Priya Gala, Week 3

                                  Gendering Caste Through a Feminist Lens

            Uma Chakraborty makes an important distinction between class and caste. However, her important argument is that, while caste and class are two distinct phenomena, they are both interlinked. In the past, there were only two types of castes, one that owned land and the other that didn’t. So even if we believe that there is no connection in caste and class, in reality, there is. Secondly, another important aspect of her piece talks about how caste divisions are rigidified through the notion of pure and impure. The ones at the top of the hierarchy are considered to be pure and get polluted when they come in contact with the ones at the bottom. However, the moment they try to get rid of their impurity (resisting work that makes them impure), it is reimposed on them through violence. Knowledge, too, is an important part of the author’s argument as the upper castes usually make it inaccessible to the lower castes. Thus, not giving them any chance to change their position in the society explained in Rama’s and Eklavya’s incident. While, this is about the intersectionality based on caste and class, when gender is added to the equation it takes intersectionality to a whole another level as we see in Gargi’s incident and is explained in the quote, “recourse to violence is necessary to tame men; however, a mere threat of the same is enough for women.”