Trapped in a Vice: A Study of Triple Marginality Encountered by Dalit Women in Baby Kamble's The Prisons We Broke and Urmila Pawar's The Weave of My Life

Abstract

This research paper examines the triple marginality faced by Dalit women as depicted in two significant Dalit autobiographies: Baby Kamble's The Prisons We Broke (2008) and Urmila Pawar's The Weave of My Life (2009). The concept of triple marginality refers to the simultaneous and overlapping oppressions of caste, gender, and class that together trap Dalit women in a deeply painful cycle of suffering and silence. These three forces do not work separately. They combine and reinforce each other, making the lives of Dalit women uniquely difficult. Using simple and accessible language, this paper explores how both authors use their personal life stories to expose the social injustices they faced from childhood to adulthood. The paper shows how Dalit women suffer not only from upper-caste discrimination but also from patriarchal control within their own communities and from the grinding poverty that leaves them with no resources to fight back. At the same time, both books are stories of resistance. Through education, the teachings of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and the powerful act of writing, these women challenge the systems that oppress them. The study argues that these autobiographies are not just personal memoirs but collective testimonies that give voice to millions of silenced Dalit women across India. By comparing the two texts closely, the paper reveals how Dalit women slowly break free from their prisons and weave new paths of dignity, self-respect, and freedom.