Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

Exploration of women’s narratives and the ways they exercise agency and voice in their daily interactions reveal much more nuanced representations of their lives and experiences of violence alongside those of everyday struggle. The writers portray the physical violence like thrashing, lynching, and canning of women in the Dalit community. Bama reports, “[E]verywhere you look, you see blows and beatings, shame, and humiliation’ (Sangati 66). Perspectives of the writers depict the violent treatment of women by husbands, fathers, brothers, and other male members of their community. For instance, Esakki’s brothers kill her brutally for the sake of their honor.

They dragged her out of the cart, and without even caring that she was a fullterm pregnant woman with one sweep of a sword, they separated her head from her body. They sliced open her stomach, took out the baby, twisted its neck, and killed it (Sangati 53).

Another woman who is put to death is Perimma. She is exhausted because of her fieldwork and gendered labor at home. Her husband physically abuses her when she refuses to have sex with him because of her fatigue. Her Grandmother laments, “I reared a parrot and then handed it over to be mauled by a cat. Your Periappan (Perimma’s husband) beat her to death. … He killed her so outrageously, the bastard” (Sangati 10). Dalit women are doubly burdened. They labor hard to support their families. They work outside their home to gather their day-to-day resources and also perform gender-based labor at home. And when they are not able to please their husbands because of their fatigue they suffer gender violence. Summing up their situation Bama explains that at home, husbands are least bothered to understand them. They think of

¹⁴ Refer to the case of Bhuvaneswari Bhaduri discussed by Gayatri Spivak in her essay ‘Can a Subaltern Speak?’ (1988).

their own satisfaction without caring for their health and mood after a day’s long hard work. They are overwhelmed and crushed by their own disgust and exhaustion due to physical exploitation, as a result, they are totally oppressed and succumb to mental ill-health.

Numerous other writers have also explicated such narratives of domestic violence. ‘At the slightest pretext, the husband showered blows and kicks on her. Sometimes he even whipped her’ (Pawar 2015: 112-113). Baby Kamble (2008) in The Prisons illustrates that Dalit men did not hesitate to chop off the noses of their women who failed to abide by patriarchal norms. She states, ‘He [husband] would beat me up for a flimsy reason… This was the life most women-led (Kamble 2008: 155). The everyday discrimination against Dalit women is thus marked by mental, emotional, and physical violence by their spouses and other family members. The representations of the writers also show the use of abusive language against women. For example, Thaayi’s husband hurls, “You common whore, you, any passing loafer will come in support of you, you mother fucker’s daughter. You will go with ten men (Sangati 24). The perspectives of the writers indicate that Dalit women are only subservient partners in marital relations.

The study also underlines the prime causes of domestic violence against Dalit women: male alcoholism, the man’s suspicious nature, the husband’s extramarital relations, and the complex social situations related to inter-caste marriages. The exploration of the texts shows, “It’s one justice for men and quite another for women” (Sangati 24). Men have the freedom to have concubines or even to end the marriage and it is accepted as natural. “They say he is a man, if he sees mud, he’ll step into it, if he sees water, he will wash.” (Sangati 24). Whatever happens, must be according to the pleasure of men folk and their convenience. They can marry out of their caste. But women can marry only within the caste. For instance, Kathamuthu, a Dalit leader has three wives, the first is a Dalit, the second is an upper-caste, and the third is Thangam, a widow, whom he exploits sexually when she approaches him in distress. He also grabs her money which she gets after the court case. Bankim Chander Mandal states, “The control of women’s sexuality has been made essential for the development of patriarchal caste hierarchy both for the maintenance of caste and for the legitimizing and control of the inheritance” ( 2013: 124).

Commenting on the reasons for domestic abuse, the narrator (Sangati) observes: Even though they are male because they are Dalits, they have to be like dogs with their tails rolled up when they are in the fields, and dealing with their landlords. There is no way they can show their strength in those circumstances. So, they show it at home to their wives and children. But then, is it the fate of our women to be tormented both outside their houses and within? (Sangati 65). Towards the end of the commentary, the narrator explores how caste and gender oppression affect women. Whereas the narrator initially thought that women quarreled with each other in the evening and morning because they were busy working during the day, she “gradually … came to understand the real reason” (Sangati 67). She views these women are triply oppressed. Like men, they are physically exploited and socially humiliated in the workplace, but are also solely responsible for labor within the domestic sphere, and are also sexually and physically abused by their husbands. To release their frustration and helplessness, the women fight and shout at each other.

Domestic Violence

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