Beyond Dalit Women:

Dalit women stand at the sharpest edge of India’s caste and gender hierarchies, bearing the compounded burdens of discrimination, labour exploitation, and gendered violence. Yet they are also the architects of some of the most powerful political, cultural, and intellectual movements of our time. This book emerges from a deep recognition that the stories of Dalit women their resistance, their survival, their imagination have been systematically erased, misrepresented, or spoken for by others.

Beyond Dalit Women is an attempt to reclaim these narratives. By bringing together scholarship on media, literature, cinema, digital activism, and popular culture, the book foregrounds the multidimensional shades of Dalit womanhood. It challenges the flat portrayals that have dominated mainstream discourse and showcases the complexities, contradictions, and creative brilliance of Dalit women’s lives.

The chapters span from the global visual culture of DC Comics to the fiery terrains of Mahasweta Devi’s literature, from street protests in Bhima Koregaon to digital solidarities that erupted after Hathras. They explore how Dalit women are represented, how they are erased, and importantly how they resist. Through academic analysis intertwined with political commitment, this volume builds a bridge between scholarship and activism, ensuring those Dalit women’s experiences are narrated with integrity, nuance, and agency.

We hope this book contributes to ongoing conversations in Dalit studies, feminist media studies, cultural studies, and social justice movements. But more importantly, we hope it stands as a testament to Dalit women’s indomitable spirit unbroken, uncontained, and unstoppable.