Voices from the Margin- a Reading of Hira Bansode’s Poetry

Abstract

The paper focuses on the works of Hira Bansode, a poet from Mahar caste, her poetry originates from her own experiences that made her challenge the repugnant ideas about caste, atrocities and injustices inflicted upon her fellow Dalits. Through the myths of Shabri and Draupadi, she tends to illustrate suppression of subalterns since our remembrance, in other poems she attacks institutions like religion, culture and society who were always biased against them and still they face identity crisis. Bansode’s writing questions the oppressive doctrine, and gives voice to the marginalized, particularly women who are considered ‘like a drum (of Manu) that is beaten at both ends…and continues to be so’.