism and Dalit Women. Economics Political Weekly 11 Feb, 2000: 2-
3

27
IJARRAS Vol 2 Issue 4