Dalit Women in Leadership and Problems of Dalit Mobilisation
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur,
Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Tumkur Dalit panchayats are highly replicable, thus , I have been
writing all these days. Even a Marxist minister like Anil Sarkar was
thrilled when I reported him Tumkur Experiment on his mobile phone.
Mind you, Anil sarkar is the architect of CPIM`s dalit Agenda. He is
the only Marxist leader who not only supports Mayawati`s social
engineering but also wrote poems on her. He is also the only Marxist
leader in India who recognises the nationality problems in North
east and also supprts Assam Tribals demanding reservation. Anil
Sarkar sets his political agenda with dalit resurgence. He spoke
that this south Indian experiment has to be considered well by
National dalit movement. Meanwhile, I talked to dalit and Human
rights activists accross the country and abroad. I got lots of
feedback and mails, phone calls. I am amazed to see so many NGOs and
orgs working for dalit, subaltern and tribal welfare as well as
mobilisation. i talked to both factions of BAMCEF, janadesh
leadership and others. But it is quite disheartening that we haven`t
been able to get a breakthrough to mobilise a real national dalit
movement. Contrarily, Black untouchable antiimperialism resistance
forum seems to be much more viable. It is perhaps because of the
interference of polity and politics which help to continue the Caste
hindu Manusmriti Dominance and the politics of resistance is also
translated into the powergame of dominance by Ruling Hegemony!
Jyothi and Raj wrote books like Dalitology, Dalit Think, Cosmology
and Dalitocracy to do the fundamental work of Theory and then
translated the theory into work with solid base of Dalit Panchayat
centred around Bhooshakti Kendra. The most excellent work of dalit
Panchayat is empowerment of Dalit Women. Internal governance as well
as particiaption in national polity depends on this very base.
Friends do recognise this, it is true. But unfortunately most of us
refuse to go back to roots. dalit legacy has indigenous socila
cultural infrastructure. We have to just readjust a little bit this
structure to replicate dalit panchayat. for Example, the Matusa in
Bengal have their own grassroot network of Harichand Guruchand
sabha. We discussed this point with them. They were enthusiastic.
But as the Left rulers are facing stiff resistance in Nandigaram and
Singur, as Left has to subvert the Dalit Muslim Insurrection, Dalits
as well as minorities are managed well by ruling Hegemony. Marxist
Sun Shine in nandigram has exposed the Genocide culture of the
Ruling class as well as the regemented gestapo. thus , the dalits in
general, dare not to go against the Ruling Hegemony. That`s why,
despite the fact that no castehindu human being has been killed in
nandigaram and all victims belong to dalit and minority communities-
SC and ST communities as well as minorities align with the ruling
Caste Hindu marxists.
More over, opposing CPIM in Bengal means deportation as hundreds of
anti CPIM dali refugees have been arrested branded as bangladeshi
nationals.
Dalit Bengali refugees resettled elsewhere, as in Orissa,
Maharashtra, Assam, Delhi, Rajsthan, Bihar, UP, MP, Chhattisgargh
and Uttaranchal are deprived of citizenship, reservation,
mothertongue and all human and civil rights. Dalits and tribals do
not befriend them. Thus, discussions on dalit Panchayat in those
refugee areas also seem to be remote possibility.
Like Matua, dalits have other traditional bases to begin with.
Bamcef showed interest. But it has not the will. janadesh is also a
little bit politicalised.
I am a amazed to relise the detached reaction of rest of the country
except Jharkhnad on Assam Tribal Genocide. Dalit org and Tribal
leadership seemed mute. Why?
Like the mainstream ruling Hegemony, the dalit leadership is also
uninterested to address nationality problems. As we see the reverse
in tamilnadu. They identify themselves as nationality but never as
the most significant part of dalit Legacy.
Despite all our hard work, genuine concerns, commitment and activism
we happen to be isolated islands. Thus, the enslavement is
predestined and has to continue!
May we not break the Status quo?
"73 Amendment to the constitution of India has created a legitimate
political space from women to establish governance at the grassroots
for the purpose of achieving economic development and administering
social justice. Occupying the space by the rustic women folk is not
an easy task though it is legitimate for them. This work focuses its
attention on the process of recruitment of the women to the various
Panchayat positions. It seeks to analyse the pattern of their
emergence. This study captures the bases of power that operates at
the micro level. The whole analysis is based on the scientific
application of positional, reputational and decision-making
approaches and the integration of all the three approaches."
"The subject of Dalit Identity has of late developed into a new area
of research. Today, scholars approach this subject with much more
sophistication than what they used to do about two decades back.
This project marks a welcome recognition of the achievements
registered by Dalits in various spheres of life despite the adverse
circumstances they were placed in. Glearing examples in the respect
are those of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram and K.R. Narayanan
who played commemorable roles in various fields, particularly in the
fields of framing of the constitution of India, fighting for the
country's emancipation and securing of social justice for the
depressed classes respectively. A part from the Dalit leaders of the
past, the project also focusses on the contribution made by present
day leaders like Kashi Ram, Mayawati, Ram Vilas Paswan, Meera Kumar,
Surajbhan, Ajit Jogi and so on.
"This project covers a wide variety of themes ranging from the caste
system in India to the spread of Buddhism to the biographical
speeches of some of the eminent Dalit leaders. This project would go
a longway in establishing the identity of the Dalits on a firm
footing and in evadicating the notion that the Dalits occupy an
inferior position in society. This project would prove to be of
immense use to researchers as well as laymen."
Children burnt alive by mother in Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal: Three children have been killed by their parents in two
separate incidents in Madhya Pradesh, police officials said Thursday.
A woman, Malti, Wednesday burned alive her six-month-old son
Abhishek and daughter Saloni aged two on a stove at their home in
Harda district's Dwip Kala village.
"She has been arrested from a nearby forest where she was hiding
behind the bushes," Harda police superintendent Akhilesh Kumar Jain
said.
Malti told the police that she took the extreme step because her
husband did not pay any attention to the family and she was unable
to feed the children.
In another case, Prem Singh Kewat, a resident of Pipariya town in
Hoshangabad district, Wednesday threw his nine-month-old son Lakhan
and two-year-old daughter Rachna on a railway track because he
believed they were borne out of his wife's illicit relationship.
While Lakhan died on the spot, Rachna sustained injuries and is
undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
DALITS WOMEN AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS AMONG THE BACKWARD CLASSES
Brief description
DALITS WOMEN AND CHILDREN'S RIGHTS AMONG THE BACKWARD CLASSES
Vision, Objectives and Goals
• To promote the Dalit Women to be paid just wages in the semi-
bonded labour
• To eradicate the practice of Yogini (temple prostitution), and
child marriage cum prostitution which still exist in the villages,
ability to voice to be heard in court incase injustice done them.
• Alienate the child labour. Thus claim the right of opportunity,
right of being heard in the court, right of being educated, right of
equal treatment in rural community ,
• To radicate the concept of untouchability village thus empowering
the Dalits community in preference to women and in conscientizing
the community for empowering women in the society where a male
dominated society reigns supreme/prevails especially among backward
communities called as dalits
• Rural dwellers in India are belied and bluffed and made used of by
the landlords and local politicians and other money lenders. So
whatever, they produce are grabbed indirectly by these greedy middle-
men. Further, when rural folks take loans they are given with very
high interest which they cannot repay even during their life-time
Transferability
Women and Children's right can be applicable in any part of the world
•To promote the Dalit Women to be paid just wages in the semi-bonded
labour
• To eradicate the practice of Yogini (temple prostitution), and
child marriage cum prostitution which still exist in the villages,
ability to voice to be heard in court incase injustice done them.
• Alienate the child labour. Thus claim the right of opportunity,
right of being heard in the court, right of being educated, right of
equal treatment in rural community ,
• To radicate the concept of untouchability village thus empowering
the Dalits community in preference to women and in conscientizing
the community for empowering women in the society where a male
dominated society reigns supreme/prevails especially among backward
communities called as dalits
• Rural dwellers in India are belied and bluffed and made used of by
the landlords and local politicians and other money lenders. So
whatever, they produce are grabbed indirectly by these greedy middle-
men. Further, when rural folks take loans they are given with very
high interest which they cannot repay even during their life-time
Project summary
The need of the proposed project to the suffering Dalit (Scheduled
Caste or the backward classes) beneficiaries is very high, who are
living below the poverty line and taken advantage of. This programme
will help to promote to improve and better life situation in general
among the Dalits. It paves the way for all "PEACE, JUSTICE and man
power is the strength of a growing Nation even at macro-level" and
for its eradication of unjust society that exists in every level of
our Indian society. It is hoped that after your kind in-favour
consideration we shall furnish with legal documents which for your
kind inquiry into our matter in the project application
The Dalit question
S. VISWANATHAN
DALITH PIRACHINAI MUNNOKKIA PATHAI: D. Raja; Translated from the
English original Dalit Question —The Way Forward by N. Muthumogan;
New Century Book House (P) Limited, 41-B, SIDCO Industrial Estate,
Ambathur, Chennai-600098. Rs. 35.
THE DALIT question is perhaps as old as Hindu society. It has its
origin in the birth-based, graded caste system that was put in place
thousands of years ago. The system, sanctified by Vedic texts,
divided the society into four caste-class groups (Chathurvarnas). A
section of the society was excluded from this stratification to do
odd jobs for the others. These segregated people are the Dalits.
They have been discriminated against, denied access to education,
natural resources, public facilities and places of worship, forced
to work free or for low wages under degrading conditions, and
subjected to social oppression and economic exploitation. Besides
they have to face brutal attacks, physical and verbal, their women
are raped and their houses burnt, by the people of higher castes
often with state connivance.
Historians, sociologists and political thinkers across the globe
have studied the plight of these victims of prejudice and its
implications for the society at large. Raja looks at Dalit issues
from a Marxist perspective. He shows how the social, national, and
working class movements could not do much to end social oppression
and economic inequality. The deep divide in society, he notes, has
only helped the landlord-bourgeoisie classes to continue their
exploitation. He agrees with B.R. Ambedkar's perception that a
classless society is impossible without a casteless society and
stresses the need to intensify class struggles of the toiling
people "in a comprehensive way" against both social oppression and
economic discrimination. Translated by Muthumohan the booklet is
eminently readable.
http://www.hindu.com/br/2007/11/27/stories/2007112750041400.htm
Dalit women: embodying peace
Written by Jyothi Raj
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Overcoming the label `untouchable', India's Dalit women are proving
themselves models of peace. Story by Jyothi Raj.
Despite the violations heaped on them, Dalit women - dismissed by
some as `untouchable' - have contributed greatly to peace building
in India. They have been able to live with peace and harmony in
their homes, communities, villages and workplaces and in society at
large, standing up to onslaughts by dominant forces, energising and
strengthening their families and communities.
Despite the violations heaped on them, Dalit women - dismissed by
some as `untouchable' - have contributed greatly to peace building
in India. They have been able to live with peace and harmony in
their homes, communities, villages and workplaces and in society at
large, standing up to onslaughts by dominant forces, energising and
strengthening their families and communities.
A Dalit woman's world gives her strength to transcend selfishness.
As discrimination in the name of caste, class, gender and race go
on, Dalit women want to promote peace and reconciliation. For
centuries, Dalit have been victimised by majority groups, who took
their land and gave them humiliating labels, including unseeables
and untouchables.
A culture of violent gods and goddesses was used to destroy their
Indigenous internal governing system, appropriating their peaceful
culture and civilisation. The caste system established systematic
inequality, most manifest in the practice of untouchability. Ideas
of purity and pollution, and superiority and inferiority undermined
Dalit dignity and honour.
Dalit women have not forgotten the historical injustices done them,
but are guided by a desire for peace and harmony. They have
developed an ability to transcend humiliations and provide unlimited
space even to oppressors. Exploited, dominated, oppressed and
discriminated against, they have not struck back.
Revenge is not in the Dalit dictionary, especially that of Dalit
women. They may strike back in anger - to establish their dignity
and peace - but not in revenge. Dalit women look at life differently
than men or dominant caste women. Their life is guided by intuitive
wisdom, emerging from an in-depth desire for peace and harmony.
A Dalit woman's life challenges paradigms of dominance. Her
philosophy is simple, full of life, energy and celebration. This
philosophy of life needs to be understood outside the context of
taking space, land and the dignity and lives of women.
Due to their capacity to nurture and protect life, Dalit women are
able to sustain relationships, not minding insults and humiliations
whether external or within their community and family, transforming
them into the energy of life. This transformation into energy
spontaneously leads to a celebration of life.
Institutional violence and violence in all forms are not part of
Dalit women's culture, which upholds life and cannot induce pain or
cause death. Dalit women seek to settle even the most violent
situation for peace. They keep their family and community together
and can forgive oppressors.
Dominant religions and ideologies often encourage negative attitudes
about women. But Dalit culture has always held women in respect as
mothers. Of course, even some Dalit exclusion brings hatred;
inclusion brings peace and minority women because they are inclusive
in nature and value solidarity. Including Dalit women and other
Indigenous women in government could bring prosperity for all
people.
Violence takes away life to fulfil a need to establish dominant
power. The ultimate goal of violence is to eliminate the life of
innocent people, eliminating the dignity of women and Dalits, and
establishing control over Indigenous people. Violence uses military
might to destroy Indigenous cultures and civilisation.
In Dalit women's view, different cultural practices are celebrated,
respected and accepted. There is no room for insulting other
cultures. Dalit culture does not subjugate people.
Peace activists from Dalit communities aim to involve women from all
minority and Indigenous communities in leadership. Their philiosophy
upholds the dignity of all human beings and calls for a spirit of
egalitarianism.
It also urges equal distribution of material and values according to
one's need, access by all to resources and an end to violence,
discrimination and the production of weapons of mass destruction.
According to Dalit women's philiosophy there would be no conquest,
no violence, no subjugation and no appropriation of nature, no
graded inequality prescribed by a caste system, no practices based
on discourses of purity and pollution. Men and women would be
treated equally without discrimination. Protection of women's
dignity would be the prime goal
Though India is a secular country, caste laws are still influential.
With Dalit women involved in leadership, the country could be
governed effectively on the basis of constitutional law. Each
community would have the opportunity to be internally governed, and
discrimination based on differences would not be allowed.
Differences would be treated equally.
The now dominant political culture could grow and develop with more
empowerment of every minority community. The only choice left is to
leave governance of this world in the hands of Indigenous people.
In India, more governance should go into the hands of the Dalit
community and Dalit women. Let Dalit and all Indigenous women have
more say in leadership, making societies inclusive for all to live
with dignity and honour.
Jyothi Raj is director of Rural Education for Development Society
(REDS), a Dalit rights organisation in southern India. For more
information visit www.dalitreds.in
Photo: Nishant Lalwani
Dear Friends, Greetings from Delhi,
Recently Dr. Rahul Deepankar and I attended the opening session of
the Second National Conference of Dalit Organizations (NACDOR) at
the Constitutional Club Lawns in New Delhi. According to the
organizers several hundred Dalit organizations from all over India
participated; about 6,000 to 8,000 participants marched to the
Indian Parliament on Dec. 5 morning. The inaugural session was from
6 to 8 pm same evening. The National Convener, Mr. Ashok Bharti,
invited the lead delegates from different states to give their
reports. NACDOR say they are not associated with any political party.
I wish to share my limited impression of this event just to
recognize the energy and effort behind the social changes taking
place in India. Paradoxically, while nobody sits on a chair before
an empowered Dalit leader, Mayawati; millions of Dalits are deprived
of their dignity, even basic human rights, while they struggle and
suffer in misery.
The reports by the delegate leaders indicated considerable awareness
and also unhappiness/ anger in the Dalit communities because of
social inequality, discrimination and injustice they still face at
many places in India. At the same time one could not miss the
collective energy, individual assertiveness, and hope of those who
spoke and attended this National Conference.
Many Dalit Muslims also participated. The lead person from Bihar, a
Dalit Muslim, Mr. Usman Halalkhore (his first name from memory),
spoke very passionately about the condition of Dalit Muslims. He was
quite critical of the Indian Muslim leaders ("Ashraf" Muslims), who
maintained, ignoring reality, that there was no caste system among
Muslims and thus prevented inclusion of Dalit Muslims in the SC/OBC
classification depriving them of needed reservations and support.
Mr. Halalkhore enumerated several categories of Dalit Muslims in
Bihar who face discrimination from fellow Muslims too, e.g. denying
burial in their cemeteries, social acceptance, etc.
The details of the three day conference should be on the NACDOR
website, www.nacdor.org.
Copy pasted below is informational just to indicate the purpose,
scope, and the focus areas of this conference:
National Conference of Dalit Organizations (NACDOR) and Centre for
Alternative Dalit Media
Vision and Voices of New Dalits
National Conference of Dalit Organizations (NACDOR) and Centre for
Alternative Dalit Media will organize Second National Conference of
Dalit Organizations or the NACDOR-II from 5-10 December 2007 in New
Delhi. More than thousand Dalit Organizations from all over India
will participate in this conference. NACDOR-II will begin with a
traditional Dalit March to Parliament on 5 December, the World
Dignity Day - International Day of Dalits' Struggle. About 10
thousand Dalits from different parts of India will participate in
this March. The Conference will end with NACDOR's tradition of
lighting 1000 lights of Dignity at India Gate on 10 December 2007.
As a prelude to this, Centre for Alternative Dalil Media and
National Conference of Dalit Organizations (NACDOR) will organize
Round Tables on five critical issues in New Delhi from 2 - 4
November 2007. Each will cover one specific theme and one specific
issue. The five issues of Round Tables are:
Social Exclusion and Discrimination: Towards Inclusive Society
Dalits: Opportunities for Socially Responsible Organizations
Feminism: Understanding Twin Dimension of Exclusion
Dignity: Mainstreaming Dalits, Excluded and Marginalized
Governance: Right Based Model
We aim at bringing Dalit intelligentsia, progressive thinkers,
researchers, ideologues and social activists to discuss and debate
Dalits and their issues in the current context. Deliberations and
conclusions of Round Tables would be shared with the community,
civil society organisations, organisations of business and industry
and of course peoples' representatives from Panchayat to Parliament.
These deliberations will help us in evolving New Dalit Agenda.
We invite discussion papers from Dalit intelligentsia, independent
scholars, progressive thinkers, researchers, ideologues and social
activists on any of the five issues. Each paper accepted will
receive an honorarium of Rs. 5000/- and the person will be invited
to present the paper to the Round Tables in New Delhi. The papers
will be the part of NACDOR-II proceedings and would be published on
the occasion of NACDOR-II.
Ashok Bharti
National Convener
National Conference of Dalit Organizations (NACDOR)
M-3/22, Model Town-III, Delhi 110009
Email: nacdor2@gmail. com
Dalits mobilising
By Gail Omvedt
The Hindu
27 May, 2003
A three day international Dalit Conference in the coastal Canadian
city of Vancouver, inaugurated by the former President, K. R.
Narayanan, brought together Dalits and their sympathisers from all
over the world and cast a new challenge before Indian political
parties seeking to woo Dalit votes in the upcoming elections. The
Vancouver Declaration demanded a rightful share for Dalits in
India's wealth, institutions, and capital — with specific reference
to Dalit women — and called on all corporations, including
multinationals, to recognise their social responsibilities. This
reflected debates and meetings of the recent past in which we can
see a genuine internationalisation of the anti-caste movement.
Though an international conference was held in Malaysia in 1988, the
first real thrust came with the United Nations-sponsored World
Conference on Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. With the
support of a few NGOs and energetic mobilisation by Dalits —
including many based in north America — through email and other
sources, Dalits and their sympathisers pressed their demands for
treating caste as an ongoing reality, a major source of
discrimination and oppression. Against major opposition from the
Indian Government, Dalits succeeded at Durban in bringing their case
to the international arena, forging alliances with disparate groups
from African-Americans to the Burakumin in Japan. The official WCAR
did not accept Dalit demands, yielding to the official Indian
Government position in this respect.
However, in a more recent meeting of the U.N. Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination in August 2002, discrimination
based on "caste and analogous systems of inherited status" was
focussed on and a document adopted to challenge the global
dimensions of caste discrimination and similar forms of social
hierarchy. This is considered a major step forward not only by
Dalits but also by representatives of other oppressed groups. The
major step forward in terms of policy, however, was taken at the
Bhopal conference, held on January 12-13, 2002 — the first Indian
Government response to the issues raised at Durban — bringing
together some 250 delegates from all over India as part of an
enthusiastic gathering that totalled nearly 2000, including Dalits
from Madhya Pradesh. While sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh
Government under the leadership of Digvijay Singh, the initiative
was taken by Dalit activists and the document finally accepted was
chosen by the conference delegates without Government intervention.
Its recommendations focussed on "diversity" — the share in resources
and wealth which the Vancouver Declaration talks about, ranging from
land to every Dalit family and providing a major percentage of
Government contracts to Dalits as a first step in what is sometimes
called "reservation in the private sector". These are beginning to
be implemented by the Madhya Pradesh Government, often against
strong caste Hindu resistance — particularly on land issues.
Following Bhopal, another important challenge was expressed to the
intellectual defenders of caste when Professors Eleanor Zelliot and
Gary Tartakov, two major U.S.-based academic sympathisers of Dalits,
organised a full-day symposium on "Challenges to Caste" as a pre-
conference event on October 10, just before the massive three-day
South Asia academic conference held every year in Madiscon,
Wisconsin.
Two other events at the same time also brought forward the new
academic thrust — one, a conference at the University of Iowa which
brought together Dalits and African-Americans, and the other, a
symposium on October 18 on "Caste and its Discontents" at the
Columbia University, a major centre of academic studies on South
Asia in the U.S. Considering that academic studies on India and
abroad are increasingly dominated by upper-caste expatriates from
India, these events represented a major step forward, though the
programmes did not have the direct political implications of either
Bhopal or Durban. In some ways, the agenda both at Durban and Bhopal
suffered from some limitations.
At Durban, the framework of specific U.N. language — in particular,
having to fit caste within the framework of "race" (many argued
afterwards that indeed "caste" could be considered a broader
concept) — was in some ways hampering. In turn, the Bhopal
conference, focussed primarily on economic issues, did not discuss
culture — though the delegates at the conference frequently brought
up issues of cultural and religious identity. This was not only
related to the "Hindu identity" politics prevailing in Uttar
Pradesh; the drafters of the Bhopal document also defend this with
the argument that disassociation of caste from economic opportunity
will represent the most major step forward under current conditions.
The Vancouver conference, however, discussed both cultural and
economic issues. On the agenda were many of the issues being
endlessly discussed throughout India in regard to caste: the
problems of atrocities, of Dalit women; the question of social
justice and transformation. Sessions were also held on Dalit
literature, "Interfaith discourses for Dalits' development"
and "Ideology and Vision of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Shri Guru
Ravidass." These sessions were chaired by Paul Diwekar, Vimal
Thorat, Chanan Chahal and R.K. Nayak, while the chairperson of the
conference itself was K.P. Singh, a political scientist now based at
the University of Washington in Seattle.
In fact, the very holding of the conference was made possible
largely due to the contributions of the Shri Guru Ravidass Sabhas of
Vancouver and other Canadian cities. This indicates an important
reality of Indian life abroad: the role of religious institutions in
providing a community life, a basis for what many call "social
capital." This has been heavily lacking among those few Dalits who
have made it to the U.S.
Canadian Dalits have been in some ways in a stronger position than
Dalits in the U.S. simply because there has been much more working
class immigration. In the U.S., most Dalits are doctors, engineers
or even businessmen; few are in the academic world, with Dr. Singh
being one of the major exceptions. Some changes are gradually taking
place here, with institutions such as the Ford Foundation sponsoring
Dalit students doing Ph.D. abroad, and with even the Madhya Pradesh
Government having committed itself to sponsoring 10 Dalits and
Adivasis for post-graduate study in the U.S.
Only in some places in Canada has something like a Dalit community
developed, and strikingly, this has been made possible by the
religious integration and motivation provided by the Guru Ravidass
institutions. Ravidass himself was one of many radical `bhaktas' who
challenged caste identity and Brahmanic priestly monopoly during the
15th to 17th centuries in India — a period long after the defeat of
Buddhism. While in most cases, the radicals were absorbed in the
general cooptation of `bhakti', this did not happen so thoroughly
with Ravidass, and the Ravidass movement has developed a strong
sense of anti-Hindu identity. In Canada, freed from much of the
economic and political hegemony of the upper castes, institutions
like the Guru Ravidass Sabha have flourished.
Thus, the development of a new Dalit pride as well is pushing
forward a growing self-confidence reflecting itself at the level of
social and political organisation. In India, and the world as a
whole, while politicians like Mayawati symbolise the new cultural-
moral self-confidence of Dalits, and those like Digvijay Singh are
pushing forward the economic agenda, Dalits themselves are calling
for action on all fronts, a cultural-economic and political
revolution.
http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-omvedt270503.htm
Dalit Feminism
By M. Swathy Margaret
03 June, 2005
Insight
I am a Dalit-middle-class, University educated, Telugu speaking
Dalit-Christian-Woman. All these identities have a role in the way I
perceive myself and the worlds I inhabit. I, as a Dalit woman,
primarily write for Dalit women to uphold our interests. This
statement of mine is necessary because if we do not define ourselves
for ourselves, we will be defined by others – for their use and to
our detriment. This voice is not representative of all Dalit women.
However, I know that my voice is important because it is the voice
of a socially denigrated category, suppressed and silenced.
My own self-perception and understanding as a Dalit woman, as a
point of intersection/an overlap between the categories "Dalit"
and "woman", took shape in the University of Hyderabad when I joined
there for my M.A. in English. I fell in love with the sprawling
campus instantly. Some familiar-looking young men came to my aid in
filling the endless forms and challans, saying they are from the
Ambedkar Students' Union. Hearing Ambedkar's name I knew I belonged
there. However, it did not take much time before I realized they
refused to see an equal intellectual comrade in me. Like the
majority of men, they acknowledge a dalit woman's presence as only
fit for handing over bouquets to the guest speakers they invite for
their meetings. At the most, she can give the vote of thanks. They
do not consider her in important decisions or in writing papers.
Later I learned that excluding women from their committees was a
deliberate policy they followed as they believed women's presence
would cause "problems" and come in the way of serious politics.
Women inevitably mean "problems", their sexuality being an
uncontrolled wild beast waiting to pounce upon the unassuming dalit
men in the movement. It is assumed that they divert the attention
from the larger concerns of the moveme
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