The Problematics of Ideological Construction and Repressive Interpellation of Caste in Bama’s Karukku

Abstract

The problem of caste in India is supposed to have commenced from the division of the Indian society into Varna system in the ancient times. It led to the marginalization of the people of Shudra Varna to the level of untouchability, discrimination, poverty, subjugation, subordination and exploitation. In the caste system, that was, and is, categorised as the upper caste and the lower caste-- the two fractions that emerged after the Independence of India, many people of the upper caste became so antagonistic into their treatment of the people of lower caste that they designed a system of ‘power’ and ‘control’, both ideological and repressive, in order to exert their hegemony over them and dominate the consciousness of these people for the perpetuation of their privilege, authority and rule. The writings by Dalit authors, in the post-Independence era, have posed a resistance against this ideological and repressive structure of India society that enforces the people of the lower caste to accept their lot of being born to be ruled by the upper caste people. This resistance has been voiced through candour and boldness into the ‘life narratives’ of many Dalit authors. This article seeks to explore these designs and structures of ideological formations of the caste system and its repressive interpellation in the Indian society through the autobiography of Bama, Karukku.