Empowering Women through Education: A Study o...

Empowering Women through Education: A Study of Bama’s Karukku

Author Name : Doyel Chatterjee

ABSTRACT

 The term “Dalit” comes from the Marathi term ‘dala’ meaning ‘of the soil’. It also suggests that which has been ground down.Today, its usage includes social suppressed caste groups , especially the untouchables in India. Its semantic scope has been extended to include tribals, landless farm labourers and the exploited. This paper argues that Indian Dalit autobiography must be read, less as an individual’s life –writing than as a testimonial. Testimonio is a collective document and Karukku moves from individual to community through a narration of trauma-“it is the depiction of a collective trauma-of my community-whose length cannot be measured in time.” Karukku is a poignant subaltern novel that speaks of the childhood experiences of the author Bama, the pen-name of Faustina Mary Fatima Rani.