Dalit Feminism: A Study of Hira Bansode’s Poems “Woman” and Bosom Friend”

Pages:150-152
Maman Singh (Department of English, Govt. Post Graduate College, Hisar, Haryana)

The term ‘Dalit’ was first used by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his publication Bahishkrit Bharat. In Marathi, Dalit literally means depressed or ground down. The term ‘feminism’ is an ideology which denotes female. It was first used in the later part of the 19th century. Actually feminism is the ideology of women’s liberation as it opposes women’s subjugation in family and society. It means the adage which advocates for women’s complete equality with men in all spheres of life – political, social, economic, legal, familial, cultural and academic etc. The feminist movement is an organised effort to raise the voice of women and for achieving equality and rights for women. Moreover feminism is committed to the struggle for equality for women’s rights and emphasises the value of women as they are. In India strong wave of feminism started in 1960s and 1970s. Since independence of India, Indian women writers have made much progress in every field including the field of writing and much of them have acquired prestigious position in this field. An emergence of female writers during the post-colonial period marks the new birth of an area which promises a new deal for the Indian women writers. The writings of Indian female writers are different from that of Indian male writers’ like- R.K. Narayan, M.R. Anand, Raja Rao, Khuswant Singh and many others. It has been generally noticed that male writers write with heavy themes like war, heroism, chivalry, patriotism, action, revenge, murder, affairs of state, espionage, and sexual encounter etc. while on the other hand female writers write about women, their emotions, suffering, social condition problems, inequality, injustice, male-female relationship and women’s place in the society etc. These main theme and the key issues are the things which differ females from male writers and their works reflect all these. The thematic concern of women writers leads to the emergence of the Indian women in the fast changing social milieu. They raised their voice and banner of revolt against injustice and exploitation of women in the patriarchal set up. K.K. Ruthveen remarks: