Literature as a Site of Resistance and Healing: An Analysis of Selected Works of Kalyani Thakur Charal

Kalyani Thakur Charal writes from a Dalit feminist perspective. Dalit women are subjected to triple marginalities marginalities owing to class, caste, and gender. The violence, oppression, and discrimination faced by them can be effectively analyzed using an intersectional framework as their subjectivities are constituted by mutually reinforcing vectors of class, caste, and sexuality. Kalyani Thakur Charal is acutely aware of the challenges and obstacles faced by Dalit women in Bengal. Her writing articulates not only her story but also that of the men and women of her community. Dalit voices are silenced in myriad ways. The silencing of Dalit realities is an act of violence that she resists. She uses her pen to protest against the overt and covert use of violence against Dalits. She points out how “Dalit sympathizers rise to exploit the Dalits.” She resists marginalization and silencing by foregrounding her identity as ‘charal.’ She embraces her ‘charal’ (chandal) identity and uses it as a weapon to resist violence, marginalization, and humiliation. She has created a space of her own, forcing the world at large to hear and recognize her worth. Apart from her poems and prose writings, she also edits a vernacular journal titled Nir (Nest), which deals with Dalit issues. She uses literature as a site of resistance and healing. The paper situates her work in the context of Dalit women poets of Bengal and focuses on her selected poems to depict how Kalyani Thakur Charal negotiates the complexities associated with the Dalit feminist standpoint.