We go
to work for we are poor
But the same silken beds mock us
While we are ravished in broad daylight.
Ill-starred our horoscopes are.
Even our tottering husbands
Lying in the cots in a corner
Hiss and shout for revenge
If we cannot stand their touch.
-Teresamma (a Dalit poet)
No words could better sum up, than this
verse, the triple plight - grinding poverty
(and extreme exploitation at the work
place), caste-specific atrocities (ban on
water access and gang-rape by upper-caste
men) and domestic violence, as experienced
by women in India labelled 'untouchable'
since centuries. Paradoxically, in recent
decades, their plight has intensified as the
increasing political empowerment of dalit
and other lower caste women has led to an
increased backlash against them.
Concomitant to this double-edged phenomenon
is the heightened academic involvement in
the issue of caste and gender and the
growing critique of mainstream Indian
feminist discourse that has failed to
confront caste as a category of analysis of
women's oppression.
Although according to Article 17 of the
Indian Constitution (passed in 1950), "Untouchability
is abolished and its practice in any form is
forbidden", the ancient caste system is very
much alive and profoundly affects the social
and political fabric of contemporary Indian
society. The three basic characteristics of
the Hindu caste institution are exclusion
(rules governing marriage and
physical/social contact based on the notion
of purity and pollution), hierarchy (order
and rank according to status) and
inter-dependence (division of labour).
Through this three-tier system, hegemony and
dominance of the upper caste is maintained
and perpetuated at the cost of exclusion and
oppression of lower-caste groups. Caste is
assigned exclusively and unalterably by
birth. Due to their sexuality and biological
role of reproduction, women are primarily
responsible for maintaining the purity of
caste and its boundaries. Marriage and
sexual relations constitute the key devices
of the caste system. Hence caste impacts on
women's lives much more powerfully.
Caste and gender codes, closely connected
and strictly enforced by the pre-colonial
Brahmanical state, started to fracture
during the colonial period when the upper
caste groups, particularly the Brahmins,
strove to adjust to the colonial situation
and grasp the opportunities provided by it
to form a professional middle class. This
striving for power was challenged by the
lower caste groups and led to gradual
erosion, transformation and re-assembling of
Brahmanic power.
The forces of social transformation,
urbanization and modernization brought about
by colonialism challenged the traditional
rituals and divided the upper caste
communities. The militant orthodox majority
defended the unaltered Hindu tradition while
the articulate, reformist minority advocated
limited social change vis-a-vis women's
status, such as education, or the ban on
sati practice. However, both the orthodox
and reformist-liberal fractions colluded
with each other when it came to their
position vis-a-vis the challenge from the
oppressed lower caste movement. The
ideologies of the dominant upper caste
groups neither challenged the caste
structures nor the gender codes of which
Brahmanical patriarchy was an inherent part.
It was the leaders of social and political
movement of the lower-caste groups who
challenged the caste structures that
permeated Hindu society and simultaneously
confronted the patriarchy within the
lower-caste groups.
Dr Ambedkar (1891-1956), the remarkable
leader of the untouchable caste of the
Mahars of Maharashtra, who studied law in
London and did his PhD from Columbia
University, revolutionized the anti-caste
movement as he sought to reform socially and
constitutionally the Hindu civil society
divided on the basis of caste. He considered
women's emancipation as central to this
reform. He brought the oppression inherent
in the caste system to the forefront by
terming the lower caste people as dalit,
literally meaning oppressed, who were
traditionally and legally called
'untouchable', or constitutionally
'scheduled caste' or euphemistically 'harijan'
(children of God) by Gandhi.
In the post-Independence period as a member
of Constitutional Committee, Ambedkar
drafted the Hindu code bill that granted to
women the basic rights to justice, equality
and security.
The feminist movement in India that
developed in the 1970s was mainly
spearheaded by upper castes, middle class,
educated, left-oriented women. It was their
experiences that were universalized as
'women's experience'. The women's
organizations highlighted economic issues -
women's contribution in productive labour,
burden of domestic labour, the issues of
access to resources and the issue of
violence against women.
The movement, however, had no, or merely
token, representation of the women of lower
castes. The feminist movement developed a
critique on patriarchy and generated debates
on class versus patriarchy but failed to
address the issue of caste. Caste was
subsumed under 'class' and the 'universal
experience of womanhood'. Dalit women's
experiences remained outside the arena of
the mainstream women's movement.
The 1980s witnessed increasing awareness of
caste-related existential reality of the
dalit women as the opportunities for
education, as well political participation
at the local level, expanded among all
castes. Increasing visibility of the dalit
women in the power structures as sarpanch,
as members of panchayats and in the new
knowledge-making processes (as teachers,
writers, poets) led to growing incidents of
caste-related violence against women. By the
late 1980s, the dalit women had become
keenly aware of the urgency of asserting
their identity and reclaiming their own
space.
In the 1990s several independent and
autonomous dalit women's organizations were
established. The National Federation of
Dalit Women (1995) and the All India Dalit
Women's Forum (1996) were formed. At the
state level also, a number of dalit women's
groups and organizations came together. An
organization of dalit-Christian women was
established in 1997. The National Federation
of Dalit Women took to defining dalit
identity in terms of human rights and
demanded that the government of India
acknowledge caste discrimination as a form
of racism at the UN World Conference Against
Racism held in Durban, South Africa in 2001.
The assertion of the dalit women's
experience through the forum of their
organizations drew the attention of the
mainstream feminist activists and
academicians and led to a major debate on
the plurality versus unity of feminist
movement in the context of the rising
Hindutva and the onslaught of globalization.
The historical complexity of the issue of
caste and its intricate intertwining with
gender, dalit women's oppression and
struggle, recent assertion of dalit women's
identity, and the dilemmas faced by Indian
feminist movement, are the issues collated
in this anthology of essays, Gender & Caste.
The first in the series, titled Issues in
Contemporary Indian Feminism, presents a
wide spectrum of enriching material -
research articles, case studies, field
notes, manifestos, official documents and
reviews - written by dalit
feminist-activists, academicians and
writers, spanning the last two decades. The
anthology is a valuable source of reference
for research scholars, teachers in Women's
Studies courses and activists |
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