American Research Journal of English and Literature

Dalit Literature represents a powerful, emerging movement in the Indian literary traditionand its reverberations are now being heard all around the world. One more addition to the Dalit literature is Baby Kamble’s autobiography The Prisons We Broke which portrays the socio-economical, cultural and political conditions of Dalit community in Indian society. It highlights the plight of Dalit women who receive inhuman treatment and suffer at every front. In Indian society women are always subjected to a subaltern state and are marginalized. Women face subjugation in various forms everywhere in India, traditional taboos legitimize their exploitation. For Dalit women, the situation is even worse, as they suffer from the triple oppression becauseof their gender, economical condition and their low caste. This paper is an attempt to deliberate on the harsh realities of struggle, subjugation and suffering of Dalit women as depicted in The Prisons We Broke. As we know Dalit women are positioned at the lowest rung of the social hierarchy they are subjected to inhumane living conditions, violence and discrimination which deprive them of opportunities, choices and freedoms in all sphere of their life.