A Portrait Of The Indian As A Young Dalit Girl Analysis

“A Portrait of The Indian as a Young Dalit Girl” is an article written by Priyanka Dubey, published in The Ladies Finger on 1st July 2015.1 The article follows the story of Janvi, a 13 year old Dalit girl from Bhangana, Hisar, who, along with her friends, was drugged and raped by a group of upper caste Jat boys. It had all started off with a land dispute between the Dalits and the Jats, where the latter built a brick wall around the disputed land, thereby blocking the Dalits' access to water, grazing land and other means of livelihood. The Dalits decided to retaliate by staging protests in front of the Hisar mini-secretariat and going on an indefinite dharna. The Jat community, alarmed by the fact that Dalits, a lower caste, were raising their …show more content…
Parallels can be drawn to Gogu Shyamala's story – Raw Wound, where Balappa does not want to resign to the upper caste determined fate, where his daughter, Syamamma has to become a 'jogini' whereby upper caste men are sanctioned to use her for sexual pleasure. Balappa's family decides to leave the village to support Syamamma and educate her so that she can grow up to become a 'big officer'.5 This shows a determination in members of the lower caste to not 'resign to their fate', but rather, to stand up against injustice, seek redressal and educate their children so that they can create a better future for themselves. They are no longer as 'oppression friendly' as they were thought to be. Interestingly, both Janvi and Syamamma want to study to find jobs that will help fight the oppression that people of their caste and gender usually face. For reasons similar to why Syamamma's father wanted her to become an officer, Janvi wants to become a lawyer. She says, “I want to become a lawyer so that I can help girls get quick