LUX MONTIS Vol. 5 No. 1 January 2017 VOICE OF THE DUAL PROLETARIAN; A MARXIST READING OF BAMA’S SANGATHI Abhijith M.S. P.G. Scholar, Dept. of English, Newman College Thodupuzha, Idukki Dist. e-mail
[email protected] Mob:8086416581 ABSTRACT Bama’s Sangathi is an autobiographical account of the lives of the dalit people, especially dalit women in Indian society. The novel shows the sidelining and torture that the dalit community face and dalit women suffer the extreme as they are further down in the social chain. The novel identifies cast system as the major reason of this social backwardness. The objective of this paper is an analysis of Bama’s Sangathi from a Marxist perspective. Karl Marx (1818-83) and his fellow thinker Friedrich Engels, made detailed studies and came to the conclusion that social relations and stratification are evolved as an outcome of economic relationship within the society. In Bama’s Sangathi also, one can easily connect the non-transparent economic distribution leading to social disparities, or in other words, connect the inevitability of maintaining social disparities to ensure a non-transparent economic distribution. The protagonist most vividly presents the current situation, its reasons and methods to improve life of a community in this novel. A closer reading will show how the approach of the protagonist is that of a Marxist. INTRODUCTION In Sangathi, Bama the protagonist is narrating the lives of three generation of women in her community. Bama presents the experience of women who have experienced domestic and sexual violence within their family and society.