<p><strong>Research is primarily understood as a dichotomy of researcher and subject, wherein the subject remains a source to reach certain knowledge, and believed to be a representative of a particular data set. This relationship is hierarchical that makes the participant devoid of its own agency, wherein in case of women they are further dismayed and ostracized, to be considered as potential knowledge bearers and contributors. </strong></p> <p><strong>In April, 2019, a group of five young women sat together, to share their stories and make sense of their experiences of doing dhuku, which was a part of collaborative storytelling method. The action research used rural immersion as the methodological philosophy that signifies knowing, relating and doing in the field. The research began with giving the community the autonomy to go beyond being participants to becoming co-researchers, engaging with each other through the method of collaborative storytelling, which will then aim to generate a dialogue with imagination of transformation in the field. The method here was not predetermined, rather collectively curated with the young dhuku women. The research and method could yield out the foreclosed social problems related to dhuku, a cohabitation/ co-living tribal practice, which is stigmatized in caste dominated villages leading to domestic violence and psychological distress among the women who do dhuku, cohabitation without marriage. A collaborative storytelling session opened a space for these women to co-construct the epistemology of violence inflicted on dhuku women in caste dominated villages. We began with a belief that constructive dialogue from and within the community has the potential to stimulate social transformation, and observed that social differences as problems find voice in spaces created by the community, where they are the curators of knowledge and co-researcher.</strong></p>
