Sujatha Gidla’s Ants Among Elephants, Dalit Women and Humanity

Abstract

Sujatha Gidla’s Ants Among Elephants, published in 2017, is considered one of the most important texts about the Dalit struggle in contemporary India. Gidla takes the life of her maternal uncle (mother’s brother), the renowned KG Sathymurthy, to write a Dalit historical narrative about the social and political struggles that ensued in post-independent India. The memoir is however not just about her uncle, but also about the life of her mother, a Dalit woman, attempting to be educated and live the life of an employed woman in the South Indian regions of Andhra and Telangana.