Publisher's Synopsis
Offering a rare view from the bottom of the caste pyramid, this book explores the plural and contradictory nature of the cultural universe of Dalit women. It studies their self-perception, aiming to 'let these women's voices be heard, speaking of their self-understandings and their interactions'. Caste and gender structure the subjectivities of these women, and also provide the terrain and the tools with which these subjects may generate resistances: of recognition rather than confrontation. Selecting two talukas in Gujarat, the book focuses on Vankar, Bhangi and Koli-Patel women. The study was successfully made a participatory one, and the limitations and failures of this method have been frankly discussed. The first part of the book studies the women's day to day lives, and the second presents cultural expression as preserved in oral tradition. Of particular interest are the discussions on how, even when overburdened, women appropriate work to recover self esteem and assert identity, and on spaces where women take advantage of patriarchal exclusion to carve out autonomous exclusive niches for themselves. This book pioneers a new direction for research and provides major insights into the creation of Dalit women's cultural consciousness.
