Dalit Women Analysis

e brides are forced to give large sum as dowry to fix the marriage. “they have to cover the girl’s neck with jewellery, give them cash in their hand, and write off property and land in their names” (Sangati, 12). On the contrary in the Dalit community it is the bridegroom, who gives parisam (gift) to marry the bride
It’s certainly not like that in our streets. We give girls what we can afford-earrings and nose rings-and leave it at that. The family will see to all the wedding expenses. We don’t have to give any money. It’s the groom who gives a cash gift and takes and marries her (Sangati, 112).
Women rarely wear the mangalsutra, so when the husband dies she is not expected to remove it like the upper caste women, and keep away from
In spite of all their sufferings and oppression, Dalit women consider themselves privileged than the upper caste women. Through Sangati we get to hear the inner voices of the Dalit women. We find that within their close circle, Dalit women ridicule the upper caste women. They take pride in having the liberty to swim and bathe in pond, whereas the upper caste women are confined to the wells in the house:
They are all scaredy-cats, di. They can’t swim at all, that’s the truth. They stay at home, get a couple of buckets of water which they dip into and pour over themselves little by little. God knows how they manage to bathe in such small, small amounts of water. How different it is to go right under the water like this (Sangati, 116).
Dalit women also take great pride that they are finance ally independent and capable of doing the thoughts of jobs. Ask these upper caste women to do the work we do-to transplant paddy in the wet fields, to do the weeding, to reap the grain and carry it home. You‘ll see soon enough. They‘ll get it up in no time and go and lie down’ (Sangati, 114-15). Akin to the Afro-American concept of Black aesthetics, where Black is considered beautiful, and the Dalit women considers her dark skin beautiful and superior to the fair skinned upper caste
In the Dalit women. In the midst of all the misery there is an inseparable liveliness in the Dalit women. They would always laugh and chatter ’even though they left at dawn and hardly ever came back until after dark, they still went about laughing and making a noise for the greater part’(Bama,2005,76). The language of the Dalit women is rich and resourceful giving way to proverbs, folklore and folksongs. The women have an innate talent to give appropriate nicknames to others. Seyarani is called maikanni because she has ensnaring eyes. Sanmugakizhavi is called MaikuzhKizhavi because she takes only RagiKuzh. Gnaanambal is called DammattaMaaadu because she goes round like a young bullock dragged and dazed without knowing what is going on. The Dalit women also possess an inborn talent to spontaneously sing songs befitting any