Gendering Society by Uma Chakraborty portrays how caste-based discrimination affects the lives of women in India. While talking about how the caste originated, the author describes how people who were classified to be from the lower classes were considered untouchables. The Dalits (lower caste), were heavily discriminated against from the upper castes. However, over time these communities found ways to interpret their own identities which were different from those of the upper castes. The author then gives an example of a Dalit woman from Tamil Nadu who resists these Brahmanical texts. With time and come economic deprivation, people from the lower castes are only the ones who fell into the lower economic class of the society and that’s how caste has interlinked with class.
In the second paragraph, the author talks about how in the course of history, women have always been subject to subordination. Patriarchal institutions evolved overtime. She then examines the relationship between class and gender and shows how endogamy was considered to be as a basic element of the institution of marriage. Endogamy is the cause for cause for the spread of caste and gender subordination. According to Brahmanical lines, upper caste women are gateways into caste system and their concern for controlling female sexuality has continued to survive.
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