Her autobiographical novel Karukku (1992) chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christian women in Tamil Nadu.
[1] 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).
We must crush all these institutions that use caste to bully us into submission, and demonstrate that among human beings there are none who are high or low.
Bama was born in 1958 as Faustina Mary Fatima Rani in a Roman Catholic family belonging to the Paraiyar community from Puthupatti in the then Madras State.
Her early literary influences include Tamil writers like Jayakantan, Akhilan, Mani, and Parthasarthy.
[4] She chose to take the holy orders to escape caste-based discrimination, and also to further her mission of helping in the advancement of poor Dalit girls.
[citation needed] After joining the nunnery, Bama found out that there was a separate training centre for Dalit Catholics.
[citation needed] Angered by the poor conditions of the Dalit Catholic training centre, she left the nunnery after seven years.
[5] 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.
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."