Gender and Identity in the Hindi Writing of Adivasi Poets Jacinta Kerketta and Nirmala Putul

Abstract

For a long time, Adivasi society has been represented as based on collectivism and commitment to the community. This has led to a neglect of the investigation of “indigenous” or “tribal” subjectivities, and even in the mainstream discourse on “adivasiness,” individuality and subjectivity are notions that often carry negative connotations. In this article I address two examples of self-representation of identity and subjectivity in the poems of Jacinta Kerketta and Nirmala Putul, two Adivasi Hindi writers, reflecting on their positioning as educated, engaged Adivasi women and discuss their intersectional identity as women belonging to the “indigenous” or “tribal” populations of contemporary India. The poems introduced in this article reveal a more complex voice than is typically highlighted at academic conferences and in critical Hindi writing on Adivasi literature, which too often confines itself to the expected imagery of Adivasi life.