Interrogating Patriarchy and Gender Violence in Dalit Culture: A Critical Study of Palanimuthu Sivakami’s “The Taming of Women

Abstract

The Dalits have been inclined as the untouchables of Indian caste system. Dalit women within their own community are still crumbling in the cobweb of patriarchy and violence heaped over casteism. Literature by Dalit women has been outshining as an attempt to articulate the unheard, unspoken voice highlighting the issues of caste identity to feminist literature rising as Dalit feminism. Palanimuthu Sivakami, through the novel ‘The Taming of Women’ delineated the concealed weeps of persistent women and extreme hostility of brutal men. It scream the voices about complexities of life and the sexual harassment and extreme violent expolitation of Dalit women. The violence is highlighted through the life of the protagonist Anandhayi and the other women (Lakhsmi, Kala, Arul, Dhanam, Poongavanam, Balan and Neelaveni) through her existing conflicts. Valid depictions of Dalit women’s experiences have been overlooked in the writings of Dalit women. The representation of Dalit patriarchy is highlighted in depth. Debt, untouchability and the rigid varna system victimises and tortures both women and men. However, the sufferings of Dalit women are layered as the novel throws light on the double marginalisation of women within their caste and out of their caste as well. The paper intends to elucidate the rigidity of patriarchy instigating violence towards women with the family and dalit community. It intensifies the rise of Dalit feminism among the Dalit women although in the end the dawn of freedom from the rigid patriarchy is crushed and buried by the brutal patriachal violence.