Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 12.06.12
Caste Hindus raise objection to admission of dalit boys in school - The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3516535.ece
Dalit's tongue chopped off for riding bike - Dainik Bhaskar
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MP-BHO-dalits-tongue-chopped-off-for-riding-bike-3402578.html
BSP MLC breaks down over 'police raids' - Express India
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/bsp-mlc-breaks-down-over-police-raids/960906/
Tension after communal clash - The Times Of India
Tamil Nadu: Caste bias allegations hit Catholic colleges - MSN News
http://news.in.msn.com/exclusives/it/article.aspx?cp-documentid=250138413#page=2
SOCIAL ISSUES
Land and caste - The Hindu
http://www.frontline.in/stories/20120629291203600.htm
Power, violence and Dalit women - The Hindu
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article3515761.ece
The Hindu
Caste Hindus raise objection to admission of dalit boys in school
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3516535.ece
A. D. Balasubramaniyan
Officials intervene and restore amity
Caste Hindus of Adayur village near Tiruvannamalai opposed the admission of two dalit boys in the local Panchayat Union Middle School on Monday and prevented their children from attending school in protest.
The caste Hindu students returned to school in the afternoon after a peace meeting convened by Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) V. Bupathi, officials said.
Till now, the dalits used to send their children to the Adi Dravidar Welfare Middle School in the village. For the first time, Muthuraj and Sathish, sons of Kumar, a dalit migrant worker, were enrolled in the PUMS in class I and VI on June 6.
Taking objection to this, the caste Hindu parents assembled at the school on Monday and urged headmaster Mohammed Usman to expel the dalit boys. He refused.
RDO V. Bupathi, Tahsildar Ravichandran and Police Inspector Pooncholai rushed to the spot and held a meeting with the representatives of both communities. Mr. Bupathi told the meeting that parents alone could decide where their children should study and not others.
"When someone comes to a government school for admission, we cannot turn down the request based on caste. Our law does not allow this kind of discrimination in school admission. We need not run two middle schools in the village for less than 400 students. We may consider merging the two schools if things go on like this," he warned.
When some caste Hindu women argued that their girls were teased by dalit boys, Mr. Bupathi said it was irrelevant to the issue at hand and assured them that action would be taken if there was a specific complaint.
M. Srinivasan, a DMDK functionary representing the caste Hindus said, "No dalit has ever been admitted to PUMS and they usually go to their welfare school. This is in practice for 50 years and why should they come here now?"
Mr. Bupathi retorted: "Our nation was enslaved for 300 years. Why then did we seek Independence?"
Panchayat president R. Ramamurthi, a caste Hindu, argued against the exclusion of the dalit boys.
He pointed out that in all other villages in the region, dalit and caste Hindu children studied together in schools.
"Even children of this village go to school along with dalits from class IX," he said and urged the parents to send their children to school. Soon, the parents relented.
Dainik Bhaskar
Dalit's tongue chopped off for riding bike
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MP-BHO-dalits-tongue-chopped-off-for-riding-bike-3402578.html
Source: DNA | Last Updated 04:13(12/06/12)
Bhopal: A dozen men from Kushwaha community chopped off the tongue of a dalit youth just because they didn't like the 'temerity' of a Jatav vrooming on bike fast in front of them. The gory crime occurred in Jaitpur Square under Narwar police station of Shivpuri on Monday.
Prakash Jatat ( 31) was admitted to a government hospital where his condition is stable. Eyewitnesses say Jatav was on bike with one of his friends pillion riding. When they rode past in front of a group of Kushwaha community men, some of the bystanders stopped the biker and pulled Prakash down.
They kept abusing the youth. First the interceptors badly thrashed Prakash and, when he cried for help, one of them whipped out a knife and chopped off the tongue of the hapless youth in full public view. No one came to his rescue due to the terror of the perpetrators of violence in the village. They then left the youth writhing in pain. Later, he was taken to hospital. The Kushwaha men were furious as the Dalit youth rode the bike even after their scolding.
The police arrested three accused Ajit Singh, Devi Singh and Shyam Singh and initiated search for six others who were involved in the crime. Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Karera, Amit Singh said the police would leave no stone unturned to nab the other accused.
Express India
BSP MLC breaks down over 'police raids'
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/bsp-mlc-breaks-down-over-police-raids/960906/
Express news service
Posted: Jun 12, 2012 at 0357 hrs IST
Lucknow Alleging police harassment, a BSP legislator broke down in the Legislative Council while another turned emotional on Monday.
While Savita Singh alleged that the Lucknow police raided her house in her absence and threatened and abused her children, Choudhary Lekhraj Singh said the police were conducting raids on his house after naming him in a case of communal violence in Kosi Kalan.
Savita Singh broke down while raising the issue of police raid at her residence in Gomti Nagar on Sunday night. Moving a privilege notice against the SHO of Gomti Nagar, the BSP MLC said the police raided her residence in Vishwas Khand when she and her husband were away in Balrampur. She said her two sons, aged 17 years and 8 years, were present in the house. When the police did not find her, they used abusive language. Savita Singh then broke down and was not able to complete the notice, which was then read by another member.
Leader of the House Ahmed Hasan said the matter will be probed and strict action will be taken against the guilty. Chairman Ganesh Shanker Pandey said the matter should be probed within three days and the report be put up before the House.
Choudhary Lekhraj Singh said he had been booked in the case although he was present in the house at the time of the violence in Kosi Kalan. "Now the police is harassing me and my family. I am under extreme mental stress and anything can happen to me," said Lekhraj Singh.
BJP's Dr Yagya Dutt Sharma and Congress's Naseeb Pathan came out in his support. BJP's Dr Nepal Singh said the incident was raised previously and the government should come out with a statement about the status of the inquiry it had promised. SP member Devendra Pratap Singh, too, supported Lekhraj Singh, stating the FIR against him had been lodged due to vendetta.
Dalit killings: BSP stages walkout
LUCKNOW: BSP members staged a walk-out in the Legislative Council on Monday over the killing of Dalits in Agra district. The issue was raised during zero hour by Leader of Opposition Naseemuddin Siddiqui, who said that one Ram Sahai, a BSP worker and a native of village Faraura, under Bah police station in Agra, had been stoned to death by some persons on the night of June 3 and 4.
He said that since the accused Lala Singh, Yashpal Singh, Susheel, Husidar Singh and Kareema, who were named in the FIR, had not been arrested, the Dalits in the village were living in fear. "Some of these accused were also named in the murder of another Dalit, Munna Lal, in the same area. They have the patronage of a cabinet minister," said Siddiqui.
Leader of the House Ahmed Hasan said the murder of Munnalal occurred on March 7 while the new government assumed charge on March 15. "Still, we have taken notice of the incident and definite action will be taken in these cases." Not happy with the reply, Siddiqui shot back stating that the government was shielding the killers and police. "If the other murder took place on March 7, even then it is the responsibility of the government to book the culprits," said Siddiqui.
Hasan spoke of the law and order situation in the previous regime. BSP members shouted:"Dalit virodhi yeh sarkar, nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi, and later staged a walkout."
The Times Of India
Tension after communal clash
TNN | Jun 11, 2012, 06.49AM IST
MADURAI: Tension prevailed in Thummagundu village near Tirumanagalam in Madurai on Sunday after a clash between dalits and non-dalits two days back.
A group of non-dalits besieged the vehicle of activists of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) and CPM, who visited the village and interacted with the dalits. The non-dalits later visited the police station at Sindhupatti en masse and submitted a petition alleging that the members of CPM and the TN Untouchablity Eradication Front were instigating caste-based violence.
The CPM members slammed the allegation and stated that they visited the village only to extend the support to the dalits who were allegedly discriminated. The police have meanwhile booked cases against the CPM cadres and the activists based on the complaint and are investigating. "The situation is normal in the village now. About 25 policemen have been deployed to prevent the situation from escalating," said a police official.
It all began two days back during a temple festival when a dalit woman attempted to dissolve "mulaipari" in a village tank. The non-dalits prevented the woman claiming that the tank was meant for their use and the woman ought to use another tank that was designated for dalits. It sparked an altercation among the dalits and non-dalits. As the situation threatened to blow into a communal clash, revenue officials intervened, held talks and diffused the situation. However, there was simmering tension between the two communities.
In this backdrop, a team of activists from TNUEF and CPM functionaries visited the village and inquired about the incident with dalits. When they were returning, a group of non-dalits blocked their car and picked up a quarrel with them alleging that they were instigating the dalits.
MSN News
Tamil Nadu: Caste bias allegations hit Catholic colleges
http://news.in.msn.com/exclusives/it/article.aspx?cp-documentid=250138413#page=2
Many Church-run educational institutes in Tamil Nadu are in the eye of a storm for discriminating against Dalit Christians.
New Delhi: Trouble is brewing in the prestigious colleges run by the Catholic Church in Tamil Nadu. The recent appointment of various faculty positions has led to a virtual furore. And there are shrill allegations of caste discrimination.
The Catholic Church has always prided itself as a provider of not only high quality education but also as a guardian of social justice. However, the management of these institutes stands accused of deliberately denying Dalits faculty positions. For instance, the Loyola College in Chennai stands accused of violating University Grants Commission (UGC) norms in the recruitment. Nepotism had ruled the roost and rules were subverted in the selection of candidates. Senior faculty members are up in arms over the irregularities as they fear that such favouritism would undermine academic standards.
The case of a Jesuit priest running the college as well as the elite XLRI is shocking. He was overlooked despite having strong academic credentials. The candidate selected does not even fulfil the UGC norms. Most of the lecturers who have been serving for years on a contractual basis in the hope of getting their services regularised, were in for a shock when they found themselves left out. This is hardly surprising since Loyola had a principal without a PhD, a mandatory qualification, not long ago.
Similar was the case in other Jesuit institutes including the grand-old St Joseph's College, Trichy. Over 100 faculty positions were filled up during the present drive. Every college is simmering with discontent over the dominant OBC Udayar community cornering a lion's share of seats.
Worse, call letters were not sent in time and some received SMSes about it after the interview process was over. Some of the candidates selected, particularly in the Tamil department, face charges of corruption and sexual harassment.
Here it is to be noted that the 50 per cent reservation might appear to be a huge concession on the surface, but the fact is that Dalits represent as much as 70 per cent of the Christians in the state. The College managements as well as the Jesuit authorities, however, remain remain apathetic.
This development has forced political outfits and rights groups, which were till now touchy about confronting the Church, to join issue. State BSP president K. Armstrong, a Dalit Christian, has thrown his weight behind the protest. After his meeting with authorities of Loyola College failing to resolve the impasse, he has approached the Madras University vice-chancellor and the directorate of collegiate education to intervene. Efforts are also on to drag the management to court.
A Dalit Christian faces discrimination everyday. The Caste Christians - as different from the Church represented by the priests - are openly hostile to Dalits. It is in the hands of the Church hierarchy to bring some solace to them. As such, providing access to employment in Church-run institutions will go some way in their empowerment. 'If the Church becomes a willing partner in the oppression of Dalits, where do we go?' is the question posed by the Dalit faculty members.
The Hindu
SOCIAL ISSUES
Land and caste
http://www.frontline.in/stories/20120629291203600.htm
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI in Hisar
Disputes over common village land between Jats and Dalits build up tension in a Haryana village.
A playground, a public space and redistribution of common village land. These are the three elements in a dispute that has driven a wedge between the landless and the landed communities in Bhagana village in Haryana's Hisar district. When this report was written, on June 4, some 125 Dalit and Backward Caste families, including women and children, had been squatting on the premises of the district secretariat at Hisar for some 10 days, braving the sweltering heat. Some of them had their livestock with them. They claimed that they felt unsafe in their homes at the village. It is a peaceful protest, and the administration does not deny it. "They have a right to protest," says Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar Aggarwal, who is also a qualified doctor.
The dispute in Bhagana began in 2011 when the gram sabha of the village panchayat decided to distribute 280 acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) of land in and around the village, including the common village land called Shamlat land, among the residents. The move, according to informed sources, was in response to the Haryana government's announcement that 100 square yards of land would be allotted to every BPL (below poverty line) family. But that announcement had been made before the Congress returned to power for a second term. No State government initiative on distributing land in Bhagana village, however, materialised, and the gram panchayat decided to take matters into its own hands last year.
The common village land was distributed in proportion to the land that the residents already owned. This meant that the Dalit families, which were mostly landless, ended up with less than 100 square yards each. They were also asked to deposit Rs.1,000 as registration fee. Karamveer, a Dalit youngster studying for a bachelor's degree in business administration, said: "We gave it willingly but learnt later that there was no registration fee for BPL families." The dominant caste group in the village, most of its members belonging to one family, managed to corner most of the redistributed land. Karamveer's father was a daily wage worker, and the young man, too, works on farms.
In February this year, the socially and numerically dominant Jat community in the village decided to lay claim to a playground that the Dalits had used for years. On February 23, the Jats uprooted the trees that the Dalits had planted around it and levelled the seating arrangements they had installed. The Jats claimed that the playground was also part of the common village land. The Dalits felt otherwise. "Our children used to play football here. They were trained by some of our youth. The adjoining area was greened and there were seating arrangements, too, for spectators. We used to hold sports events regularly for the children," said Karamveer.
When the Dalits made a representation to the government, the Jats were angry and allegedly ordered a social and economic boycott of them. A Dalit resident said: "The shopkeeper in the village was told not to sell to us; the common village pond was denied to our buffaloes." The Dalits also alleged that despite the administration providing security (a posse of policemen have been posted at Bhagana), a young man called Shamsher was beaten up only because he dared to ask for the wages for the work he had done.
The dominant community is in no mood to relent. "We told them that their children can play in the stadium of the school. Why should they have a separate playground? Yes, we divided the Shamlat land and gave the poor families 100 square yards each. We decided that those who owned one acre of land would get 60 square yards from the Shamlat land. We wanted to divide the playground land as well. That they did not allow," said a member of the Jat community.
The Jats contend that their population has grown and land is scarce, but "those people", meaning the Dalits, keep on getting land. "They wanted to make an Ambedkar Chowk in the middle of the village. Today they are making a chowk. Tomorrow they will sit on our lands," said Raja Choudhary. The Jats of Bhagana vehemently deny that they engineered a social boycott of the Dalits.
Another bone of contention is a 250-square-yard piece of land in the middle of the village. The Dalits and some members of Backward Castes went to court under the banner of the Ambedkar Welfare Samiti claiming that the land was theirs as they had been using it. The gram sabha won the case in the court after the land records were dug up. As per the land records, it was called Ahlaan Paana Chowk. Immediately afterwards, the Jat-dominated gram sabha built a wall around the piece of land and put up a sign that announced Ahlaan Paana Chowk. The wall sealed off entries to at least two Dalit homes. This happened in mid-April.
A Dalit youth from the village said, "The common land in the middle of the village can belong to anyone. How can a six-foot wall be constructed, preventing access?" Suresh, whose home has been affected, said: "There is a narrow passage of three feet now for me, my livestock and my family to enter. Is this justice? We do not have a separate shed for our buffaloes. We share a common roof with our animals."
The conflict is not the only one of its kind. It is just one of the many disputes that have characterised the State over the past decade. In Khanpur village in the same district, when an agricultural labourer asked for his wages, his buffaloes were taken away forcibly by the landlord. He and his wife managed to appeal to the Deputy Commissioner with help from the All India Agricultural Workers' Union. The district administration intervened and ordered an inquiry.
But there are many others who do not reach the office of the district administration and therefore cannot hope for redress. At the time of the last harvest, in Kheri Locham village in the district, women agricultural workers refused to work after some people misbehaved with them. It is alleged that tractors were driven over their legs in retaliation. Such incidents are viewed as isolated ones and therefore not given much importance. A year ago, not far from Bhagana, at Mirchpur village, Dalit homes were torched and two people, an old man and a disabled girl. The agitation that followed dragged on for more than a year.
Bhagana is located not very far from the epicentre of the recent agitation by Jats demanding reservation in the Other Backward Classes category. With the administration preoccupied with how to contain the reservation movement, which is expected to erupt again in September, it is not surprising that conflicts like the one in Bhagana are not taken seriously. But the mood for a confrontation is slowly building up.
Omwati, 69, who finds it difficult to join the protest in Hisar because of her age, says that the number of such conflicts has gone up in the last 10 years. Another Dalit villager, Dilbagh Singh Khokhar, said: "Tensions have gone up as we have prospered. Some of our young people are employed in the government. We wear good clothes and so we have to hear all kinds of insults. ' Ke paa gaya hai Dedh [what has he achieved]' ' Dedh chamal raha hai [the Dedh is glowing a lot]' or ' Dhedhan ki chadh gayi' [it has gone to the Dedh's head] are some of the insults we hear regularly." . 'Dedh' is a commonly used derogatory term for Dalits in the State.
Ram Avtar, president of the State chapter of the All India Agricultural Workers Union, also spoke of how things had changed. Earlier, he said, Dalits often worked for the Jats without wages: they chopped wood, ground wheat, fed livestock and even made shoes. Sometimes, they got buttermilk for clearing dung. "These days, they misbehave with Dalit women if they refuse to do work for free. If Dalits protest, they refuse them work, saying that they do not do it properly," he said.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) initiated changes in the economic and social equations in villages. Though much of the work under the scheme was cornered by unscrupulous sarpanches for their cronies and members of their own castes, and though muster rolls were often fraudulently prepared and payment was irregular, Dalits and members of the Backward Castes did get employment under this scheme.
An inquiry into fraudulent muster rolls in Mujadpur village had implicated the sarpanch and her family members. "Earlier, Dalits used to work day and night and get paid Rs.2,000 for the entire year. Now, with the NREGA, things have changed and they do not do that kind of work anymore. And as it is voluntary and for a specific number of hours, they feel more free," said Dilbagh Singh, who had taken up the NREGA fraud case. But in Bhagana, for the last one and a half years, there has been no NREGA work. The Deputy Commissioner has promised to start such work very soon.
The atmosphere in Dalit and Backward Caste families in Bhagana is despondent. "I was just born in a wrong family," rues Omwati. She said that earlier for every seven or eight bundles of grass she prepared she would get one free. "I don't do that work anymore," she said. The Dalits fail to understand why the administration is so helpless in giving them a fair deal.
The Jats of Bhagana blame the stand-off on Virender Singh Bhagoria, a potter by caste (listed in the Backward Caste category), who is leading the Dalits. "We let our Dalit brothers work on our fields. We gave them land to build their houses. We need their labour. Our children do not do agricultural work anymore," a Jat villager said. Bhagoria, who was with the protesters in Hisar, told Frontline he had nothing to gain personally from the protest. "I am from that village but do not live there anymore. But when I learnt what was happening, I decided to help. The Jats want to occupy the Shamlat land as well. They called a panchayat meeting but we didn't go as we knew what usually happened at such meetings. We filed no FIR [first information report] but just a complaint to the administration, and they want us to apologise for that," he said.
He said that the administration wanted the Dalits to patch up with the Jats and return to the village. "Our children play better, our youth study better, and they do not like this. They abuse our children in the school playground, that is why we have a separate playground," he said, showing photographs of sports events held on the now-demolished playground. They took pictures when the trees and the flower beds and pots were being levelled by the machines.
"They didn't take any action against them for cutting trees. When a Backward Caste sarpanch in a nearby village cut a tree, he was suspended. Here so many trees were cut down. There was no action by the administration," Bhagoria said, articulating what many others felt. It was generally felt that the administration gave members of the dominant community a free hand and expected the victimised communities to abide by the rule book.
"The Deputy Commissioner says we should compromise. But that means we have to apologise, and for what?" Bhagoria asked. Ishwar Singh, an electrician, spoke of the alleged social boycott. "They do not let me enter their homes. If I speak out, they threaten to slap a fine on me," he said. Kamla, a member of the potter caste, said that she and others like her were not allowed to collect clay to make pots. A carpenter, Sanjay, said that members of the dominant community owed him a lot of money for the work he had done for them.
The administration keeps a close watch on journalists visiting Bhagana and the site of the protest. "We keep an eye on all the visitors. And as soon as we know it is a media person, we ensure that they get to see the administration's point of view," said a member of the Public Relations Department. The Deputy Commissioner claimed that only 40 families were sitting on protest, while the rest were in the village.
But a shopkeeper from the village, who did not want to be named, told Frontline that his business had suffered as some 150 families had left the village.
The Deputy Commissioner said: "There has been no mass atrocity. There is a dispute over the two-acre land used as a playground and the land used for common purposes owned by the gram panchayat. They decided to make a boundary and they were well within their rights to do so to protect it from encroachment." Excavators were used to demarcate the land and not to level the playground, he said. As for the trees that were cut, he said that even the Dalit families had carried away a share of the trees for themselves. "My main objective is to restore peace."
But peace always comes at a price. Neither should the onus for maintaining peace be placed on the victimised community alone. The price for peace is very high in Bhagana and elsewhere in the State where such conflicts are on the rise. And it does not take very long for a conflict, if left unattended, to become a mass atrocity.
The Hindu
Power, violence and Dalit women
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article3515761.ece
V. Geetha
Men from subaltern communities must confront the violence that tears apart some of their homes and families
The two books under review are quite dissimilar in what they set out to do. Dalit Women Speak Out comprises a detailed review of a set of related studies carried out in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh on the violence endured by Dalit women. It revisits the notion of 'atrocity' both in terms of specific events, as well as the ingrained violence that attends Dalit lives, especially Dalit women's lives on a daily basis. Women of Honour by Karin M Polit is an ethnographic investigation of Himalayan Garwahli communities that are labelled Dalit (intriguingly, some of the communities she studies turn out to be artisanal castes, including carpenters and blacksmiths).
Mix of concepts
Polit works with a mix of concepts, drawn from classic anthropological studies on kinship and community, and from Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical universe on the one hand and from the rather obscure yet compelling discourses that have emerged around Judith Butler's work on gender on the other. These are used to foreground and analyse rather familiar realities: poverty, embattled conjugality domestic discontent, anxiety over questions of honour and child-bearing…
Thus, Women of Honour considers the many ways in which women come to perform their gendered roles, as they labour, marry, have children and raise them. Polit works with the notion of performativity or the manner in which we make gender happen, and makes it evident that gender is not so much a given category, but a shifting one that gets 'fixed' in our doing, which includes negotiating, contesting as well as conforming to norms that are set out for us. Thus women, we realise, are neither completely oppressed nor are they consistently defiant — rather they occupy a middle zone of living and acting, taking their cues from what their life situations allow them, and pushing limits and boundaries where they see fit.
What is lost though in this account is the intentionality of power, whether wielded by men over women or older women over younger women and by families over individuals. Also lost is an understanding of social and economic power: the societies Polit studies are not shown in relation to other societies or to larger realities and when these are hinted at, such as the changes wrought by education or migration, they are not granted their conceptual due.
Polit's study references other studies of women's lives in north India, and in her arguments she moves easily from large generalisations gleaned from these studies to particular descriptions that pertain to her own. Consequently she does not always mark the differences that structure Dalit women's lives — this is, to say the least, confusing. One wonders too if this is because she does not draw upon the wealth of concepts generated by scholars working on Dalit lives and histories. For the lives she narrates are, in the ultimate analysis, not very different from the lives of other poor communities, except where she invokes Dalit cultural worlds, deities, sacrifices and beliefs.
The strength of her book lies in her accounts of marriage practices amongst the so-called lower castes, the absence of hypergamy, the importance of bride price and its eventual substitution by dowry. She shows how these practices and their changed form determine women's status. Yet here again, her study would have been richer had she placed it in the context of feminist scholarship — one thinks of Prem Chowdhry's fantastic work on changing gender relations in Haryana, for instance, and how she works with notions of caste, gender, labour and economic change.
In a sense, Dalit Women Speak does all that Polit's book does not wish to do. It not only indexes in painful and sad detail the kinds of violence endured by Dalit women, both outside and in their homes, but accounts for them. Working with police and crime records, interviews with hurt women, available statistics on violence and caste, and the literature generated by human rights groups on this subject, the book maps the links between caste status, landed power and state authority on the one hand and Dalit poverty, female labour and sexual violence on the other.
A distinctive feature of this book is its focus on domestic violence, from female foeticide to wife beating, from child sexual abuse to sexual hurt within the Dalit family. At the same time, it offers a reading of Dalit masculinity in terms of its forced complicity with the patriarchal caste order — just as upper caste women are complicit in and earn their rewards from assenting to the persistence of caste differences and hierarchy, so do Dalit men, choicelessly without social authority and power reproduce the violence that they endure in their own homes.
Taxonomy of violence
A remarkable feature of this study is its attempt to evolve a taxonomy of violence — verbal, physical, sexual and so on. The attempt gets mired in its own efforts because the violence that Dalit women face is never this or that, mandated by either poverty or caste, or their age or location: it is on account of being considered non-human, of being seen as workers without value, whose very being is refused validity. It is personhood that is at stake here, and the manner in which Dalit women work to preserve a sense of the self in the midst of all works against such an effort is moving and humbling.
While the nature of atrocities directed against Dalit women, the circumstances that shape them and the historical and cultural logic that legitimise them have all been sufficiently well documented in several studies, this one does more: it combines argument, analysis as well as a wealth of empirical information. Its intent is to persuade and establish the justice claims of the cause it espouses, and to argue for ways and means to produce a more humane and just social order. In this sense, it has a normative edge, and functions as a veritable catechism in the cause of the most oppressed among Dalits.
Having said this, I would like to point to three concerns that are not sufficiently addressed in this book: working with data from different states allows the authors to point to the enduring and pervasive nature of violence against Dalit women but it is equally important to mark differences between regions, given their varied histories, the nature of governance in each of them and the many and diverse traditions of struggle and resistance.
For unless one contextualises and historicises violence, it remains too much of a self-referential phenomena — to be sure we are told of resistance, and Dalit women's own words testify to this, but this is still at the level of individual courage and we need to understand what makes for change, resistance in a collective sense and equally what remains intransigent to change. Likewise, it would have helped to know if all Dalit castes are oppressed in exactly the same way, or if helps to be numerically large, decisive in electoral politics and so on, since many of these reasons could impact on strategy when it comes to collective action.
Lastly, the violence that Dalit women endure in their families: it is as pervasive as that which greets them in the outside world. In this sense, it does not seem enough to mark Dalit male behaviour as being complicit in an 'imposed' patriarchy. Patriarchy works with notions of power and authority that are masculinised to the point of being available as a general resource to all who wish to wield them — and the complicity of Dalit men cannot only be seen as 'imposed'. Just as upper caste women must be made responsible for their casteism, irrespective of their embattled gender status, so must men from subaltern communities confront the violence that tears some of their homes and families apart.
We have seen Dalit intellectuals fulminate rightly against an unmarked and global feminism, and now it seems important that they examine their own complicity with the violent politics of caste patriarchy and masculinity.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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