Voices of Subaltern Women: A Study of The Bandit Queen of India in the Dynamics of Gender and Caste Violence

Abstract

 Depicting reality is a procedure of creation and an act which serves as a bridge relating the literature to society. Literature as a part of the state is not only an element of social development but also an unbroken continuation of the social processes that have been going on for decades. It highlights the issues of caste, gender, and class, which are highly rooted in the existing hierarchy. This paper will try to demonstrate the Indian community, which reinvigorates the subaltern women's identity of the marginalized and focus on the two conflicting dynamics of the powerful and powerless. The notable aim of this paper is to represent the social, cultural, and economic conditions and role of education in the development of women with a special reference to the biography of Phoolan Devi edited by Cuny, Marie-Therese, and Paul Rambali’s The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman’s Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend. This biography describes to uncover the domination and subjugation of the oppressed community and further, it interrogates social norms in a biography by the personal narrative of Phoolan Devi. The paper focuses on the role of media and how the media looked out differently from Phoolan in distinct periods. The biography helped the media to shape the notion about her, which made her a national icon for subalterns and trauma in prison. This work represents Gopal Guru’s notion of how Dalit women need a distinct identity from Dalit male and upper-caste women and emphasizes the special problem and needs of Dalit women. Last but not least, it will reveal the detailed record and sufferings of the lower strata of women encountered in India and highlight the disabilities and difficulties together with atrocities and Dalit women's inhuman treatment in the community. With the evolution of female autobiographies and biographies, the context of gender violence has been revolutionized which has helped expand the spectrum of subjects for public understanding.