The anti-caste Dalit movement began with Jyoti Rao Phule in the mid-19th century. He fought for the education and the upliftment of women, Shudra’s, and Dalits. This movement spread to all parts of India. He waged a war to abolish “untouchability,” to get entry into temples, and find a dignified space for Dalits in society. But very soon Dalit leaders realized that there was no possibility of any dignified place for Dalit under the Hindu fold and began to advocate for a separate identity for the Dalits.
Another important step that gave momentum to the
Dalit movement was the coming of B.R. Ambedkar. This phase began between the 1920s
and 1930s. He fought for the rights of Dalits in British India, and even after Independence.
Ambedkar held that the subordination of Dalits was primarily economic and political,
and could only be overcome by changing the social structure through legal, political,
and educational means. This was a radical and very important departure in the situation
and life of Dalits and their women in India. The intervention of Dr. Ambedkar and
his modernist insights aroused the sense of self-esteem among his community and
inculcated in their mind the consciousness of their rights. His vision of progress
through education inspired the Dalits to transform themselves into the dissenting
subjects. Being trained in Columbia, he brought with him modernist insight and added
a dimension of modernity and criticality to the life of the deprived sections.
After Independence, the dalits got protective
discrimination. Soon Ambedkar felt that caste in India was a hard nut to crack.
Ambedkar was not pleased by the rate of implementation of the protective measures.
He therefore resigned from the government and began to work for Dalit emancipation.
In 1956, he encouraged around six million Dalits to convert to Buddhism to liberate
themselves from the clutches of Hinduism.
In the post-Ambedkerite era, during the 1970s,
the Dalit Panthers movement emerged among the younger generation of Dalits. This
was an expression of their anger and frustration for the humiliation and violence
committed against Dalits by upper-caste Hindus in many parts of India. A lot of
dissenting Dalit literature came up during this movement. But this Dalit literature
overlooked the specific dilemma of Dalit women. Literature by Dalit women has grievously
been ignored by Dalit writers. Dalit Patriarchy further nurtured the vicious circle
of subjugation. Dalit literature constructed Dalit woman in a similar patriarchal
framework which was responsible for the overall subjugation of women.
In the upper castes, women were dominated by their
men and clans. The subordinate position of women served to sustain cultural superiority.
Though Dalit male intellectuals like Kancha Illiah have valorized the dalit patriarchy
as essentially democratic (Illiah: 1996) but scholars like Gopal Guru argue that
no patriarchy can be democratic (Guru:1995). So, the appearance of women in the
Dalit public sphere was quantitative only and is caught in a trap of the ‘our women’
framework. The Dalit male is much influenced by the established patterns of the
upper caste men, says Gopal Guru. But this phenomenon of imitating upper-class men
weakened the Dalit movement. To imitate upper-class values contributes to the development
of negative consciousness which according to Gramsci may not contribute to fully
evolved class consciousness (Guru:1993). The domination of caste and gender are
sanctioned by the Hindu religion unanimously, and upper castes practiced it more
rigorously to maintain their racial and cultural superiority.
“Finally, the life history of Baby Kamble and
other Dalit women writers decisively destroy the myth which certifies Dalit patriarchy
as democratic. 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 involved physical injuries but also
inflicted deep psychological pain, leaving
scars of humiliation in the minds of Dalit women” says Gopal Guru. (Kamble:
2008)
Similarly, Dalit politics too, overlooked the
issues of their women resulting in the further marginalization of Dalit women.
The Constitution of the country nor the social
movements could change the caste dynamics greatly and the deep-rooted caste hierarchy
still remains dominant in Indian society.
