Author(s): Dr. Anand Sagar

Abstract: Bama Faustina Soosairaj’s Karukku (1992), the first Dalit autobiographical narrative in Tamil literature, holds an irreplaceable place in South Asian feminist and postcolonial discourse. This article investigates the shaping and unshaping of caste and gendered identity via the lived experience of Karukku and considers the book as testimonial and literary intervention. In this paper, based on Dalit feminist theory, postcolonial studies and subaltern epistemology, it is argued that Bama's narrative enacts a triple consciousness that is the result of caste discrimination, gender subjugation and religious alienation simultaneously. Her journey from imposed silence to radical assertion is a paradigmatic example of Dalit women's writing as political praxis. The analysis moves through four interwoven concerns: the embodied experience of caste violence, the intersection of gender and untouchability, the role of Christianity as both oppressor and ambivalent refuge, and the formal strategies through which the text transforms personal memory into collective resistance.

Keywords: Karukku, Bama, Dalit feminism, caste, autobiography, gendered identity, Tamil literature.

Article Info: Received: 28 Mar 2025; Received in revised form: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 27 Apr 2025; Available online: 30 Apr 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.102.67