Aadya Gupta, Week 3

Gendering Caste through a Feminist Lens.

Uma Chakraborty stresses on a feminist interpretation of the Anti- Mandal agitation because as she explains, seeing the issue through a feminist lens can often radically alter our perception of the same phenomenon. Casteism and Gender discrimination are intimately entwined, but scholars from these two areas do not cross talk, the nexus is sadly ignored. This book is part of an effort to bridge that gap. The author explains how women face discrimination in triplicate, as women, as Dalits, and as the primary caregivers of their families.

The consequences of caste discrimination are dehumanizing, that deprive supposedly ‘lower caste’ persons of dignity and personhood. This scattering of social divisions divides us fundamentally as a society, and renders us unable to unite to fight this system that limits all of us. The control of feminine sexuality is present in every level of society and the root cause of all of these rules is eventual control over all the means of production, especially land and labour. The purity of marriage practice maintains the caste hierarchy, and this is very strictly controlled as it has the potential to equalize caste barriers by intermarrying. Men control their women’s sexuality- and control the men of lower castes from gaining access to this sexuality- by systematically oppressing both actors.

The struggle for resources is not a simplistic demand, it’s a holistic struggle that involves struggle on multiple levels. We understand from these chapters how it is important to address systemic inequities that encourage disproportionate returns to each caste of persons. Culture of exploitation coexists with a culture of violence, and all reactions to an even a perceived dilution of culture is violent- for such rigid institutions cannot tolerate disobedience. Even though India has formal equality, it doesn’t automatically translate into social equality. The law needs to actively engage with these differences to actually be able to reach its goal.