Select Writings of Dalit Women

Select Writings of Dalit Women

Select Writings of Dalit Women

The paper explores three texts: The Grip of Change, Sangati Events, and Touch to comprehend the social location and situation of Dalit women that formulate their vulnerability. The first text, The Grip of Change (2006) is the semi-autobiographical novel of Palanimuthu Sivakami and is a self-English translation of her Tamil novel, Pazhaiyana Kazhithalum (1989). The author is an Indian Dalit feminist writer, activist, and former IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officer. Through the plight of Thangam, a Periyar (a low caste) woman, the writer reveals that the issues of Dalit women are still neglected not only by mainstream feminists but also by the patriarchal Dalit movement. Thus, fetching them a special status of “outsider within.”¹¹ The second text, Bama’s Sangati Events (2005) is the English translation of her second work originally published in Tamil (1994). The novel is an insight into the writer’s community comprising of Paraiya (low caste) women, friends, and the known who live in her vicinity, and depicts their common and collective struggle. 3) Touch (2006) is a debut poetry collection of eighty-four poems by Meena Kandasamy, who comes from Tamil. The anthology is themed around caste and untouchability that depicts the life of the Dalit community. Touch illustrates the central role ‘touch’ plays in the lives of Dalits, the former ‘Untouchables’; the very touch of these people is considered polluting. Hence, they are relegated to the peripheries. The anthology is divided into seven categories¹² which produce a realistic picture of shocking daily occurrences of exploitations of Dalits, primarily their women.

Women are “the second sex” (Beauvoir 1989) and they struggle with conditions, which are propagated by patriarchy. Also, men in many societies are socialized into dominating and

¹⁰ P. Sivakami’s The Grip of Change, Bama’s Sangati, and Meena Kandaswami’s poetry anthology Touch.

¹¹ The term ‘outsider-within’ (1986), the prime condition for a standpoint, which she defines, “Outsider-within are social locations or border spaces marking the boundaries between groups of unequal power. Individuals acquire identities as “outsiders within” by their placement in these locations” (300).

¹² ‘Bring him up to worship you’; ‘Touch’; ‘Add some spice’; ‘To that more congenial spot’; ‘Lines of control’; ‘Slander in a slaughterhouse’; and ‘Their daughters’.

aggressive behavior. Violence by men against women is the severest form of patriarchy. For Dalit women, the problem is momentous. They are one of the largest socially discriminated groups owing to their low caste. The caste system declares Dalit women to be inherently impure relegated to the category of “untouchable,” which sanctions social exclusion. Their Dalit identity gives them a different set of problems. Even today many Dalit women lack access to basic resources like food, health, and education as a result they are poor landless wage laborers, scavengers, food gatherers, and the like. Sharma and Kumar (2020) assert that the interlocking nature of gender, caste, and class leads to the exploitation of rural Dalit women, thus making them powerless. They endure unique issues because of severely imbalanced social, economic, and political power equations. “Because we didn’t go for planting work, they decided to burn our houses” (The Grip 61). Bama explicates:

The position of women is both pitiful and humiliating. In the fields, they have to escape from upper-caste men’s molestations. At church, they first lick the priest’s shoes and be his slaves while he threatens them with tales of God, Heaven, and hell. Even when they go to their own homes, before they have had a chance to cook some kanji or lie down and rest a little, they have to submit themselves to their husband’s torment (Sangati 35).

Thus, the select writings attest to Gopal Guru’s assertion, “Dalit women talk differently” (1995) because they have unique issues owing to their social location. Hunger is their prime enemy and they toil hard for their survival. The poem “Smell” in Kandasami’s poetry anthology Touch portrays the aftermath of the menial, untidy, and difficult labor that they have to perform because of their low status. The poem embodies,

I smell like Hard Labour. Physical Work. Toil. My smell lingers with me like it did With my mother, her mother, and her mother’s mother. It is the only legacy I own And I shall never lose. Everywhere. . . I’m greeted with handkerchiefs, scarves, Shawls, saris, and even hands, covering the holder’s noses (“Smell” 105).

The poetic expression in Touch is loud and explosive, which is the result of Kandasamy’s anger at suppression and prejudice. She gives free rein to her words to bare facts that tell aloud the tales of silences.

I’ll curse the skies, And shout: scream to you Words that incite wrath… (“Narration,” L.7-9)

Caste – crueler than a disease, emotionless, dry, took its toll Confirming traditional truths: Dalits die, due to devotion. Unanswered questions remain (“Prayers” 57, L. 21-23).

Kandasamy addresses the issue of caste and gender discrimination in her anthology. The poem “Touch” (35) discusses that to select any person who has not experienced caste and gender discrimination, the sense of touch only brings pleasure.

Or, you may recollect how A gentle touch, a caress changed your life Multifold, and you were never the person You should have been. Feeling with your skin, Was perhaps the first of the senses, Its reality always remained with you— You never got rid of it. You will have known this. (“Touch” 24-31)

But in the same poem, Kandasamy differentiates these pleasant feelings to the harsh reality confronted by Dalits virtuously from the very same sense organ, the skin:

You will have known almost Every knowledgeable thing about The charms and the temptations That touch could hold. But you will never have known That touch—the taboo To your transcendence, When crystallized in caste Was paraphernalia of Undeserving hate (“Touch” 24-41).

Therefore, the poet bangs on the social constructions of caste hierarchy and patriarchy that create binaries: privileged and the unprivileged, oppressors and the oppressed, man and woman, upper-caste and lower-caste, mainstream and marginalized, and the rest. Thus, Kandasamy’s poetry discards T.S. Eliot’s notion of the impersonality of poetry¹³ (1919). On the contrary, she asserts, “My writing is very, very autobiographical. It stems out of who I am, and what happened to me? I am extremely conscious of the fact that I am a woman and Dalit” (Kandasamy, 2008). Thus, her constrained anger, which is the outcome of suppression is evident in her poetry. Touch shows Dalits’ marginal spatial reality through a feminist lens and produces a realistic picture of gruesome daily occurrences of gender prejudice and double bondage of Dalit women. The poem, “Narration” (Touch 56), explicates the physical and sexual abuse Dalit women are subjected to and their treatment as colonized bodies and sexual objects.

I’ll weep to you about My landlord, and with My mature gestures— You will understand: The torn sari, disheveled hair Stifled cries and meek submission. I was not an untouchable then? (“Narration” L. 1-7)

¹³ The theory of impersonality refers to the concept of an impersonal relationship between a man as a poet and as a general man. According to Eliot, a poet should have two distinct personalities and he as a poet should uphold no relation with that of his personal self while composing his poetry (“Tradition and Individual Talent” 1919).

In the poem “Last Love Letter” (51), the poet illustrates the helplessness of the oppressed to voice injustice. The oppressed can only speak through her body¹⁴ (Spivak 1988). The poem brings out the paradox of love in death rather than love in life.

. . . Our passionate love, Once transcended caste. Let it now Transcend mortality . . . – Fear not beloved, In Love— Life is not compulsory. (“Last Love Letter, L.1-7)

The poem also brings to mind the several honor killings that have taken place in the name of caste. The writings of Dalit women, thus, depict their vulnerability, world of violence, and the prevailing culture of impunity. The exploration of The Grip of Change and Sangati, and Touch help us to evolve a typology of violence suffered by Dalit women, which may broadly be grouped under two headings:

a) Domestic violence b) Public violence

Dalit women endure the burden of twin patriarchy⸻ one for being women at the hands of their own community men. Two, for being Dalit women at hands of upper-caste men who think it is their entitlement to oppress and exploit these women.

Select Writings of Dalit Women

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