The Architecture of Triple Jeopardy: Caste, Patriarchy, and Capital and the Quest for Radical Justice for Dalit Women in India

Lekhraj Balmiki

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i01.67899

The Architecture of Triple Jeopardy: Caste, Patriarchy, and Capital and the Quest for Radical Justice for Dalit Women in India

Author(s)	Dr. Lekhraj Balmiki
Country	India
Abstract	This paper offers a critical theoretical excavation of the unique subject-position of the Dalit woman in modern India, conceptualized not as a sum of discrete oppressions but as a singular condition of “Triple Jeopardy” forged at the nexus of caste, patriarchy, and capital. We posit that this interlocking system, manifest as Brahmanical patriarchy recalibrated within a neoliberal state, generates a specific mode of subjugation that mainstream Indian feminism and anti-caste discourse have consistently failed to address. This failure necessitates a turn towards an autonomous Dalit feminist praxis. The paper charts the three-dimensional nature of this jeopardy: the structural, where her body and labor are the foundational sites for enacting caste hierarchy; the political, where her voice is marginalized and her justice instrumentalized within state mechanisms and social movements; and the epistemic, where her knowledge and resistance are systematically erased from national and movement archives. Moving beyond a critique of the state’s limited, managerial juridical frameworks, we argue that a liberal rights-based discourse is inherently incapable of undoing a social order predicated on her ontological negation. Instead, the paper reorients the gaze towards the radical subjectivity and counter-hegemonic resistance of Dalit women themselves. From the collective power of the dalan to the intimate assertions of bodily autonomy, their praxis constitutes a profound redefinition of justice—not merely as redistribution but as transformative recognition and revolutionary self-representation. We conclude that the Dalit woman’s body is the ultimate palimpsest upon which the nation’s deepest contradictions are inscribed, and thus, her liberation represents the only authentic metric for India’s democratic promise.
Keywords	Brahmanical Patriarchy, Intersectionality, Subaltern Agency, Epistemic Violence, Dalit Feminism, Caste-Sexuality Nexus, Neoliberal State, Counter-Hegemonic Praxis, Reproductive Labor, Misrecognition.
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 1, January-February 2026
Published On	2026-02-04
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i01.67899

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The Architecture of Triple Jeopardy: Caste, Patriarchy, and Capital and the Quest for Radical Justice for Dalit Women in India

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