Documenting Discrimination and Empowering Womanhood:
Capturing the Counter-Narrative in Indian Dalit Feminist Writing
Dr. Aditya Ghosh,
Assistant Professor,
The ICFAI University Tripura
Agartala, Tripura, India.
Abstract: The paper attempts
to make a critical study of the rise of resistance in the form of
counter-narrative reflected in the Indian Dalit Feminist writings. It explores
the empowerment of Dalit women through the documentation of gender discrimination,
trauma and resistance in the feminist narratives emerging from Dalit women.
Dalit feminism counters the traditional concepts of mainstream feminism as it
neglects the plight of Dalit women. Dalit women undergo two different kinds of
patriarchal structure at the same time. They are stigmatized and shamed by
upper class patriarchy because of having the label of ‘low born’ as well as
more intimate forms of oppression orchestrated by Dalit men for the
exploitation of sexual and economic labour of their women. Dalit patriarchy is
a very potent form of pervasive presence in Dalit reality. Dalit women
narratives are making a strong case about the fact which has been denied and
never taken for granted in Dalit literature, particularly in the body of Dalit writings
attempted by Dalit male writers.
Keywords:
Gender
discrimination, Dalit women, Patriarchy, Feminist narrative, Resistance
Introduction:
Women have always been denied to take center stage in the
society and relegated to perform the second fiddle as a ‘second sex’
(Beauvoir). It has been normalized for them to perform domestic chore such as
bringing up children, keep household together and take care of the well-being
of their husband. All human beings including women are born in a similar manner
but societal structure and value system makes men and women perform different
roles. According to Simone de Beauvoir woman psyche develop a great ambiguity
because of dual nature- one which is natural and the other one is artificially
developed by socio-culture influence. She argues, “What peculiarly signalizes
the situation of women is that she-a free and autonomous being like all human
creatures- nevertheless finds herself living in a world where men compel her to
assume the status of the Other…The drama of women lies in this conflict between
the fundamental aspiration of every subject (ego)-who always regards the self
essential – and the compulsion of a situation in which she is inessential”
(Beauvoir XXIX).
Women have always been conceived as weak, submissive and
regarded as sub-human. Feminist theory is grounded upon to challenge these
social notions about women. Feminine is a culturally constructed term which
keeps women under the spell that they need to show particular characteristics.
Feminism have been fighting a long war to lay bare the atrocities against women
in the society. The male gaze has always seen women through such a lens which
is blurred by misconception, misinterpretation, and certain stereotypical
assumptions. Traditional stereotypical perception is that a woman earns her
living by selling her body to her husband, both metaphorically and literally.
She gets economic and social security by submitting her body and soul to him
who has every right to do whatever he wants. Taking cue of this perception
Sanjukta Dasgupta rightly argues in
the Foreword of Shifting Identity:
Construction and Re-constructions of the Feminine in Indian Literatures:
History has shown us how from prehistoric times, women
have had to struggle not only against exclusion, both political and social, but
also against a content which defines them as inferior, subhuman and deviant.
The various discrimination and disabilities under which women have been forced
live for millennia-political, cultural, social, structural, economic and
familial have severely restricted women’s access to resources of self-support…(vii)
Gender
roles designed by Family in Patriarchal set-up:
Family plays a very crucial
role in imposing certain
roles to women in Indian society. Kimmel
states: “Families are gendered institutions;
they reproduce gender differences and gender inequalities among adults and children
alike. Families raise children as gendered actors and remind parents to perform
appropriate gender behaviors… each specific
aspects of
family life-
marriage, child-rearing, housework, divorce-expresses
the differences and inequalities of gender” (Kimmell 38). Family upholds the
patriarchal power through the institution of marriage
in India by
imposing certain roles and rituals on women. The primary concern of the
marriage system is to maintain the purity of Caste and perpetuate the
patriarchal power. In a
traditional Indian marriage,
one cannot marry a person outside his/her caste.
Gender
Discrimination by
Dalit Patriarchy:
Dalit literature is a significant cultural and literary
articulation of subaltern voices. It is the literature of the oppressed,
neglected, and marginalized for the centuries together. But being born a woman in Dalit family is to suffer
more as Dalit women are marginalized and oppressed thrice since they
have to go through oppression of caste, class, and gender. Dalit women, thus
constitute one of the most oppressed sections of Indian society. They have been
denied any scope or space in any of the dominant ideologies. Self-dignity and
self-respect are completely unknown to them in a strictly male- dominated
society. Dalit patriarchy is a severely under-discussed domain in Dalit
studies. Women writers
from Dalit community are coming ahead and documenting their pain and
articulating atrocities meted out on them. Kumund Pawade chose to
show her rebellion against the caste oppression on Dalit community by reading
Sanskrit, a language which is considered to be spoken and learnt by upper caste
and not by Dalits.
Dalit women undergo two different kinds of patriarchal
structure at the same time. They are stigmatized and shamed by upper class
patriarchy because of having the label of ‘low born’ as well as more intimate
forms of oppression and control by Dalit men for the exploitation of sexual and
economic labour of their women. Dalit patriarchy is a very potent form of
pervasive presence in Dalit reality. Dalit women writers through their
self-narratives have repeatedly exposed this unexplored terrain of Dalit
patriarchy. Their narratives are the case in point to look into this fact that
has been denied and never taken for granted in Dalit literature, particularly
in the body of Dalit writings attempted by Dalit male writers.
Counter-Narrative
by Dalit Feminism:
Dalit feminism
counters the traditional concepts of mainstream feminism as it neglects the
plight of Dalit women. Since traditional
feminism hardly speaks for the Dalit female situation it can hardly claim to be
inclusive and custodian of the rights of women of all strata. Maya Pandit, in
the introduction of her translation of Baby Kamble’s autobiography The Prison we Broke, discusses one of
the distinctive features of her book, a book that exposes Dalit patriarchy: “A
singularly important aspect of Jina
Amucha is Baby Kamble’s Dalit feminist critique of patriarchy. She
graphically describes the physical and psychological violence women have to
undergo in both the public and private sphere. If the Mahar community is the
‘Other’ for the Brahmins, Mahar women become the ‘other’ for the Mahar men.
Baby Kamble demonstrates how caste and patriarchy converge to perpetuate
exploitative practices against women” (xv).
The suspicion of Dalit
women writers and activists about the
mainstream feminism is often critical about this issue as they feel that the nature of patriarchy remains similar and oppression continues on
women irrespective of the class male belong to. It is the excruciating
injustice and unbearable pain on the part of the Dalit women that forces them to
counter. It excavates the deep-rooted agony and exploitation that she has to
undergo in the day-to-day existence that ignites them to retort back. Thus, she
states: “The Dalit woman…labours
outside her home from morning till evening. When she comes home, her husband
will be waiting to snatch her hard-earned money which is often the only source
to feed the family. If she refuses to give him the money, the husband beats her
up. The woman shouts back; in the process of resistance, she might beat him
back. This is not because of democratic patriarchy in her family” (qtd. in
Prasad 58-59). Dalit women challenge and subvert the patriarchal power by
articulating pain and documenting oppression on Dalit women. Narratives of
Dalit women like We Also Made History (2008), The Weave of My Life (2008)
by Urmila Power, Grip of Change (2006) by P. Sivakami, The Prison we Broke (1990) by Baby Kamble, Sangati (2005), and Karukku (1992) by Bama, and Antahsphot (1995) by Kumud Pawde reveal with luminous clarity how viciously
Dalit patriarchy acts to make the life of Dalit women horrible.
Sivakami’s resounding The
Grip of Change has revealed the systematic enslavement of Dalit women by
the Dalit males. By foregrounding the female body as a signifier, Sivakami
hurls an attack against Dalit patriarchy.
The book offers an unflinching view of the hypocrisy and oppressed
nature of patriarchy which is prevalent in the Dalit community. Baby Kamble in The Prison We Broke admits that she had
to hide her writings for more than twenty years from her husband and her son
lest they found out and spoilt her dream of becoming an author. She makes clear
of her admiration towards Ambedkar and a huge influence which he was on her
career. Her story pictures a bleak situation of the oppression and
marginalization towards the Dalit woman in the Dalit community itself. Her story is a story of materializing a dream
which can hardly be imagined in one’s wildest dream. In a society that is
caste-ridden and patriarchal to the very core, the tale of a woman from a Dalit
community coming out of her subjugated self and narrating her stories for
becoming an author, looks like a fairy tale. Baby Kamble has done this. And
thanks to her indomitable spirit that has yielded neither to the external
social oppressors nor to the internal oppressors of her home. Gopal Guru in the afterword of Baby Kamble’s novel The Prisons We Broke has rightly argued:
“Baby Kamble in her narratives of Dalit women's suffering brings out the worst
form of exploitation and physical torture that the Dalit male inflicted on
Dalit women. The physical torture not only involves physical injuries but also
inflicted deep psychological pain, leaving a scar of humiliation in the minds
of Dalit women. As The Prisons We Broke shows,
Dalit men did not hesitate in chopping off the nose of those Dalit women who
according to the former failed to abide by the patriarchal norms” (Kamble 166).
Dalit female writers Vimal Thorat, Baby Kamble, Urmila
power and Meenakshi Moon feel that feminism and Dalit uprising both have failed
to do justice to the cause of Dalit women. Neither of these two movements has
shown any eagerness to take up the issue of Dalit Patriarchy. Dalit males never
allowed them to take part in Dalit movements, whatever their tall talks might
be regarding women emancipation. Ironically enough, they argue, Dalit males
followed the dictums of Ambedkar, the chief architect of the women liberator
movement. Bama’s Sangati brings out
the darker side of Dalit patriarchy. Laksxmi Holmestorm rightly argues in the
very introductory part of this book: “Throughout the book Bama explores a Dalit
Women’s relationship to her body in terms of diet, health and safety, sexuality
and notions of modesty”(xvii).The narrative is replete with such incidents
where we have a clear picture of Dalit men’s atrocity towards their women
counterparts. Talking about the division between the Dalit men and women and
the crude predicaments of Dalit women has been narrated by Paati, the
grandmother of the narrator in the following lines: “We have to labour in the
fields as hard as men do, and then on top of that, struggle to bear and raise
our children. As for the men, their work ends when they’ve finished in the
fields. If you are born into this world, it is best you were born a man. Born
as women, what good do we get? We only toil in the fields and in the home until
our very vaginas shrivel” (6-7). Depicting the present condition of Dalit women
in the male-dominated society the narrator shows the way patriarchal system
marginalizes women and maintain its hegemonic power: “The position of women is both painful and humiliating, really.
In the fields, they have to escape from the upper-caste men's molestations. At
church, they must lick the priest's shoes and be his salves while he threatens
them with tales of God, heaven, and Hell. Even when they go to their own homes
before they have to submit themselves to their husband’s torment” (35).
The viciousness of Dalit men towards women and the pity
nature of a Dalit woman cannot be expressed more accurately than the following
lines when the narrator describes an event when the brother and her father are
beating their girl child for literally no fault of her own:
This girl was coming home from the school where she
works, to drink her mid-day kanji. The boy, who is her brother, caught her by
the hair even before she could come into the house, and dragged her in right
from the street. He kept on lifting her by the hair and smashing her down
against the floor. Her forehead was broken and brushed, and blood poured over
her face. While she was cowering, unable to bear the pain, he pulled her by the
hair so roughly that it came off in bunches. He kicked her in the ribs again
and again until she couldn’t breathe. Her father came rushing up when he saw
what was going on. I thought he must surely becoming to pull the boy away.
Instead, he brought a piece of firewood and aimed four blows at her. I am only
a woman. I couldn’t stop them. The boy even locked the front door and then went
for her. I thought he had gone completely crazy. He’d rush away, then come back
and kick her in the ribs. He’d rush away again, then come back and shout abuse
at her. He even stamped on her face. (107)
Feminist
voice in Bengali Dalit Writing:
Dalit patriarchy dominates the power structure in the
Bengali household as well. Bengali Dalit short stories document the plight of
Bengali Dalit women who faces utmost marginalization and torment. Some notable
Bengali Dalit stories are Haat (Baazar)
by Goutam Ali, Mahasweta Gramer Mukunda
Ebong Ek Aschorjo Pronoy (Mukunda and an Extraordinary Love Affair) by
Susanta Jana, Shabori (literally
huntress, here referring to a woman belonging to a lowly Shabor caste) by
Manaranjan Barman, Dhani Bouri Ganga Pelo
(Dhani bouri Gets
salvation) by Sunil Kumar Das etc. which presents the marginality of Dalit
women and the excruciating pain Bengali Dalit women undergoes in everyday
realities.
Haat (Market place) of Gautam Ali is a
moving narrative of a woman who has to undergo the tragedy of being an impotent
partner failing to gratify the libidinal desire of her husband. This is
precisely the reason why she has to accept the illicit relationship of her
husband with the maid of her house. The woman who is “low-birth” and “dark and
plump” wants to appoint a maid, “a young maid, preferably chubby for her dear
home…who could become a permanent member of the household? (Singha and Acharya,
“Survival” 61). The story reveals the condition of the Dalit woman and the
mistress to be similar as they both are at
the mercy of the man who provides for their living, to “find a square
meal and a settled state of living” (62). They have to accept their fate as
they know that male lust cannot be erased. The mistress puts a series of
questions to herself after knowing the ultimate truth of their broken
relationship and her urge to possess her male counterpart only to be snubbed:
“What could she do now? Should she lock the man up? But would she be able to
lock her man in a cage made by the male of the species? For a man, the cage has
a thousand openings. She pondered. She felt dizzy. As if crickets were
ceaselessly chirping in her head. She might try to possess her man but she knew
that the sky was his-entirely a man's. Still, she wished that she alone
possessed the bird. She did not want to mate. The prince was hers- lose her
exclusively” (62). The domestic help was the very person who “…awakened the
sleeping lust” (61) of her husband. The concept of ideal love between a “dark,
plump girl of low birth” (61) and “a prince-like son” (61) is nothing but the
constellation of mere verbiage in our present society. The male counterpart of
the mistress hypocritically reveals his heart to the mistress when she smells
some foul air by asserting that: “Baba used
to say, you are dark. But, believe me, In ever found anything dark within you.
Rather I discover the truth. And I chose the path of truth… But I encounter
another truth now. Even at my advanced age, it’s you I seek - everywhere-you my
first love. I greedily stare at your shapeliness” (61).
The ending of the story is evocative enough. A protest,
though a silent one has been shown by the maid at the end of the story in her
act of leaving her master’s house after wearing the same “old frock” and having
the same “dishevelled” hair. The maid was ready to leave the house. The “broken
bangles” the maid returned at the time of her departure suggest the brutal
sexual appeasement the man had had in the previous night. The story ends with
the mistress’s search of another maid for her household, “she must have a
chirping chick-a maid, young, and buxom” (63).
The sacrifice of the womenfolk for the betterment of the
family is not at all new in Indian society in general and in Bengal in
particular. For the Dalit woman, the oppression becomes double, and often
thrice. This is the central aspect of the story by Sunil Kumar Das titled as Dhani
Bauri Gets Salvation. It is a pathetic tale of a Dalit woman who has
become the epitome of sacrifice. Dhani Bauri, the central protagonist of the
story sacrifices everything for Gopal Maji’s family throughout her life. As the
story gradually unfolds, we come to know through a third-person narrator, the
only reward she receives is indignation and ill-treatment from Gopal Maji’s
family.
The story opens with the chanting of Hari bol Hari! Hari bol Hari, the very chanting is supposed to have
an enormous power to place the soul of a dead person to heaven. This is
generally believed in the Hindu religion that after the death of a person he or
she should be taken to the place of the burial ground and the chanting of such
rhymes would provide salvation for the dead person. Subodhda, the narrator of
the story, confirms the belief when she remarks while Dhani Bauri’s dead body
had been carried past to her, “Thank God. Dhani Masi will at last find
salvation” (Singha and Acharya, “Survival” 147). The author, however, has
sarcastically commented when Subodhda made such a statement which sounds
rational too, “If mere utterance of ‘haribol’ could purify the human body and
mind why do the ‘untouchables’ remain in the same miserable condition year
after year? Why don’t they get social acceptance even when they spend the
entire Baishak month uttering
‘haribol’? (147)
To put the story in a very nutshell: Dhani Bauri used to
work in a colliery where Gopal Babu was also engaged in supplying goods. Dhani
Masi’s husband had done Sanghi but she didn’t do such as she hoped that her
husband might come one day and brought her back home again. However, it
remained an elusive dream only. Dhani Masi gradually became emotionally attached
to Gopal Babu and his son and in course of time, she became an indispensable
member of Gopal Babu's family in every need. Oneday, Ghoshalbabu, the
record-keeper of the office where Dhani Masi used to work, threw some obscene
words to Dhani Masi to “entice” her. But this incident has become an eye-opener
for everybody in the colliery. There was not a single person who had the guts
to misbehave with Dhani Masi after that incident. After hearing this, Dhani
Masi flared up and chastised Ghosalbabu by saying, “These upper-caste people
treat us as commodities. When we resist their immoral-advances they blacken us
questioning our character. I’ll kill such hypocrites” (148).
This statement of Dhani Boiuri is significant in this
sense that how our society treats women as the object of sex. Women, be they
Dalit or non-Dalit are subject to sexploitation in our traditional patriarchal
system of society. Dhani Bouri’s situation here is a case in point. Ghosalbabu,
has been presented as a person who considers woman as the mere sex-object. One
of the cardinal points to mention here is that the untouchable women like Dhani
Bouri are subject to triple marginalization-marginalization for caste, gender,
and Class. Dhani Masi dedicates her entire life for the well-being of Gopalbabu’s
family but she hardly gets the proper treatment from them in return. She, in
pathetic accents, raves, “I have given my whole life’s earning, my reputation
for this family. Still, they look down upon me as an untouchable!” (151).
One of the greatest ironies in the system of Caste
hierarchies in our society is that there are divergent differences inside the
same castes. Ambedkar said, “The caste system is the division of labourers, not
the division of labour” (qtd. in Chakravarti 23). One of the crucial factors of
the Caste system in India is that one lower caste community which is regarded
as higher in status than other lower caste community look down upon the other
lower-caste communities as inferior to them. There are divisions inside one's
community itself. And that has made the caste system more and more complicated.
This makes the task more difficult to remain united against caste atrocities.
The story reveals with a luminous clarity that the caste
as a social system has weakened the intellectual capacity of the so-called
progressive-minded and educated person like Hiru, the teacher by profession who
delivers lectures on socialism and idealism and who hypocritically champions
that women liberation is one of the primary aims of our society. But these
lectures and idealistic thinking are only meant for the theory, not that of for
the practice. His words of idealism may soothe several people and his students
he is imparting to, but from a realistic point of view, he maintains
double-standard who follows the idealistic view of life only for preaching for
the preaching's sake. In reality, they maintain the practice of caste in the
most ignominious way. I argue when an educated person like Hiru practices caste
discrimination in his life, it gets a kind of reinforcement from the illiterate
people in a community where the uneducated still fears and respects the
viewpoints of a literary persona.
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