Between two worlds

The predicament of Dalit Christians in Bama’s works

Bibliographic Data

ID9003236
AuthorsKaren Christopher (0000-0003-4493-7682, Mahatma Gandhi University, corresponding author), K W Christopher (Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda)
Year2012
Volume47
Issue1
Pages7-25
Publication date2012-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Commonwealth Literature (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9894 • E-ISSN: 1741-6442
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0021989411433375
OpenAlexW2112412226
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited17

Bama’s work in Tamil has for the first time brought to focus the lived experience of the Dalit Christian community that has been pushed to the margins of Indian society. Dalit Christians are doubly victimized, first because of their religion and second because of their caste, and Bama’s work captures and articulates this. However, the Dalit Christian specificity of the author tends to be underplayed and her work is read unproblematically as Dalit literature. There is also a tendency among critics to introduce a split in Dalit Christian subjectivity, rendering the Dalit and Christian elements of identity as separate spheres. This paper seeks to problematize such hegemonic readings and situate Bama’s work in the historical, theological, and social contexts of Dalit Christianity

Aesthetics · Art · Bama · Caste · Christianity · Epistemology · Hegemony · Hinduism · Identity (music · Literature · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Subjectivity · Tamil · Theology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · South Asian Studies and Diaspora · Religious Studies

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