Sangati is a startling insight into the lives of Dalit women who face the double disadvantage of caste and gender discrimination. Written in a colloquial style, the original Tamil version overturns the decorum and aesthetics of upper-caste, upper-class Tamil literature and culture and, in turn, projects a positive cultural identity for Dalits in general and for Dalit women in particular. Sangati flouts received notions about what a novel should be and has no plot in the normal sense. It relates the mindscape of a Dalit woman who steps out of her small town community, only to enter a caste-ridden and hierarchical society, which constantly questions her caste status. Realizing that leaving her community is no escape, she has to come to terms with her identity as an educated, economically independent woman who chooses to live alone. In relating this tale, Bama turns Sangati into the story not just of one individual, but of a pariah community.

Sangati: Events (Oxford India Collection (Paperback))

Literature & Fiction

BAMA

Holmström, Lakshmi

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

Karukku

First published in Tamil in 1992, Karukku broke barriers of tradition in ways more than one. The first autobiography of a Dalit woman writer, the book is a classic of subaltern writing, and a bold and poignant tale of life outside mainstream Indian thought and function. Revolving around the main theme of caste oppression within the Catholic Church, Karukku portrays the tension between the self and the community, and presents Bama's life as a process of self-reflection and recovery from social and institutional betrayal. Marking ten years of the first English translation of Karukku, this edition includes a Postscript, where Bama relives the dramatic moment of her leave-taking from her chosen vocation that she had not described in the first edition and a special note 'Ten Years Later'. This volume also carries the editor's note, the author's preface, the author's afterword to the first edition and an updated Introduction by the translator Lakshmi Holmstrom.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

South Asia Books

The Stomach that Chewed Hunger and other

Zubaan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BAMA. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by BAMA