Bama

Bama (born 14 March 1958), also known as Bama Faustina Soosairaj, is a Tamil Dalit feminist, teacher and novelist. Her autobiographical novel Karukku chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christian women in Tamil Nadu. She subsequently wrote two more novels, Sangati (1994) and Vanmam (2002) along with three collections of short stories: Kusumbukkaran (1996) and Oru Tattvum Erumaiyum (2003), 'Kandattam'(2009). In addition to this, she has written twenty short stories.

Early life and family

Bama was born on 14 March 1958 as Faustina Mary Fatima Rani in a Roman Catholic family belonging to the Paraiyar community from W. Pudupatti, now a town in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu. and her mother was named Sebasthiamma. She is the sister of famous Dalit writer Raj Gauthaman. Bama's grandfather had converted from Hinduism to Christianity. she wrote on her childhood experiences. When the novel was published, Bama was ostracised from her village for portraying it in poor light and was not allowed to enter it for the next seven months. Karukku was, however, critically acclaimed and won the Crossword Book Award in 2000. It has since become a textbook in various courses like Marginal Literature, Literature in Translation, Autobiography, Feminist Literature, Subaltern Literature and Dalit Literature, across many universities. Bama followed it with Sangati and Kusumbukkaran. Bama got a loan and set up a school for Dalit children in Uttiramerur. Bama recently published an essay in Single By Choice: happily unmarried women!, a collection of 13 essays by unmarried women in India talking about their singlehood. In her essay she talks about her choice of being a single professional Dalit woman in India. While she did grow up with dreams of marrying a man and having a girl child, she gradually chose being a single woman because according to her "the institution and structure of marriage and family as they exist today, are not woman-friendly at all." She also says, "I liked being myself; I didn’t want to lose my self, my being, my freedom and identity, for anyone." However, her life choices have not been without its own set of challenges. She talks about how she has had to experience insults and suspicion for choosing to be single.