International Research Journal of Education and Technology

Caste oppression has been a prevalent approach in Dalit autobiographies, but this approach has the effect of reducing marginalization to a single and homogenous experience. The paper will provide an intersectional analysis of two texts by Omprakash Valmiki, Joothan, and SharankumarLimbale, The Outcaste (Akkarmashi), to explore the workings of caste at the intersection of other identity axes, including gender, poverty, labour, and social legitimacy. Based on intersectional theory, this paper argues that caste is not just one category among many, but the primary framework in which other forms of oppression are created and lived.

The paper uses a comparative textual analysis to examine three overlapping dimensions: structural intersections in institutions such as education and religion, embodied experiences of humiliation and exclusion, and narrative strategies that allow Dalit subjects to reclaim agency. As Joothan predicts that caste overlaps with poverty and education to form group resistance, The Outcaste demonstrates that caste, gender, and illegitimacy interact to create disjointed and agonizing subjectivities. Placing Dalit autobiography as a location of lived theory, this paper analyzes the concept of intersectionality in the Indian socio-cultural context and points out how personal stories build up stratified oppression into political claims and self-identity.

Keywords: Dalit Autobiography, Intersectionality, Caste and Identity, Social Exclusion, Caste and Gender, Hunger and Poverty, Resistance Narratives.