Intersectional Reading of P. Sivakami’s The Grip of Change: An analysis of Structural-Cultural Violence in Dalit feminist framework

Abstract

This paper offers an intersectional reading of The Grip of Change by P. Sivakami through the lens of a Dalit feminist framework, foregrounding the interlocking structures of caste, gender, class, and cultural power that shape lived experiences of violence. The novel is examined as a narrative site where structural violence—manifested through institutionalized caste hierarchies, economic deprivation, and patriarchal control—converges with cultural violence, which normalizes oppression via tradition, morality, and social silence. By centering Dalit women’s voices, the study reveals how reformist politics and progressive rhetoric often reproduce exclusion when they fail to address gendered caste realities. Sivakami’s portrayal of women negotiating agency amid coercive social norms exposes the limitations of male-centric Dalit movements and upper-caste feminist discourses alike. The analysis demonstrates how everyday practices—marriage, sexuality, labor, and community governance—become mechanisms that legitimize domination while obscuring accountability. Employing intersectionality as a methodological tool, the paper argues that resistance in the novel is neither linear nor purely emancipatory; rather, it is fraught, situational, and deeply embodied. The study contends that The Grip of Change articulates a distinctly Dalit feminist epistemology that challenges homogenized notions of social justice and demands a rethinking of violence beyond physical harm to include its structural and cultural dimensions.