Rewriting Resistance: Caste and Gender in Indian Literature

Rakibul Islam · Jakir Hossain

May 2022 · Vernon Press

About this ebook

‘Rewriting Resistance: Caste and Gender in Indian Literature’ explores the claustrophobic shadow of discrimination hanging over Indian women and lower caste people from ancient times. It examines how different literary figures paint a vivid and descriptive picture of the physical and psychological oppression faced throughout India. The book traces feminist resistance, subaltern resistance, and resistance during the anti-colonial struggle, with the literary outputs discussed working as socio-political activity against dominant ideologies. The volume further talks about the responsibility, not only of those oppressed, but also of us as human beings, to speak out against the violation of human rights and for justice. So, the book focuses on the literary writers who always dream of a better India where all people, regardless of their caste, class and gender, can live and breathe freely.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I describes the plight of women, their commodification and the politics around them, and how they fight hard to regain their faded identity. Part II depicts the interesting findings on gender-caste intersections and discrimination. Part III explores the struggle of the low caste, specifically male members of Dalit community, along with their history. It further portrays how orthodoxy in rituals creates the burden of traditional and existential crises.

‘Rewriting Resistance: Caste and Gender in Indian Literature’ re-visits Indian literary texts in terms of what they reveal about the resistance registered through the suffering of human beings (women and Dalits) at the hands of fellow human beings, and further links the discussion to our contemporary situation. The book has a unique quality in that it is not only a detailed study of select Indian English texts, but also delves into an in-depth analysis of texts from Bengali, Urdu, and Hindi literature. The work is likely to affect and appeal to students, scholars and academics, and can be adopted for classroom teaching and research purposes as well.

About the author

Md Rakibul Islam is working as an Assistant Professor of English for the last five years at the Murshidabad Centre of Aligarh Muslim University, India. He has published several papers in various national and international journals and in edited books. He has already edited a book entitled 'Diaspora Poetics in South Asian English Writings' published from Cambridge Scholars Publishing, England, and recently got published his research paper entitled “Kim and Kip in the Mirror of Mimicry: A Postcolonial Study” in 'The Groves: Working Papers on English Studies', from Spain. He is presently working as one of the reviewers for 'The Criterion: An International Journal in English'.

Md Jakir Hossain is working as an Assistant Professor of English for the last four years at Chitta Mahato Memorial College (affiliated to Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University), Purulia, India. He has published several research papers in various National and International journals. He has also served as the college coordinator IQAC for three years and currently serves as the Teacher-in-Charge of the College.