Ontological
Status of 'Thanatopraxy' on Discrimination; ‘Gendered Body’ and Its
‘Performativity' through Dalit Women’s Constant ‘Resilience’ against Atrocious
‘Caste’ and ‘Social Hierarchy'
Labani Sarkar
PhD Research Scholar
Raiganj University
Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, India
Abstract:
Women are subjugated or ostracised and
downtrodden by the hands of patriarchy. Historically speaking, patriarchy makes women undergo
physical and psychological traumas right from
their birth to the end of their life. From Mythical to historical era, women
are marginalized and subaltern through the different discourses by the hands of
patriarchy. And it is continuously going on. In society, patriarchy plays a
pivotal role and they control women under the process of gender socialization.
In every society, discrimination on the basis of gender is a common thing. They
always treat women as weaker sections and deprive of the education. Despite
their adversity, they are very energetic and Performative in their own field.
They are resistant and resilient against nefarious ‘caste ' and social system.
Like American Philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler, Dalit Women have
not believed on ‘gendered body’, they only believed on ‘gendered
Performativity’. From the prefix 'thanathos’ means ‘death’ and the sufix
‘Praxi' means ‘practice’. The Greek word Thanatopraxy or Tanatopraxia refers to
the sanitization of the corpse. Here,I use the term Tanatopraxia as a process
of Sanitization of all kinds of discrimination which exists in the society. My
paper shows Dalit Women’s constant’Resilience’and struggle against caste hierarchy
and how they try to sanitize to the orthodox
minds like Tanatopraxia by using their writing. I shall discuss the
autobiographical saga of Bama Faustina, Kalyani Thakur Charal and Urmila Pawer.
Key
words:
Thanatopraxy,
Discrimination, Gendered Body, Resilience, Atrocious, Performativity,
Subjugation, Sanitization, Subaltern, Marginalized, Downtrodden, Orthodox,
Discourse, Hierarchy.
Gender discrimination or the categorisation
of gender is a hot issue in literature in the twenty first century .It arises
from differences in the unwritten norms which is traditionally going on in the society.
We all know that literature is the mirror of the society
and it is the only medium
in which one can easily protest against all kinds of injustice through his or
her writings. The English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton once coined ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’.
The writer used pen as a sword and their writing
is the language of protest
against injustice. The intellectualist
raised their voice against gender discrimination and demands gender
equality. Resilience has been
most frequently defined as positive adaptation despite adversity. The writings
of Dalit Women have delineated the hard-core realities of their life and their
struggle against atrocious social system. They vividly depict all kinds of
discrimination exists in the society and their experience which they have received
from the society.
The Dalit women are triple
marginalized. At first,
they are Dalit and hence they are marginalized or subaltern by the hands
of mainstream society. And secondly, they are women and they are marginalized or
subjugated by the hands of patriarchy of the
mainstream society and also their own community. And at last, they are ostracised by the hands of
mainstream women in the society.
Despite having received
a western education and having been taught liberal humanism,
enlightenment and science, there is a rigidity of the caste system in the minds of the Indian
people. The practice
of caste system
is like a social disease
and it easily attacks on the
orthodox people. The autobiography of the Dalit woman is not only the saga of
individual but also depicts
sorrows, sufferings, subjugation and socio-economic conditions in a society.
Their autobiography also delineates how Dalit women suffer from the
triple oppression because of their
gender, economical condition and their low caste. Bama Faustina is a Dalit
woman writer who has discussed her experiences in all her writings. Her
autobiographical novel Karukku and
another novel Sangati discusses
different issues like casteism, racism, gender etc. Bama, as a writer rejects
all kinds of stereotyping of Society and traditional values of her community.
Like Butler, she believes on Performativity of gender and made a new path for
other women in her community. Judith Butler writes in her best-known work
‘Gender Trouble’, “There is no gender
identity behind the expression of gender; that identity is performatively
constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results” (25).
Kalyani Thakur Charal is one of the recognised Dalit
voices from Bengal. She herself faced ‘caste’ discrimination when she arrived
in Kolkata for studies. According to her, the structure of caste discrimination
is inside in every person; the one who is discriminating and also the one who
is being discriminated. She is only victimized by the caste discrimination but
also subverts the ‘caste’ hierarchy in Bengal by using ‘charal’ as her surname.
She says, ’chandal’ or ‘Charal’ is an abusive word, a tag meant to humiliate
the Dalits. Her autobiography is ‘Ami Keno Charal Likhi’ (Why I Write Charal,
2016).She has self-published several books of poems, a prose collection of her
essay, ‘Chandalinir Bibriti’ (Account by a Chandalini, 2012). She is an
activities articulates through her writings not
only her own story but also that of men and women in her community. She
and many others have published a magazine ‘Neer’_a platform to raise the voice
against all kinds of discrimination and class hierarchy in Bengal. She also believes
on ‘gender Performativity' like most other Dalit women.
Now in Bengal, there are many Dalit women writers like Lily Haldar,
Maroona Murmmu etc. The Dalit Women’s writings
in West Bengal delineate the harsh realities of struggle, subjugation and suffering of Dalit
Women. Urmila Pawer is a woman writer and her autobiographical work ‘Aaydaan’
(Marathi original) translated as ‘The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoir’
by Maya Pandit is much celebrated. It delineates the historical injustices and
looks at the way social structure has marginalized populations on the basis of
caste. Her short story ‘Mother Wit’ depicts the extraordinary short
story of the ordinary woman.
Pawer weaves together
Dalit Women’s narratives and systematically undoes each
of the ties caste, gender and class to portray historical subordination of her
protagonist. Indian Dalit and tribal women’s autobiographies address the
plurality that lie in the diverse ways lower-class women’s
experience, oppression and exploitation.
Despite all adversity, there is a constant resilience to overcome all these
things. Their physical, mental, emotional and social resilience placed them on
the Zenith and they get mental peace. Their resistance is continuous and it
never comes to an ends. Bama Faustina is one of the Dalit Christian writers
whose works portray the stereotyping of gender against the mainstream society.
Her writings give voice of the voiceless people in her community. She rejects ‘Manusmriti’,
a standard Hindu religious
text which denies a woman right to be independent. The French Feminist Simon De Beauvoir commenting on
this method of Socialization in her 1919 book’ The Second Sex’, said: ‘One is not born, but rather
becomes a woman’(Beauvoir).
In “Karukku”, Bama Faustina has said that
marriage is one of the mechanisms through which the patriarchy subjugates and
controls women. Here, she has portrayed the very collective unconsciousness of
the Dalits and their torments. She said: “The story told in ‘Karruku’ is not my
own story alone. It is the depiction of a collective trauma of my
community…that can not be measured in the length of time”.
As a heterodox, she has obstructed all kinds
of discriminated in her plays. In ‘Sangati’, her another novel, has discussed
how the stereotype of gender demands that all the household works like
cleaning, cooking, laundry baby-sitting, fields etc. are done by the girls
whereas the boys enjoy playing games or hanging out with their fields in the
village. She is unmarried and she rejects marriage. She speaks in her mind, “If
I married just because I am afraid. It being alone, I will land myself in her
greater trouble…If I were to marry, I would have to live the rest of my life
and die in the end for the sake of
one man, what use would I be them, to society.” (Bama131).
She also presents
unequal treatment of gender in the form of the unequal division
of labour and wage in the hands of an elite that has been imposed
upon the lower caste women who are paid
much less than their mind. Physical and sexual violence are also common forms
of violence faced by women from their community members.
Women face gender-based violence from within their home and in public places by
the hands of non-family members. Like Afro-American writer Alice Walker, Bama
believes in ‘Dalit-womanism’ means Dalit women are equal to any woman, men
belong to any caste, whether Dalits or non-Dalits. That is Dalits feminisms
also. Dalit- womanism also refers to Dalit women are supreme, they are not
second. There is a conversation between Mini Krishnan and Bama Faustina at
Kerala literature festival, 2018. Here she has given a vivid answer, she said; ‘whoever practice this nefarious
caste system, they are not human being because they not only degrades
the Dalits but also degrades
themselves also. They are not ‘human being’,
they have no dignity.
Only Dalits have dignity because
they respect each and every people in this world. For
this reason they are superior.’(Bama,
Kerala, 2018)
Urmila Pawer’s autobiography The weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman’s Memoir
delineates her journey
from a small village to the huge metro city, her incessant struggle in a variety
of forms; dalit, woman and lower-caste .So, there is a constant resilience
against all kinds of obstacles. It weaves a complex relationship between
’official forgetting', memory, and identity forgoing a right to speak both for and beyond the gendered individual and contesting explicitly the ‘official forgetting' of histories of caste oppression,
struggles and resistance. Kalyani Thakur Charal writes in her poem No.33 from
her 2011 collection, Chandalinir Kabita:
I'll have to remember There is no dalit in Bengal!
Dalits
are everywhere in the world
NOT HERE! (Kalyani)
In Indian politics, caste and class have
played a dubious role. In Bengal which has considered itself a progressive
region, the persistence of caste discrimination has been continuously denied
and economic disparity has been highlighted. Her autobiography ‘Ami Keno Charal Likhi’
is vividly delineated the hardcore realities
of Bengal. Here, she criticises the ‘Bengali Babu
Culture' and how Bengali ‘Bhadhraloks’ are dangerous for a young girl. They
always wear mask. In her autobiography she has mentioned how her elder sister
was raped by a ‘Bhadhraloks’ private tutor. Though it is a common thing. She
herself is criticized by upper class ‘Bhadhraloks' colleagues at a office in
Kolkata. They always ask about the word ‘Charal’.Though she has not faced
gender discrimination at home but she knows it about very closely. She denies
Alice Walker’s ‘womanism’ but believes on ‘dalit-womanism’ like Bama. she also
rejects ‘sisterhood’ concept or the world ‘sisterhood’ because she believes
that ‘sisterhood’ can’t remove the pain of the Dalit women.
Sonia Mahey in her essay ‘The status of Dalit
Women in India’s Caste Based System' finally sums up the matter: “…in a male
dominated society, ’Dalit women face a triple burden of caste, class and
gender” (Mahey149).
Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak in her essay ‘Can
The Subaltern Speak?’ has given a vivid answer that subaltern can not speak, if
the subaltern can speak then he or she does not belong to subaltern. Now,
subaltern has voice and by using this voice they fight against all kinds of
discrimination. Amartya Sen in his book ‘The Argumentative Indian: Writings on
Indian Culture, History and Indentity writes, ‘Voice is a central component of
the pursuit of social justice.’
My intent desire is to see how the Dalits
women writers are resilient and resistant against all kinds of discrimination in the society.
These women are still speaking
or seeking in their speeches rather to reside in a nation that
doesn’t regard them as the ‘other’. When I myself read the text of these women,
it seems to me that their writings are like Tanatopraxia and it necessary for
the orthodox and rigid people to sanitize their mind because
in their mind have contamination diseases. The genders Performativity of Dalit Women glorify
their position in the society. Like Virginia Woolf, they are making a room of
their own by taking writing as a career.
Works Cited
Bama, Karukku. Trans.Lakshi Holmstorm. ed. Mini Krishnan.
2nd edit. New Delhi:
Oxford India Press, 2016.
Beauvoir, Simon De.
The Second Sex. Trans. and Edit. H.
M.Parshley. Landsborough publication.
Banu, Shakila.
“Bama’s Karukku and Sangati: The True Reflection of Indian Dalit women”.
The Criterion, An International Journal
in English, vol- 4, issue- IV, 1-6, 2013.
Mahey, Sonia.’The Status of Dalit Women in India’s Caste
Based System’, Culture and the State: Alternative Intervention, ed. James
Gifford and Gabrielle Zezulka Mailoux. CRC HUMANTIES STUDIO PUBLISHERS. http://books.google.co.in
Muller, Aukje, “A
Story of Oppression: Freedom of Expression, Minorities, Sexual Harassment Law
and Offence”, 2017.