Decolonization and Debrahminization: A Dalit Feminist Approach to Diasporic Literature

Abstract

Subaltern schools, particularly decolonial feminist discourses, are predominantly embedded within larger frameworks that emerge from a coagulated (neo)colonial-Brahminic socio-cultural core, which shares histories of Dalit-Bahujan oppression. These discourses struggle to produce non-derivative anti-caste feminist theories due to the misstep of using (neo)colonial-Brahminic worldviews to theorize decolonial subalternity. The complexity of embarking on such a decolonial project requires a theoretical framework that can look beyond transnational and provincial social configurations in order to contest singular postcolonial paradigms. Dalit studies offers an expansive framework that invites critical intervention and comparison, disrupting local, regional, and transnational spaces of cultural production. It is a strand of decolonial thought that questions the utopian notion of the unity of the Indian postcolonial experience by highlighting diverse ways of gendered being. By employing a Dalit decolonial feminist standpoint with five central tenets developed with an intentional transnational scope, this paper explores the potential of diasporic literature to be decolonial and to build transnational solidarities for social freedom across regions. Through a combination of Dalit literary criticism and intercultural reading circles, the paper critically engages with two texts authored by contemporary Indian diasporic women writers to explore how engagement with these texts contributes to discussions on cognitive decolonization, epistemic diversity, and new collective imaginations of post-patriarchal futures. The paper reaffirms that decolonization will remain an incomplete endeavor without the debrahminization of Indian socio-cultural spaces.