Caste and Gender: A Study of Dalit Feminism

Abstract

Indian Social systems are characterized and operated through Caste which marks the graded inequality on a vertical ladder resulting out of the Hindu Social Framework with Brahmins being positioned at Top and Shudras, Untouchables at the bottom. Brahmins enjoyed their dominion over knowledge structure which gave them a superior position in the society, while the ones at the bottom (broadly Dalits) are the most suffered since they did not have access to education. In the post-independence with the constitutional frameworks being in place Dalits started acquiring Education. Thus their articulations have come in to being, at first through prose and poetry, later emerged in to a strong base for what is broadly termed as Dalit Literature.