The oppressive societal status of Bengali Dalit women, impacted by the intersectional factors of caste and gender discrimination, has not been discussed extensively by mainstream Bengali academia. Writings of Dalit women writers belonging to West Bengal gained significant momentum as a counter-discourse to challenge the stereotypical portrayal of the Dalit women populace by mainstream and male Dalit authors. Their writings criticize the caste factor that exercises its power through hierarchical forms of violence prevalent against Dalits in West Bengal. This article intends to analyze the painful lived experiences of the Bengali Dalit strata and the counter-representation of caste-based violence and oppression in two Bengali short stories titled “Ups and Downs” and “The Conflict” written by notable Bengali Dalit feminist and writer Manju Bala. These stories are analyzed from the background of Teresa De Lauretis’s concept of the ‘rhetoric of violence,’ which recognizes how the language of violence codifies and constructs objects and subjects of violence to propagate dominant ideologies. The article investigates how the authors depict the traumatic effect produced by caste-based violence on the Dalit psyche. This article will also look at the factor of intersectionality and how it impacts the suffering of the Dalit women populace of West Bengal. To develop this paper, the researcher has consulted theoretical formulations on caste stratification, caste-gender subjugation, Brahmanical patriarchy, intersectionality, and traumatic realism to understand the holistic scenario of oppression faced by the Dalit women strata.

Authors:
Debdatta Chakraborty, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India

About the Presenter(s)
Debdatta Chakraborty is a research fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India. She is working in the area of Bengali Dalit studies with a special focus on caste-gender intersectionality.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/debdatta-chakraborty-1b1445220

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Debdatta-Chakraborty-2?ev=hdr_xprf

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

Bookmark