Dalit Feminist Theory: A Reader radically redefines feminism by introducing the category of Dalit into the core of feminist thought. It supplements feminism by adding caste to its study and praxis; it also re-examines and re-thinks Indian feminism by replacing it with a new paradigm, namely that caste-based feminist inquiry offers the only theoretical vantage point for comprehensively addressing gender-based injustices.
Drawing on a variety of disciplines, the essays in the volume discuss key themes such as Indian Feminism versus Dalit Feminism; the emerging concept of Dalitpatriarchy; the predecessors of Dalit feminism, such as Phule and Ambedkar; the meaning and value of lived experience; the concept of Difference; the analogical relationship between black feminism and Dalit feminism; the Intersectionality debate; and, the theory-versus-experience debate. They also provide a conceptual, historical, empirical and philosophical understanding of feminism in India today.
Accessible, essential and ingenious in its approach, this book is for students, teachers, specialist scholars as well as activists and the interested general reader. It will be indispensable for those engaged in gender studies, women’s studies, sociology of caste, political science and political theory, philosophy and feminism, Ambedkar studies, and anyone working in areas of caste, class or gender-based discrimination, exclusion, and inequality.
Dalit Feminist Theory
A Reader
Contents
Introduction: Theorizing Dalit Feminism
SUNAINA ARYA AND AAKASH SINGH RATHORE
PART I
Indian Feminism vs Dalit Feminism
1 A Critical View on Intersectionality
NIVEDITA MENON
2 Problems for a Contemporary Theory of Gender
SUSIE THARU AND TEJASWINI NIRANJANA
3 Indian Feminism and ‘Dalit Patriarchy’
GOPAL GURU; V. GEETHA; UMA CHAKRAVARTI
PART II
Predecessors of Dalit Feminism
4 Dalit Women’s Agency and Phule-Ambedkarite Feminism
SHAILAJA PAIK
5 Ambedkarite Women
WANDANA SONALKAR
6 Ramabai and Ambedkar
SHARMILA REGE
PART III
Lived Experience as 'Difference'
7 Brahmanical Nature of Violence Against Women
SHARMILA REGE
8 Vilifying Dalit Women: Epics and Aesthetics
VIZIA BHARATI; Y.S. ALONE
9 Dalit Women's Autobiographies
SHARMILA REGE
PART IV
What Difference does 'Difference' Make?
10 'Difference' through Intersectionality
KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW
11 Dalit Women Talk Differently
GOPAL GURU
12 Debating Dalit Difference
SHARMILA REGE
PART V
Intersectionality in India
13 Why Intersectionality is Necessary
S.J. ALOYSIUS, J.P. MANGUBHAI AND J.G. LEE
14 The Dalit Woman Question
SUSIE THARU
15 Responses to Indian Feminists’ Objections
MARY E. JOHN; MEENA GOPAL
PART VI
Toward a Dalit Feminist Theory
16 Feminist Fictions: A Critique of Indian Feminism
JULIE STEPHENS
17 Revitalising Dalit Feminism
SMITA M. PATIL
18 Dalit Women’s Experience: Toward a Dalit Feminist Theory
KANCHANA MAHADEVAN
Index
A Reader
Contents
Introduction: Theorizing Dalit Feminism
SUNAINA ARYA AND AAKASH SINGH RATHORE
PART I
Indian Feminism vs Dalit Feminism
1 A Critical View on Intersectionality
NIVEDITA MENON
2 Problems for a Contemporary Theory of Gender
SUSIE THARU AND TEJASWINI NIRANJANA
3 Indian Feminism and ‘Dalit Patriarchy’
GOPAL GURU; V. GEETHA; UMA CHAKRAVARTI
PART II
Predecessors of Dalit Feminism
4 Dalit Women’s Agency and Phule-Ambedkarite Feminism
SHAILAJA PAIK
5 Ambedkarite Women
WANDANA SONALKAR
6 Ramabai and Ambedkar
SHARMILA REGE
PART III
Lived Experience as 'Difference'
7 Brahmanical Nature of Violence Against Women
SHARMILA REGE
8 Vilifying Dalit Women: Epics and Aesthetics
VIZIA BHARATI; Y.S. ALONE
9 Dalit Women's Autobiographies
SHARMILA REGE
PART IV
What Difference does 'Difference' Make?
10 'Difference' through Intersectionality
KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW
11 Dalit Women Talk Differently
GOPAL GURU
12 Debating Dalit Difference
SHARMILA REGE
PART V
Intersectionality in India
13 Why Intersectionality is Necessary
S.J. ALOYSIUS, J.P. MANGUBHAI AND J.G. LEE
14 The Dalit Woman Question
SUSIE THARU
15 Responses to Indian Feminists’ Objections
MARY E. JOHN; MEENA GOPAL
PART VI
Toward a Dalit Feminist Theory
16 Feminist Fictions: A Critique of Indian Feminism
JULIE STEPHENS
17 Revitalising Dalit Feminism
SMITA M. PATIL
18 Dalit Women’s Experience: Toward a Dalit Feminist Theory
KANCHANA MAHADEVAN
Index
Book Features
Book events
November 2019
Three sessions at The New School, NYC conference
A conference with a social work organisation in NY over Zoom
Three public lectures, two talks at the federal court under Ministry of Justice, three class lectures, and an open house session at (UTEP, EPCC, PSI) at El Paso, Texas
Lecture for the Feminist Philosophy course at Brooklyn College, NYU
28-29 November 2019: National Conference on 'Feminist Discourses: Theories, Movements and Literature' at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune
February 2020
Ambedkar University Delhi
