Institute of Liberal Art (ILA)

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Browsing Institute of Liberal Art (ILA) by Author "KASHAFUDUJA SAHI"

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    Silencing and Subversive Voices: A Decolonial and Intersectional Reading of Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session
    (UMT, 2025-02-28) KASHAFUDUJA SAHI
    This thesis attempts to analyze Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session through the philosophical lens of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Intersectionality and Trinh T. Minh-ha’s concept of decolonization of feminism. Intersectionality links contemporary politics with postcolonial theory, mediating the tension between the assertion of multiple identities along with gender, race, and class intersection to create the particular context in which women of color experience violence. Decolonial feminism rejects the universalist and essentialist’s definite image-repertoire of other --- the dehumanizing of forced removal-relocation-reeducation- redefinition, the humiliation of having to falsify one’s reality and voice, threatening the hegemony of western cultures and identities as unified cultures and challenging the notion of (sexual) identity as defined by the West. The operation of dominance through the concept of hegemony and absent totality in plurality exemplifies decolonization in feminism. The intersection of class, gender, moral codes, and judiciary work together oppressively for Benare to be a subversive provocateur opposing the patriarchal and bureaucratic systems that aim to shut down her existence. Intersectionality and decolonial feminism deal with concurrent identities; and a need to deconstruct universalism, as existing intersectionalities of marginalized women demand. The social categorizations lead to oppression and oppose the structures, policies, and representations that invalidate oppressed groups. In terms of the fluidity of self-identification and postcolonial perspective, Benare's story reflects the concept of intersectionality in transgressive systems and the caricature of concurrent colonization and subjugation in patriarchal Indian culture, affecting Benare and her fellow misfit women by obliterating and silencing them while also attempting to reclaim their voice and agency through narrative and poetic forms of resistance.