Publisher's Blurb

A classic subaltern writing and the first autobiography by a Dalit woman writer, Karukku is a bold and poignant tale of life outside mainstream Indian thought and function. 

Revolving around the main theme of caste oppression within the Catholic Church, it portrays the tension between the self and the community, and present Bama's life as a process of self-reflection and recovery from social and institutional betrayal. 

Karukku means Palmyra leaves, that, with their serrated edges on both sides, are like doubled edged swords. 

This is an unusual autobiography, grown out of a particular moment : a personal crisis and watershed in the author's life which drives her to make sense of her life as a woman, a Christian, and a Dalit. 

 - Top Quotes from Karukku - 

I comfort myself with the thought that rather than live a life with a fraudulent smile, it is better to lead a life weeping real tears.

It was the same story there too. Yet, because I had the education, because I had the ability, I dared to speak up for myself; I didn't care a toss about caste.

I became aware that if you have a little money in your hands you can gain some authority, and status, and prestige.  

If a woman so much as stands alone and by herself somewhere, all sorts of men gather around her showing their teeth. 

What passes for devotion nowadays  is merely a matter of doing things out of  a sense of duty. 

We think so many thoughts. We hope so  much. We study so many things. But in real life everything turns out differently. We are compelled to wander about, stricken and unprotected. 

Of course, the upper caste men will laugh at them. Instead of uniting together in a village of many castes, if they keep challenging each other to fights, what will happen to all these men in the end?