“The Humble Mahar Women Fall at Your Feet, Master.” Portrayal of the Psyche and Suffering of Mahar Women in Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke

Priya Verma^1* , Surbhi Saraswat² & Antara Datta^3
1,2Amity Institute of English Studies and Research, Amity University, Noida.
³Janki Devi Memorial College, Delhi University, Delhi.

^{Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 16, Issue 2, 2024. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v16n2.27g
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Abstract

This article delves into the nature of suffering as experienced by Mahar women struggling with the implemented difficulties by the prevailing patriarchal ideology rooted in Brahminism. Baby Kamble dislikes the humanitarian aversion to agony and disparity. She is sensitive to the predicament of Dalit women and conscious of their sufferings. She has managed to dredge into the psyche of Mahar women, prioritizing sisterhood and Dalit femininity over individual suffering. As a woman writer, Kamble concedes that her primary task is to promote women’s emancipation and eradicate untouchability. She propitiously manages to portray Mahar women and their wounded selves. Utilizing Paik’s theory of Incremental Intersecting Technologies about caste, class, gender, sexuality, and agency as the framework, the paper seeks to answer the questions: How much consideration is given to the caste system, and what intersectional aspects have been integrated into discussions about Dalit women in the last twenty years.

Keywords: Untouchability, caste, class, gender, intersectionality.