Writing Caste/Writing Gender: Reading Dalit Women's Testimonios

by Sharmila Rege

A pathbreaking study of Dalit women's writings and lives, Writing Caste/Writing Gender offers a powerful counternarrative to the mainstream assumptions about the development of feminism in India in the twentieth century. Featuring extensive extracts from eight Dalit women's life-narratives—or testimonios—on issues such as food, hunger, community, caste, labor, education, violence, resistance, and collective struggle, the book brings to vivid life voices that unequivocally show that Dalit feminism, far from being silent as so often presumed, is rich, powerful, and layered—as well as highly articulate.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, India, Indian Literature, Sociology

390 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Hafsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores the Dalit feminist standpoint using the life-narratives, or testimonios, of eight Dalit women from the 1920’s until today. It makes important contributions to the fields of pedagogy, life-narratives, and caste and gender.

Rege’s analysis of the eight testimonios, or life-narratives, is basically in the form of a rewriting that frames the narratives and makes them address a set of similar themes which include the household, food and hunger, community, caste, culture and practices of labor, the school, humiliation, violence, resistance and collective struggle. Rege believes that this Dalit feminist standpoint is the most emancipatory among the multiple feminisms in operation (including elite brahmanical feminism). This is a compelling book for those interested in recent interventions in feminist historiography, especially in South Asia.

[Anjana Radhakrishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb introduction to dalit feminism: "an invitation to critically and systematically interrogate advantaged positions and to reorient the histories and futures of feminism

This collection of testimonies provides a counterbalance to the positive, loving view of India in "The Discovery of India" and raises conflicting feelings within myself towards a society and culture that could perpetuate this sort of oppression. It has also exposed me to other thinkers and activists who have revolutionized the world around them, bringing light and hope to many ~~~ certainly leads to more reading!

[Indah]

intervention. translated and edited. autobiographers by chronology of birth, not by year of translation. need to look into sex commerce amid the patils (i found in akkarmashi)

[Aditi]

Reading the introduction, I probaly wont have time to read all the testimonios. A great mix of theory and field observations and inferences, invaluable book