Dalit Women’s Voices and the Politics of Feminist World-Making: Intervening in Brahminical Historiography

Abstract

The historiography of social movements in India has been shaped by Brahminical hegemony,
systematically marginalizing the voices of Dalit women. Positioned at the intersections of
caste, class, and gender, Dalit women experience a unique form of oppression that is often
ignored by both mainstream feminist movements and dominant historical narratives. This paper
argues that feminist world-making necessitates an epistemic shift that foregrounds Dalit
women’s voices as central to understanding social justice struggles in India. Drawing on the
works of Dalit feminist writers such as Urmila Pawar, Baby Kamble, Bama, and Sivagami IAS,
this paper examines how autobiographical writings and fiction serve as powerful acts of
resistance, opening new feminist and epistemic possibilities.
By engaging with life-writing and fiction, Dalit women articulate their lived experiences
beyond the constraints of Brahminical historiography, creating counter-narratives that disrupt
dominant knowledge structures. Their works expose the structural violence embedded in
casteist patriarchy while also challenging the savarna feminist frameworks that erase caste from
their discourse. This paper situates these literary and autobiographical interventions within a
broader intersectional framework (Crenshaw, 1989) and critiques the exclusionary nature of
knowledge production in academia and archival practices. Drawing on Paik (2014) and Ayyar
(2023), it argues for a methodological reorientation in feminist historiography, advocating for
Dalit feminist epistemologies that resist Brahminical dominance in documentation and social
movement studies.
Ultimately, this paper calls for the decolonization of feminist historiography through Dalit
feminist interventions, recognizing that a truly inclusive feminist world-making project must
center the voices of those most marginalized. By amplifying Dalit women’s narratives, we
move toward a more radical, intersectional, and anti-caste feminist praxis.