Akankshya Misra week 3

Summary – week 3 – Akankshya Misra

Chapter 1 & 2, Gendering Caste Through a Feminist Lens Through a Feminist Lens by Uma Chakraborty

Uma Chakravarty in her reading talks about the deep-seated discriminations that persists in the country through a Brahmanical perspective. In her reading the classification of society discrimination is based on two grounds. One is the classification based on purity that divides the society as pure and impure individuals based on their caste. There is also a mention about untouchability, about the dominance of brahmans over the shudras and how the brahmins had the advantage of knowledge that helped them maintain their dominance over the lower caste individuals. The other classification is the classification based on political and economic status in the society in general and class-based discrimination in particular. Her reading further mentions the oppression faced by women belonging to the lower class and caste and adds a patriarchal perspective to it as well.

Chapter two basically is an incorporation of caste class and gender but the main focus does lie on explanation of how caste-based discrimination is worse than class-based discrimination. The entire society is dived into social units called “jatis” based on the rituals performed. Every single access is demarcated by this differentiation be it something as simple as access to material resources that is allowed for the people from a higher caste and denied to people from the lower or something like naming an individual where the superiors get pure and inferiors get impure names just because of the difference in caste. Marriage as an institution is seen to be totally different where only endogamous marriages are allowed in order to preserve the land, the women and the purity of the ritual among the same community. Marriage is considered as a way of carrying the male line or “vansh” forward wherein women are just treated as objects and gifts. The exchange of women within the “jati” forms an essential part in carrying the patriarchal legacy forward.