Spatial Exploration of Gender-Based Violence: A Study of Karukku by Bama and The Prisons We Broke by Baby Kamble

Gender-based violence remains a prevalent issue globally, however, this paper centres on the violence faced by Dalit women, a marginalised community in India, and the multifaceted factors that contribute towards it, such as systemic caste and class discrimination, patriarchal norms and social inequality. Space is a social construct that informs the exchanges that take place amongst the agents within it, such as gender, caste, class, etc., and thereby leads towards their hierarchical structuration of power and hence becomes crucial for comprehending gender-based violence. The paper aims to explore the intersectionality of the lived experiences of gender-based violence among Dalit Women and the diverse spaces they inhabit through the textual analysis of the autobiographies, Karukku by Bama and The Prisons We Broke by Baby Kamble. These texts focus on the triply marginalised existence of the Dalit women as the victims of caste and class-based hegemony along with the twofold gender segregation wherein, they endure oppression from the upper caste men and the men from their communities. The paper studies the religious, socio-cultural and political spaces apart from the dichotomic public and private spaces and their interplay with gendered power relations as determining factors that render violence against Dalit women. The paper makes a significant contribution towards the discourse of Gender-Based Violence, specifically, the ones inflicted upon Dalit women, advocating an intersectional approach for its understanding and resolution of which space is an integral component apart from caste and class.

Keywords: Gender-based Violence, Dalit women, Space, Intersectionality, Gender