© 2024 IJRAR January 2024, Volume 11, Issue 1 www.ijrar.

org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

From Silence to Speech: A Feminist Assessment of

Caste System, Class Struggle and Gender Issue
Ishika Wahane

Abstract : The objective of this paper is to discuss and offer an insight into trends in feminism in India with reference to the caste
system, how it affects women of different castes, if the prevalent feminist outlook is of any help or if we need some other form of
revolution to understand the problems of women as a distinct and doubly compromised category.

IndexTerms - Caste system, Dalit Feminism, Brahmanical Patriarchy, Ambedkar, Double Subjugation, Class Struggle.
I. INTRODUCTION
To begin with, we may open a discussion on the word “caste '' and what this caste system refers to. The word “caste” implies a
conventional meaning, that is, the varna. According to Manusmriti, a treatise on Hindu ways of living as prescribed by Sage
Manu, the society must be divided into four varnas and people from each varna are to be designated a specific profession so as to
ensure the smooth running of the Hindu society. A chaturvarna system, a system of four varnas, was thus established and the four
varnas thus emerged were the Brhamins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Shudras. The Brahmins, considered to be highly
learned and superior, are considered to be the transmitters of Vedic knowledge and stand atop the social ladder. Then comes the
Kshatriyas, the warrior class employed in the defence of society. Third comes the Vaishyas who are the merchant class and
engage in trading and profit-making. At the bottom of this ladder are the Shudras, hierarchically the most inferior and deployed in
the service of the three superior ones. Naturally the shudras, being the most inferior varna, do not enjoy substantial means and
resources and turn out to be financially the weakest of the classes. Thus, the lower caste turns out to be the lower class as well.
This brings into light the fact that in India discussion about caste can never be complete without taking into account the interplay
of caste and class.

To maintain Brahmanic supremacy, the superior class has made the worst victims in the Shudras in the name of their religious
practices. Denigrating another human being, exercising various degrees of humiliation and oppression, treating them worse than
animals are justified on the basis of mere accident of birth in a certain caste. In times that followed the Indian freedom struggle,
even in the post-independence era and recent times, the term that has gained immense significance and made its way into
mainstream political discourse is ‘Dalit’. Literally, the term ‘Dalit’ means somebody who is ‘downtrodden’ or ‘broken’. (Sarkar
2016, 197) Ambedkarite movements laid special emphasis on the term ‘Dalit’, using it as an umbrella term for the downtrodden
which is in contrast to the blanket dismissal of even more stratified lower caste masses as being more or less polluting.

The first two classes were men and women. (Lerner 1986) Even though there exist four varnas in the Hindu society that are
further stratified into thinner divisions of gotras, sagotras and sapindas, it cannot be overlooked that each caste or subcaste
consists primarily of men and women who are enmeshed in gender roles and share the master-subordinate relationship as is the
case with patriarchal and patrilineal societies. Dalit women, in such condition, are subjected to oppression which is twofold- first
in the form of subjugation as demanded by her immediate community, discrimination based on gender by the men of their caste.
This accounts for a Dalti woman’s oppression under Dalit patriarchy. And second, the discrimination based on caste made worse
by gender at the hands of Brahmanical patriarchy. The womenfolk from the Dalit communities are doubly subjugated and have
been the worst victims of caste prejudices as well as gender discrimination.

II. COMPROMISED REPRESENTATION OF DALIT WOMEN IN FEMINIST DISCOURSE

Emotional and sexual exploitation of Dalit womenfolk can be traced historically in the deplorable Devadasi tradition wherein the
eldest or first born daughter of a lower caste family is supposedly married off to the deity before they attain the age of puberty and
end up becoming personal mistresses to the high priests. Virtually, this practice diminished hundreds of lower caste girls to a state
of prostitution. These girls bear the brunt of both- being a girl and being born in a Dalit family.

Because caste and gender issues seem to be inexorably linked, Ambedkar and Jotiba Phule saw in women the keys to shattering
the bounds of caste divisions and democratising gender relations. However, bringing Dalit women to the forefront of a political
discourse which centres around them is a goal that couldn’t have been fully achieved. For centuries, Dalit communities have been
largely kept away from education by the Brahmins, deeming them to be impure and not fit to receive instructions in Vedic
teachings. They were taught to serve the higher castes, to even keep their shadows away from their persons so as not to pollute
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them. Centuries of oppression and humiliation made a slave out of them. Their very consciousness mutated to one of a slave,
bereft of any dignity or identity. The act of raising a voice against such animal treatment was met with severe punishment which
was usually extended to the family or even the entire community. Ambedkar’s advent brought mobility and upliftment of the
depressed classes in the political and social sphere by absolute critiquing of Brahmanism and Hinduism, for all this oppression
was justified in the name of religion.

Ambedkar put special emphasis on education. He saw in education the key to emancipation from the differential treatments meted
out to the Dalit folks under the garb of the caste system. However, the double subjugation of Dalit women reduced them to the
lowest rung of the social ladder, lower than Dalit men. Where Ambedkar and Phule raised the issues of the depressed classes in
their writings and contributed to the otherwise neglected or carpeted historiography, they couldn’t possibly have been able to talk
about lived experiences of Dalit women. Therefore, the stories of Dalit women were never told for the longest time.

Even with the advent of feminism in India in the 1960s-70s, the discourse was dominated by upper-caste, university trained
women. The experiences of these women in a patriarchal set up were far from that of Dalit women. Feminist writings that came to
be published localised the movement’s aim in the upper-caste women’s voices. After a much neglected chance at storytelling,
upper-caste feminist writers tried to carve themselves a history and brought out hidden histories from under the liberal movements
that were blanketed by nationalism, imperialism and endeavours of nation-building. Because the Dalit women’s part of the story
was still not part of the discourse, the upper-caste women’s issues came to be viewed as issues faced by or universal to all women.
Women, thus, became a distinct category and were understood as a collective based on their being oppressed by the accident of
their womanhood. The experiences of these upper-caste Indian women were ‘universalised’ as experiences of all Indian women.

However, within this category ‘woman’ there were many different categories whose stories and lived experiences and their hopes
from a revolutionary movement such as feminism varied immensely from the ‘universalised’ ones. To maintain the
intersectionality of their feminist outlook and therefore the work they produced, upper-caste feminist writers did endeavour to
write about these ‘subaltern’ women. Be that as it may, these writers placed the subaltern women on the ‘other’ end of a
discussion on victimhood. The Dalit women’s narratives were always ‘represented’ in a third person voice, a voice that came
from without. Besides, the representation of Dalit women’s issues by a non-Dalit woman from a non-Dalit perspective could
mean a lack of authenticity and Dalit men’s testimonies hardly acknowledge the role of women in mobilising the movement
against caste practices. Thus, there arose a need for Dalit women to talk for themselves and define themselves from a standpoint
from which they could challenge the dominant upper caste representations of themselves. As a result, there arose Dalit voices that
spoke from within. Two notable essays authored by two depressed class women titled About the Grief of Mahars and Mangs by
Muktabai and Stree Purush Tulana by Tarabai Shinde proved to be monumental in addressing and promulgating the authentic
first-hand experiences, struggles and aspirations of Dalit women in the social and political sphere. Thereafter, Dalit Feminism
started taking its form in a true sense.
III. DALIT FEMINISM: AN ASPIRATION FOR AND ACTUALISATION OF CHANGE
The discourse on caste system in India is incomplete without acknowledging the part of mass religious conversion that took place
under Ambedkar in the ‘50s. On October 14, 1956, Ambedkar along with his 60,000 followers embraced Buddhism in Nagpur as
an act of condemning Hinduism, Brahmanism and the mournful inhumane practices that these systems justify and even promote.
Ambedkar saw in Buddhism an alternative for uplifting the depressed classes and especially to ameliorate the condition of women
under Brahminical hegemony. He blamed Manu for such degraded perception and condition of women because in Manu’s view
women were witless, inferior, spiritually and morally depraved and must always be controlled by the men around them. He
incorporated the notion of pativrata which refers to a woman who is chaste in speech, thought and action, subordinate to her male
counterparts and fulfils all her duties without wavering.

Ambedkar strongly challenged such views and deemed them to be antique, degraded and ones that hinder the welfare of the
society. Buddhism, Ambedkar claims, views women as equally important as men. Under Buddhism only women had the liberty to
access knowledge, something which was denied to them by Manu. Ambedkar’s views and the mass conversion he led at Nagpur,
Maharashtra, affected thousands. This could be estimated from the fact that almost 87% of the Buddhist population in India is
Ambedkarite Budddhist.

Representing themselves by taking up the forefront in political discussions and movements, Dalit women have achieved a
platform for themselves.

…women did not only function as supporting staff to their male counterparts but had been active participants in the
functioning of certain organisations as well, for example, the Scheduled Caste Federation. In the mid-1980s young Dalit
feminists in Mumbai formed the ‘Mahila Sansad’ and by the mid-1990s ‘Samvadini-Dalit Stree Sahitya Manch’, a forum
of the Dalit feminist literary movement had emerged. By the 1990s, there were several independent and autonomous
assertions of Dalit women’s identity; a case in point is the formation of the National Federation of Dalit Women and the
All India Dalit Women’s Forum. In a historical happening, in December 1996, at Chandrapur, Dr. Pramila Leela Sampat
organised a ‘Vikas Vanchit Dalit Mahila Parishad’ and put forth a proposal for commemorating 25 December as
Bharatiya Streemukti Divas (Indian Women’s Liberation Day). (Sarkar 2016, 210)

We know that literary texts can and do, among the variety of functions they perform, expose and challenge inequitable power
structures and ‘give a voice’ to oppressed sections of society (Diwan 2016, 223). Producing literary texts that speak from the very
core of Dalit women’s sufferings, joys and lives itself has been a monumental development which has only been strengthened by
young voices. Foraying of Dalit feminist writers into the mainstream political discourse have immensely affected the women of
different castes. A salient feature of these literary texts is the language used in them. The ‘I’ of canonical/bourgeois
autobiographies, an autonomous, discrete and sovereign self is replaced by a communal ‘we’ and subjectivity is rendered more

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complex by the interplay between the individual and the community, without the loss of either (ibid 223). These writings speak to
the masses, the lower caste masses who are a very diversified category in itself, because they do not lose the collective connotations
of the language and represent the communities in the most authentic and shared sense.
IV. CONCLUSION
The Dalit feminist movements have been met with degrees of success and have awakened men and women to the ideas
of progress, upliftment and equality. Dalit feminists have exploited the ideals of feminism for the best and instituted much
needed intersectionality and inclusivity, forcing the mainstream discourse to make room for their voices too. In my opinion,
feminism has definitely played a vital part in awakening womenfolk from depressed communities to ask rightfully for their rights
such as education, employment opportunities, equality in marriage and child-rearing. However, recent times have posed new
problems and questions to feminists. With economic reforms and more opportunities to better people’s financial status, class
differences seem to have visibly gripped the urban discourse in its claws. Families belonging to lower castes who have done well
for themselves have tried to disengage themselves from debates and discussions around caste-based discrimination and the need
for reservation. This disengagement has equally harmed the feminist discourse that the communities have fought so hard to bring
into light. With less engagement in the urban scenario, the logistical help that could have done marvel to the rural masses in
putting down their narratives and reaching masses falls short and we seem to return back to addressing the ‘difference’, ‘talking
differently’ and owning the subjecthood. What is needed is to put in efforts to maintain harmony between classes so that one does
not dominate overall narratives. The egocentric individualism needs to be overcome to keep the communal spirit of the movement
alive.

Members of marginalised groups, womenfolk especially, still do not have access to education or basic amenities. An audience that
has largely grown to be English- speaking, narratives of marginalised groups may not find the best suitable platform. Therefore, it
becomes extremely important that the collective consciousness does not do away with them completely to keep away from
intellectual labour because as Shashi Tharoor says in his Being Caste Conscious “Caste blindness… is itself an affectation
available only to the privileged; the lower castes cannot afford to be indifferent to caste” (ibid 221).
.
REFERENCES
[1]. Sarkar, Moumita. 2016. “Gendering Caste Through Ambedkar's Writing.” In Women and Empowerment in Contemporary
India, 196-220. Second Revised Edition ed. New Delhi: Worldview Publications.
[2]. Lerner, Gerda. 1986. The Creation of Patriarchy. New York: Oxford University Press.
[3]. Rege, Sharmila. 1998. “Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and Towards A Dalit Feminist
Standpoint Position.” no. Economic and Political Weekly (October), 39-46.
[4]. Diwan, Preeti. 2016. “Dalit Women's Autobiographies: From Subjection to Subjecthood.” In Women and Empowerment in
Contemporary India, 221-238. Second Revised ed. New Delhi: Worldview Publications.

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