Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and Towards a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Position Author(s): Sharmila Rege

Reviewed work(s): Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 44 (Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 1998), pp. WS39-WS46 Published by: Economic and Political Weekly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4407323 . Accessed: 28/02/2012 23:55
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Differently A Critiqueof 'Difference'and Towardsa Dalit Feminist StandpointPosition

Sharmila Rege The assertion of autonomous dalit women's organisations in the 1990s threw up several crucial theoretical and political challenges, besides underlining the brahmanism of the feminist movement and the patriarchal practices of dalit politics. While initially they promoted serious debate among both left party-based women's groups as well as autonomous women 's movement, they seem to have come to rest today. The apparent absence of a revisioning offeministpolitics only suggests an ideological position of multiple/pluralfeminist standpoints. Within such a framework of 'difference' issues of caste become the sole responsibility of the dalit women's organisations. This absence of an exploration of different positions hinders dialectics, both of a revisioning of contemporary feminist politics azd a sharpening of the positions put forth by autonomous dalit women's organisations. shift in the feminist A SIGNIFICANT thoughtof the 1980s and 1990s was the increasingvisibility of black and third worldfeministwork.Yet, therehas been on a reluctance partof white feministsto the confront challengesposedto themby black and thirdworld feminism.Often, has thisreluctance beenjustifiedin terms of white feminists refrainingfrom an of appropriation the voices of black and worldwomen[Whelehan third 1995].This and reluctance relativesilence on partof the white feminists amounts to an racismis the that assumption confronting of sole responsibility black feministsor that of to a reassertion theold assumption the political process of becoming antisexist includesby definitionthe process Muchof thisstate anti-racist. of becoming of stasis in western feminism may be in explained termsof thealliancebetween feminism and post-structuralism/ in more postmodernism; specifically terms of the categoryof 'difference'comingto the centre of feminist theorisation. A to commitment feministpoliticsdemands use thatthelimitedpoliticalandanalytical of this category of 'difference' be underlined. IntheIndian the context, political pitfalls of the ever increasingimpact of postmodernist post-structural and approaches and in termsof theriseof 'culturological' communitarian approaches [Joseph1991, 1997]; the rise of the 'later subaltern and 1997] thepost-colonial [Sarkar subject' subject[Ahmad 1997] have been noted. In the framework of postorientalism studies, the focus remains on colonial the domination alone,thereby pre-colonial of and roots caste,gender, classdomination come to be ignored.The applicationof thereforepresentsa Saidianframework, problem,especially when appliedto the
Economic and Political Weekly non-brahmanmovements and movements by or on behalf of women; for both these had utilised the colonial law, justice and administrationas major resources [Sarkar 1997]. Recent feminist scholarship in adopting the Saidian framework not only falls into the above mentioned traps, but ends up with a frame that completely overlooks the contributions and interventions of women in the non-brahman movement. The invisibility of this lineage, has led scholars to conceive the recent autonomous assertion by dalit womenas 'a different voice'. The 1980s were marked by the newly exploding caste identityandconsciousness andtheoreticalandpolitical issues involved in the debate on caste and its role in social came to be debated[Kothari transformation 1994]. The early 1990s saw the assertion of autonomous dalit women's organisations at both regional andnational levels. Such an assertion had thrown up several crucialtheoreticalandpolitical challenges, besides underliningthe brahmanismof the feminist movement and the patriarchal practices of dalit politics. The formation of autonomous dalit women's organisations, initially propelleda serious debate, drawing responses from both left party based as well as autonomous women's organisations. However, the debates seemed to have come to restandthe relative silence, and the apparent absence of a revisioning of feminist politics thereafter only suggests an ideological position of multiple/pluralfeminist standpoints. That is to say, the separate assertion by dalit women's organisations comes to be acceptedas one more standpointandwithin such a framework of 'difference'; issues of caste become the sole responsibility of the dalit women's orgainsations. An absence of an exploration of each other's positions - hinders the dialectics; both of a revisioning of contemporary feminist politics and a sharpening of the positions put forth by autonomous dalit women's organisations. This paper seeks to open some of these issues for debate. The paperis organised into four sections: Section I seeks to review the changing categories of feminist analysis. It traces the processes by which 'difference' as a category came to occupy a central place in feminist analyses. This, it is argued, has meant a backtracking from some of the corecategories in feminism. It is imperative for feminist politics that 'difference' be historically located in the real struggles of marginalisedwomen. Section II undertakes such an exercise of historically locating the 'different voice' of dalit women in their struggles, tracing the lineage through the Satyashodhak and Ambedkarite movements. It is further argued that the reinscription of these struggles in our historical mappings - poses a challenge to Chatterjee's (1989) analysis of the 'Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question'; an analysis that has come to inform much of the theorisation on gender and nation. Section III seeks to trace the exclusion of dalit women's voices in the two important new social movements of the 1970s; the dalit movement and in more detail the women's movement. Tracing the issues at stake in the post MandalMasjid phase of the women's movement, it is argued that the assertion of dalit women's voices in the 1990s brings up significant issues for the revisioning of feminist politics. Finally, Section IV argues that the assertion of dalit women's voices is not just an issue of naming their 'difference'. 'Naming of difference' leads to a narrow identitarian politics - rather this assertion is read as a centring of the

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discourseon caste andgenderandis viewed as suggesting a dalit feminist standpoint. A large part of the paper draws upon our understanding of and engagement in the contemporary women's movement in Maharashtra.

I
Feminist Theorisation : From 'Difference' to more 'Difference' Feminism of the 1970s had developed in difference from the Left. Crucial to this difference, were three categories viz woman, experience and personal politics, which were centralto feminist theorisation [Grant 1993]. Though these categories were powerful as political rhetoric - they posed theoretical problems. The category 'woman' was conceived as collectively, based on their being oppressed by the fact of their womanhood. The three categories were deployed in combination and this often led to exclusions around race, class ethnicity. Since most of the vocal feminists of the 1970s were white, middle class and university educated - it was their experience which came to be universalised as 'women's experience'. Thus, sweeping statements such as "All Women are Niggers" were made [Rubin 1969]. The ambivalence of the left towards the notion of women's issues was thus countered by an assertion that women were essentially connected with other women and 'subjective experiences of knowledge' became thebase of theuniversalexperience of womanhood. Thus 'experience' became the base for personal politics as well as the only reliable mythological tool for defining oppression [Grant 1993]. At least three major postulates emerged from such an epistemological position, one thatthere is system of male domination, that this system is political andthatpolitics included all power relationships regardless of whether or not that power operated in the public sphere (i e, to say the 'personal' was declared to political and as focus came to be on power in intimate relationships, critiques of state or capitalism took a back seat). In such a theoretical position, black women come to be excluded as a structural consequence of the deployment of the categories of 'woman' and 'subjective experience'. Theoretical debates came to centre aroundthe theme of patriarchy,its material base, its persistence across modes of production and different levels within modes of production. Socialist feminists and radical feminists posed the issues in terms of capital needs v/s male control.

The cruxof thedifferences betweenthem rested on their differentialconceptualWS-40

isation of the causes of women's (ii) Positionof nominalism Itis argued Yet there was a consensus that a category called 'woman' cannot oppression. betweenthem,in thattheybelievedin the exist - it is fictitious because there are search fundamentals socialcausation, severaldifferences(race, class, etc) that for of i e, both the camps asked the question construct womendifferently. Theyreplace 'whatis the originalor foundingcauseof a politics of agenda with plurality of women'soppression?' by the 1980s difference [Alcoff 1988]. Therefore, But - this consensus had broken up and feministpolitics is completelylost as the 'difference' cameto thecentreof feminist key activitybecomesone of dismantling and anddeconstructing differences the among analysis [Barrett Philips 1992]. Several factors haveplayed constitutive women. Thus using the category of a role in the processes that broughtthe 'difference' feministscameto celebrate of 'difference'tothe centre of the aspects of femininity that were category feministanalyses. Thishasmeant,a focus previously looked down upon or the on language, cultureanddiscourseto the 'differentvoices' of women of different exclusionof political economy,arejection nationalities,races, classes, etc come to of universalism favourof difference, in an be celebrated - i e, their plurality is on human underlinedwithout an analysis of the insistence fluidandfragmented of intersubject rather than collectivities, a structures racism, patriarchies, of celebration the marginal denialof national division of labour and capitaand allcausalanalysis[Wood1996].Thisshift lism. Therefore analysescometo focus all in perspective beenaidedin different on identities, subjectivities and reprehas sentations. ways by the following key factors. At thispoint,it is important takenote The collapse of actually existing to socialismsandthelossof prestige this of thefactthattherehasbeena resurgence that and of aboutfor Marxism the Anglo- of identities theimportance naming in brought that The enormousand thedifferences emergeoutof race,sex Americanacademies. of continued politicalinterrogation white, and so on cannot be denied. But it is to middleclass feminism blackandthird- important underlinethe fact that we by world feminists.This was welcome and don'thaveto accept notions postmodernist hadatonelevelledtomicro-level analyses of 'plurality'or 'difference'in orderto of the complexinterplay different of axes takenote of these differences,i e, to say of inequality.For e g, black feminists that'nodoubt,thenotionof difference did thesex/class of debate the1970s play a significantrole in blackand third questioned that between world women naming their oppression. arguing thecomplex interplay sex, class, race neededto be underlined. But as an analyticaland politicaltool its Butat another level - theseinterrogations value is limited. A shift of focus from tooka morecultural i difference'or 'different voice' to path; e, the 'different 'naming into voices'of black, thatconvert difference Afro-American, Chicana, socialrelations Asianwomen,etc, cameto be celebrated. oppression is imperative for feminist The growinginterestin psychoanalytic politics.We may recallhere the impasse analyseswhichled to 'sexualdifferences' thatblack feministpolitics has landedin and finds an beingviewedas intransigent positive. even as blackfeministliterature for In market. suchasituation, Therefore, instance,feministwritings everexpanding began to celebrate 'motherhood'as a many of the very vocal black feminists positive different experience of being (P H Collins for instance)have in their female.We mustunderline herethatthis recentwritingsmadea shiftto relativism. suitedwell the agendaof the New Right Consider e g, the followingstatement for, whohadsoughtto combinein its ideology "Blackfeminist thoughtrepresents only - values of free market,neo-nationalism a partialperspective...by understanding and conservatism. The rise of post- the perspectivesof many groups,knowstructualism postmodernism the ledge of social realitycan hecome more and and increasingallianceof feminismwith the complete"- [Collins 1990; 234]. Thatis same.This has meantbroadly to takingone thereis an unwillingness privilegeany of the following two positions. one viewpointandCollinsseemsto make of -which a shift /a confusion between generating feminism (i) Position cultural seesfeminists having exclusiveright knowledge from the experience of the as the todescribe evaluate and as knowwomen.Therefore, oppressed opposedto generating of 'passivity' comes to mean peaceful, ledgefromthesubjectivities theoppresmeansnurture, i e, to sed [Mannand Kelly 1997]. etc, sentimentality We shall argue that what we need say the very 'definingof woman' is not challenged only the dominant male insteadis a shiftof focusfrom'difference' definitions of the same come to be andmultiplevoices to the social relations whichconvertdifference oppression. into challenged.

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boththerevolutionary underline potential and inherent contradictions that the for movements constituted democratising class women.While and peasant working movementsareseen these democratising as heralding'class rightsfor women' as orcasteand 'against over' simplyfamilial the related identities; historiesof thenonever so brahman democratic movements, discourseon crucialto the emancipatory caste andgendercome to be overlooked. of This is trueof most of the renderings feministhistoryof moder India;though there notable are 1976, [Omvedt exceptions Patil1982,O'Hanlon 1994,Bhagwat 1990, V Geethal992andChakravarti 1998]. More recent feminist studies have and adopted poststructuralist postmodem in andthishasresulted studies perspectives II dwelling "obsessivelyon the limitations Historicising Difference: Women in of westinspired reform initiatives" [Sarkar Non-Brahman Movement 1997].Mostof the feministstudiesof the History of late colonial India has always latecolonialperiodhavecome to be pre(1989) Chatterjee's by prioritisedIndian nationalism, such that it determined Partha and comes to be assumed that the world of frameof 'ghar/bahar' the nationalist political action and discourse can be resolutionof the women's question.In of theoretical framework the comprehendedonly throughthe categories Chatterjee's of nationalism, imperialism and com- self/other, he introducesa new binary munalism. The radical historio-graphies opposition betweenhome/world, public of colonial India, though they emphasised and privatedomainsand arguesthat the the the autonomous role of peasant, labour nationalist counter-ideology separated and other subaltern groups, equated the domainof cultureinto the materialand The colonised had to learnthe historiographyof colonial India with that spiritual. of of Indian nationalism [Sarkar 1997]. The techniques the westerncivilisationin non-brahmanical re-constructions of the materialsphere while retainingthe essenceof thematerial. spiritual historiography of modern India in the distinctive works of Omvedt ( 1976,1993,1994), Patil These new dichotomies, it is argued (1982) and Alyosius (1997) have under- matchedwith the identityof social roles this the and lined the histories of anti-hierarchical, by gender; during period 'new collective aspirations woman' came to be defined within this pro-democratising of the lower caste masses which are not frameand thereforeas distinctfrom the easily encapsulated within the histories of common/lowerclass female, furtherhe the that anti-colonial nationalism. Infact these argues inthe 19th century, woman's histories have often faced the penalty of questionhad been a centralissue but by being labelled as collaborative and have the early 20th century this question This fromthepublicdomain. thereforebeing ignored in a historiography disappeared which is dominated by narratives of is not becausepoliticalissues take over but becausenationalism refusedto make nationalism. Feminist historiography made radical women's question an issue of political breakthroughs in teasing out the negotiation with the colonial state. in that redefinitions of gender and patriarchies, Chatterjee argues thechanges middle i e, to say in "pullingout the hidden history classwomen'sliveswereoutside arena the and agitation thehomebecame swept under the liberal carpet of reforms" of political which theprincipal of struggle site [Vaid and Sangari 1989]. Feminist through cameto be normalrenderingsof history have been ever since nationalist patriarchy concerned with comprehending the ised. Thus Chatterjee concludesthat the had linkages between reforms and the re- nationalists in theearlydecadesof the alignmentsof patriarchieswith hierarchies century'resolved'the woman'squestion, of caste, class, ethnicity and so on. Vaid all subsequent of reworkings thewomen's and Sangari(l989) make a significant question dalitandworking classwomen, by distinction between the "modernising of thus come to be precluded.The period as patriarchalmodes of regulating women" marked Chatterjee the periodof the by relations" 'resolution women's question';as we of andthe"democratisi of gender ng both at home and the work place. They shall note later - is the very period in
This requiresthe workingout of the cultural and materialdimensions of the interactions and interphases between the different hierarchies of class, gender, race and so on. In otherwords this means transforming 'difference' into a standpoint This is something we shall turn to in the last section of the paper. With these 'lessons to be learnt' from the contemporary political impasse of black feminism, we shall in the next section seek to historically locate the 'difference' of dalit women's voices in their real struggles. A historical reinscription of dalit women's struggles into the historiography of modern India poses majorchallenges for our established understanding of nationalism and the women's question in 19th century India.

which women's participation in the Ambedkarite movement was at its peak. But in Chattejee' s framework,such movements would be dismissed as westerninspired, orientalist, for they utilised aspects of colonial policies and western ideologies as resources [Sarkar 1997]. If 'difference' of dalit women's protest is to be historicised then these protests and struggles must be reinscribed; what has been excluded must be remapped and renamed. One of the most significant counter narratives was Jotiba Phule's project for the liberation of the shudras, anti-shudras and women from the slavery of brahmanism. He conceptualised a Bali Rajya of equality of all men in opposition to Ram Rajya based on Vara Ashrama Dharma, thus reversing the Aryan theory and giving a liberatory vision of history. His contestation of Brahmanical patriarchy stands in contestation with the recasting of patriarchiesby uppercaste brahmanical male reformers. His recognition of the material and sexual consequences of enforced widowhood is apparent in the reformist work done by him. Muktabai (a student in Phule's school) ,in an essay entitled 'About the Girls of Mangs and Mahars' draws attentionto the deprivationof lower castes fromtheirlands, the prohibition of knowledge imposed on them and the complex hierarchieswherein even the lower castes were stratified into more or less polluting. She then compares the experiences of birthing for lower caste and brahmin women, underlining the specificities of experiences of lower caste women [Chakravarti 1998]. Savitribai Phule's letters reveal an acute consciousness of the relationship between knowledge and power and crucial need for democratic access to knowledge for the shudras and women. Tarabai Shinde's 'Stree PurushTulana' (1882), a text against women's subordination was written from within the Satya shodhaktradition.This text launched an attack not only on brahmanical patriarchy but also the patriarchiesamong the 'kunbi' and other non-brahman castes. Going beyond a mere comparisonbetween men and women, Tarabai draws linkages between issues of de-industrialisation, colonialism and the commodification of women's bodies [Bhagwat 1997]. The early decades of the 20th century saw protests by 'muralis' against castebased prostitution in the campaigns launched by Shivram JanobaKamble. The 1930s saw the organisation of independent

by meetingsandconferences dalitwomen in the Ambedkarite movement. This was

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an obvious consequenceof Ambedkar's in 1931. This Resolution postulated practiceof organisinga women's con- freedom, justice, dignity and equality for ferencealongwitheverygeneralmeeting all women as essential for nation-building. and Sabha that he called. In these The political contestations between 'parishads'of the 1930s, dalit women competing political visions of how various delegatespassedresolutions againstchild national subjects would be related to each enforced widowhood dowry; other were thus levelled out. In the postand marriage, thesepractices brahmanical. Ambedkarite phase of the movement, as critiquing Women's participationin the Mahad women's participation marked a decline Satyagraha,their support to the Inde- excepting the major upsurge during the pendentLabourPartyand the Schedule Dadasaheb Gaikwad led struggle for land Caste Federationhave been well docu- rights and the Namaantar movement. mented[MoonandPawar1989].Women However, it must be noted that there are in largenumbers Dharmantaar regional variations in these patterns of supported asaneedfora religion wouldrecognise participation in struggles. A recent study that theirequalstatus.Women'sparticipation by Guru (1998) has drawn attention to the in the Ambedkarite movementmust be sustained organisation of dalit women read in the context of the fact that in through the mahila mandals in Akola Ambedkar's theoryof caste thereis also region. These mandals though primarily a theoryof the originsof sub-ordination organised aroundTrisaranand Panchshil, of womenandthathe saw the two issues sensitise theirmembersto the Ambedkarite as intrinsically linked [Pardeshi1997]. ideology. The dalit women of these region In a reviewof the differentdefinitions have been vocal on the cultural landscape of caste put forth by Nesfield, Risley, in the post-Ambedkerite phase. Their Ketkar others, and Ambedkar pointsto the compositions ('ovi' and 'palana') are rich of caste inadequacy understanding interms in political content, for instance one of the of 'ideaof pollution'.He arguesthat"the ovis reads absenceof intermarriage endogamyis or Maya dari Nib! Nibale Phullera the one characteristic can be called that kotale Zalai(p25) Babasahebanchy Sonaychi the essence of castes"[Ambedkar 1992]. (This ovi suggests that the golden border Thusitis thesuperimposition endogamy of on Ambedkar'ssuit is more preciousthan on exogamy and the means used for the the rose on the suit of Nehru). This juxsamethatholdthekeytotheunderstanding taposingof AmbedkaragainstNehru is a of thecastesystem.Ambedkar draws statementon the political contradictions then a detailedanalysisof how numerical between dalit politics and the politics of up the Congress. units equalitybetweenthe marriageable of the two sexes within the group is A review of all these counter narratives maintained. Thushe arguesthatpractices underlines the fact that the 'difference' or of sati, enforced widowhoodand child 'different voice' of the dalit women is not cometobeprescribed brahma- an issue of identitarian politics; some marriage by nism in orderto regulateandcontrolany 'authentic direct experience' but from a of i transgression boundaries, e, to say he long lived history of lived struggles. Dalit underlines fact that the caste system women play a crucial role in transferring the can be maintained only throughthe con- across generations, the oral repertoireof trols on women's sexuality and in this personalised yet very collective accounts sensewomenarethegatewaysto thecaste of their family's interaction with In 1992:90]. hisspeech Babasaheb or other leaders of the dalit system[Ambedkar at the gathering women at the Mahad movement.The question thatemerges then of he satyagraha, draws linkages between is 'Why is this different voice of the dalit caste exploitation and women's sub- women' inaudible in the two major new ordination underlining this; calls upon social movements of the 1970s, namely by womentocontesttheclaimsof upper caste the dalit movement and the women's? The women's progeny to purity and the next section traces the issue through the damnation that of the lower caste to latterwhile making brief references to the of He impurity. locatesthe specificitiesand former. varying intensities of women's subIII ordinationby caste and thereby draws Masculinisation of Dalithood and theirattention the specificitiesof their to Savarnisation of Womanhood subordination,both as 'dalit' and as 'women' [Pardeshi1997]. The new social movements of the 1970s Thesecontentious non-brahmin images and the early 1980s saw the emergence of of identitiesfor womenhowevercome to several organisations and fronts such as be silenced by the Fundamental Rights the Shramik Mukti Sanghatana, Resolution theIndian of National Congress Satyashodhak Communist Party,Shramik
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Mukti Dal,YuvakKrantiDal - none of whomlimitedthe dalitwomento a token inclusion; theirrevolutionary agenda,in differentways accordedthem a central place. This is howevernot the case with the two othermovementsof the periodthe Dalit Panther and the women's movement;as constitutedmainlyby the left party-based women's frontsand the then emergent autonomous women's groups.The Dalit Panthers made a significant contributionto the cultural revolt of the 1970s - but in both their writingsand theirprogramme the dalit women remainedencapsulated firmlyin therolesofthe 'mother' the'victimised and sexual being'. The Left partybased women's organisations made significant contribution towards economicandwork-related issues as the autonomous women's groups politicisedand made public the issue of violenceagainstwomen.Seriousdebates on class v/s patriarchies emerged,both howeverdidnotaddress issues the parties of brahmanism.While for the former 'caste'wascontained class,forthelatter in the notionof sisterhoodwas pivotal.All womencameto be conceivedas 'victims' and therefore'dalit';so thatwhatresults is a classical exclusion. All 'dalits' are assumed to be males and all women 'savarna'. It may be argued that the categories of experience and personal politicswereatthecoreof theepistemology andpoliticsof theDalitPanther movement and the women's movement. Such a into of positionresulted a universalisation whatwasin realitythemiddleclass,upper castewomen'sexperience orthedalitmale experience. Theautonomous women'sgroups the of early 1980s had remained largely dependenton the left frame even as they emerged as a challenge to it [Omvedt 1993].With the women's movement momentum sharp of gathering critiques mainstream of conceptualisations work, development,legal processand the state emergedandthisled to severaltheoretical andpraxiological reformulations. Debates on class v/s patriarchy, were politically for to enriching boththeparties thedebate. It mustbe underlined thatmostof the here feministgroupsbroadly agreedthatin the Indiancontext,a materialistic framework wasimperative theanalysis women's to of Howeverinkeeping withtheir oppression. rootsin the 'class' framework, therewere effortstodrawcommonalities acrossclass andtoa lesserextent castesorcommunities in [Omvedt 1993]. This is apparent the launched thewomen's major campaigns by movement this The during period. absence

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of an analytical frame that in the tradition of Phule and Ambedkar would view caste hierarchiesandpatriarchiesas intrinsically linked is apparentin the in the anti-dowry, anti-rape and anti-violence struggles of the women's movement. An analysis of the practices of violence against women by caste would reveal that while the incidence of dowry deaths and violent controls and regulations on the mobility and sexuality by the family are frequentamong the dominant uppercastes - dalit women are more likely to face the collective and public threatof rape, sexual assault and physical violence at the work place and in public [Rege 1994]. Consider for e g, the statements issued by women's organisationsduringthe Mathurarapecase. While the NFIW looked at rape in 'class' terms the socialist women in terms of 'glass vessel cracking' and therefore in terms of less of honour; the AIWC sought psychological explanations of the autonomous women's groups highlighted the use of patrtiarchialpower [Akerkar 1995; Kumar 1993]. Looking back at the agitation, it is apparent that the sexual assaults on dalit women in Marathwada during the 'Namaantar' agitation do not become a nodal point for such an agitation, infact they come to be excluded. The campaign therefore becomes more of a single issue campaign. Consider also the campaign against dowry, while the left based women's organisations viewed dowry in terms of the ways in which capitalism was developing in India; the autonomous women's groups focused on the patriarchial power/violence within families [Kumar 1993]. The present practices of dowry cannot be outside the processes of brahmanisation and their impact on marriage practices. That brahmanic ideals led to a preference for dowry marriageis well documented. Infact it is the colonial establishment of the legality of the Brahma form of marriage thatinstitutionalisesandexpandsthe dowry system. The brahmanisingcastes adopted the Brahma form of marriage over the other forms and thereby establishing 'dowry'as an essential ritual [Sheel 1997]. Moreover the principle of endogamy and its coercive and violent perpetuation through collective violence against intercaste alliances areall crucial to the analysis of the dowry question. The relative absence of caste as a category in the feminist discourse on violence has also led to the encapsulation of the Muslim andChristianwomen within the questions of "Talaq'and 'Divorce'.

MuslimOBC Sanghatana have revealed of thepanchayat inthenewknowledge and that encroachment on caste-based making processes (such as Bhanwari throughthe Saathin occupational practices and issues of Devi's intervention educationand employmentare listed as programme) led to increased has backlash crucialissuesby a majority theMuslim against dalit women. The backlash is of a women. expressedthrough rangeof humiliating Thusin retrospect, is clearthatwhile practicesand often culminatesin rapeit to theleftparty-based women's Such organisations orhacking deathof theirkinsmen. underline needfora dialogue the casteintoclass,theautonomous incidents collapsed women's groups collapsed caste into between dalit and feminist activists, relations thelocallevel at sisterhood- both leaving brahmanism since inter-caste The movement has ad- may be mediatedthrougha redefinition unchallenged. dressedissues concerningwomenof the of gendered spaces. Kannabiranand communities and Kannabiran and dalit,tribal minority (1991) have pointedto how and substantial gains have been achievedbut the deadlockbetweenkshatriya dalit a feminist politics centringaroundthe men causedby dalitagricultural labourer com- women "dressingwell" could be solved women of the most marginalised munities couldnotemerge.Thehistoryof only by a decision takenby men of both and of agitations struggles thesecondwave the communities. It was decided that wouldnotbe of the women's movement articulated womenof eithercommunity strong anti-patriarchal positions on allowedto stepintoeachother'slocations. differentissues. Issues of sexualityand The sexual assault on dalit women has for sexual politics - which are crucialfor a beenusedas a commonpractice underfeministpoliticsremained largelywithin miningthe manhoodof the caste. Some that did anindividualistic lifestyle frame. Issues dalitmaleactivists argue inpassing and of sexuality intrinsically linkedtocaste derogatoryremarks about upper caste are dalit and addressalof sexual politics without girls (in incidentssuchas Chanduru) a challenge to brahmanismresults in menwereonlygettingtheirownback.The emancipatoryagenda of the dalit and lifestyle feminisms. and In thepostMandal agitations caste women's movements will have to be the violence at Chunduru and Pimpri sensitiveto theseissues andunderline womenof theupper complex interphasebetween caste and for Deshmukh instance in hierarchies society. as castes were involvedas feministsubjects gender structuring and protesting The demolitionof the Babrimasjidand assertivenon-submissive againstinjusticedone to them as women the series of incidentsthatfollowed and in or (at Chunduru PimpriDeshmukh)and women'sactiveparticipation theHindu as citizens (anti-Mandal).In the anti, Righthas led the women's movementto on Mandal protests young middle class backtrack the demandof the Uniform that womendeclared theywereagainstall Civil Code.The RightWing government the has thosefor inMaharashtra appropriated crucial kindsof reservations (including of and they mournedthe deathof issueof indecent representation women women) that meritandexplicated they wereout to too. The formationof the Agnishikha of save the nation.Their placardssaid 'we Maanchwith its agendaof regulation wantemployedhusbands sexualityand moralityand 'workingmothers'is a case caste became hidden issues as they in point.In the name of saving fromthe as [TharuandNiranjananegative impact of the west the Right protested 'citizens' in 1994]. At Pimpri-Deshmukh Maha- Wing governmenthas launchedpublic rashtra, followingthe hackingto deathof campaigns against glossies and adverand the dalitkotwal(activemobiliserfor the tisements hassoughtto cleanMumbai local Buddha up Vihar)by uppercastemen, by launchinga campaignof rounding thosefoundto and castewomencameoutin public prostitutes segregating theupper issuesareapprothat complaining thedalitmanhadharassed be HIVpositive.Gender them and was sexually perverted. They priated as cultural issues and become All for claimedthattheyhadincitedtheirmento grounds moralregulation. thiscalls of protecttheir honour,thus the agency of for reformulation ourfeministagenda, The castewomenwasinvoked. issue to reclaimour issues and reconceptualiupper alone or singthemsuchthatfeministpoliticsposes was not an issue of molestation one of violence againstdalits alone, but a challenge to their very cross-caste/ one that underlines the complex re- class conceptualisationof brahmanical formulations brahmanical that patriarchies Hindutva. calls Such a re-conceptualisation for a in to collectivedalit undergo order counter from hierarchies resistance. critiqueof brahmanical have Suchcritiques for Theincreasing Recent studies RaziaPatel theTimes visibilityof dalitwomen a genderperspective. by the as or Foundation Vilas Sonawanefor the inpower and structures 'sarpanch member the potentialof translating discourse
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of sexual politics fromindividualnarratives to collective contestations of hierarchies. In the brahmanical social order, castebased division of labour and sexual divisions of labour are intermeshed such that elevation in caste status is preceded by the withdrawal of women of that caste from productive processes outside the privatesphere.Such a linkage derives from presumptions about the accessibility of sexuality of lower caste women because of theirparticipationin social labour.Brahminism in turn locates this as the failure of lower caste men to control the sexuality of their women and underlines this as a justification of theirimpurity.Thus gender ideology legitimises not only structuresof patriarchybut also the very organisation of caste [Liddle andJoshi 1986]. Similarly, drawing upon Ambedkar's analysis of caste, caste ideology (endogamy) is also the very basis of regulation and organisation of women's sexuality. Hence caste determines the division of labour, sexual division of labour and division of sexual labour [Rege 1995]. Hence there exist multiple patriarchies and many of their overlaps and differences are structured. [Sangari 1995]. Brahmanisation has been a two way process of acculturation and assimilation and through history there has been a brahmanical refusal to universalise a single patriarchal mode. Thus the existence of multiple patriarchies is a result of both brahmanicalconspiracy and of the relation of the caste group to the means for production. There are, therefore, according to Sangari (1995), discrete (specific to caste), as well as overlapping patriarchal arrangements. Hence, she argues that women who are sought to be united on the basis of systematic overlapping patriarchies are nevertheless divided on caste, class lines and by their consent to patriarchies and theircompensatory structures.If feminists are to challenge these divisions then mode of organisation and struggles "should emcompass all of the social inequalities that patriarchiesare related to, embedded in and structured by". Does the different voice of dalit women challenge these divisions? In the next section we seek to outline the non-brahmanicalrenderingsof women's liberation in Maharashtra.

The left party-based women's organisations have viewed the emergence of autonomouswomen's organisationsas health" "setting separate up [Moghe1996]. Moghe argues that despite the earlier women's critiquesof the left party-based women's groupsmadeby theautonomous and groups,the context of Hindutva the New EconomicPolicy has broughtboth parties together and the autonomous women'sgroupshadonce againcome to share a common platformwith the left. The subtextof Moghe'sarguments that is autonomyis limiting, and that the dalit women'sautonomous faced organisations the threatof being 'autonomous fromthe masses', in case they did not keep the umbilical relation with the Republican Party.In such a context the efforts, she argued,wouldbe limitedby the focus on the experiences and the intricacies of In of funding. a critique Moghe'sposition, (1995), Bhagwat(1995) arguedthat the and positionwas lackingin self reflexivity thatthe enrichingdialecticsbetweenthe women's left partiesandthe autonomous in had groups beenoverlooked highlighting only one side of the story. To label any new autonomous assertion from the as and marginalised identitarian limitedto she argues,was to overlook experience, the historyof strugglesby groupsto name themselvesand their politics. were about Several apprehensions raised likelihood the Dalit Mahila Sanghatans' of being a predominantly neo-Buddhist women's organisation.Pardeshi(1995) are rightlyarguesthatsuchapprehensions historicallyinsensitiveand overlookthe of historical trajectories thegrowthof the Yet dalit movementin Maharashtra. she neoalso cautionsthat a predominantly Buddhistmiddle class leadershipcould have politicallylimitingconsequences for instance,at many of the proceedings came to brahmanisation of the Parishad; within a narrowframeof be understood of and non-practice Trisaran Panchasheel. Sucha framecould limittheparticipation by women of middle castes. Thereareasof today,atleastthreemajor positionsthat contestingandoverlapping have emerged from the struggles and politicsof dalitwomen.Oneof theearliest and well definedpositionis the Marxist/ Phule-Ambedkarite position of the IV SatyashodakMahila Sabha. (For more Non-Brahmanical Rendering of detailssee Patil(1994) andthe manifesto Women's Liberation Communist of the Satyashodhak Party.) A position emergingout of the dalitIn the 1990s, there were several bahujanalliance is that of the Bahujan independent and autonomous assertions Mahila Mahasangh (BMM) which of dalit women's identity; a case in point tradition of is theformation theNational Federation women's organisations and also their critiquesthe vedic, brahmanical and seeks to revive the Bahujantradtion of Dalit Womenand the All IndiaDalit epistemologicalstandpoints.
Women's Forum. At the state level, the Dalit Mahila Sanghatanawas Maharashtra formedin 1995, a yearearlier, the women's wing of the BhartiyaRepublicanPartyand the Bahujari Mahila Sangh had organised the BahujanMahilaParishad.In a historical happening, in December 1996, at Chandrapur a 'Vikas Vanchit Dalit Mahila Parishad' was organised and a proposal for commemorating December 25 (the day Ambedkar set the Manusmriti on flames) as Bharatiya Streemukti Divas was put forth. In 1997 the Christi Mahila SangharshSanghatana,an organisation of dalit Christianwomen was founded. These different organisations have put forth varying non-brahmanical ideological positions and yet have come together on several issues such as the issue of Bharatiya Shreemukti Divas and the issue of reservations for OBC women in parlimentary bodies. The emergence of autonomous dalit women's organisation led to a major debate; set rolling by the essay 'Dalit Women Talk Differently' [Guru 1995]. A series of discussions aroundthe paperwere organised in Pune by different feminist groups. A two-day seminar on the same was organised by Alochana - Centre for research and Documentation on Women in June 1996. Subsequently there weretwo significant responses to the emergence of autonomous dalit women's organisations;one by KiranMoghe of theJanwadi Mahila Sanghatanaandthe otherby Vidyut Bhagwat argued out the different issues at stake. Guru (1995) had argued that to understand the dalit women's need to talk differently, it was necessary to delineate both internalandexternal factors thathave a bearing on this phenomenon. He locates their need to talk differently in a discourse of descent against the middle class women's movement by the dalit men and the moral economy of the peasant movements. It is a note of dissent, he argues, against their exclusion from both the political and culturalarena.It is further underlinedthat social location determines the perception of reality and therefore representationof dalit women's issues by non-dalit women was less valid and less authentic (p 2549). Though Guru's argument is well taken and we agree that dalit women must name the difference, to privilege knowledge claims on the basis of direct experience on claims of authenticity may lead to a narrowidentitypolitics. Such a narrow frame may in fact limit the emancipatory potential of the dalit WS-44 Economic and Political Weekly October 31, 1998

of the 'Adimaya'. The secular position is critiqued as brahmanical and individualisticandtheAmbedkariteconceptualisation of Dhamma in community life is underlined. The Common civil codes is opposed and customary law and community based justice is upheld. Significantly the BMM seeks to combine both the struggles for political power and a cultural revolution in order to revive and extend the culture of Bahujans [Thakur 19961. Such a position is crucial in order to problematisethe dominant brahmanical culture and thereby underline the materiality of culture. Yet it faces the danger of glorifying Bahujan familial and community practices, any traces of patriarchal power therein are acquitted at once by of viewing,them as a resuItant the processes of brahmanisation. The Dalit Mahila Sanghatana has critiquedthe persistence of the 'Manuvadi Sanskriti' among the dalit male who otherwise traces his lineage to a Phule Ambedkarite ideology. The Sanghatana proposes to put forth its manifesto -at the centre of which would be the most dalit of dalit women IPawade 1996]. The Christi Mahila Sangharsh Sanghatana is a dalit Christian women's organisation. In the initial meetings the loss of traditional occupations of the converts, their transfer to the service sector, the hierarchiesamong the Christians by caste and region and the countering of oppositional forces led by the church and state level Christian organisations came to be debated [Bhakre 19971. These non-brahmanical renderings of feminist politics have led to some selfreflexivity among the autonomous women's groups and theirresponses could be broadly categorised as (a) a nondialectical position of those who grantthat historically it is now important that dalit women take the leadership but they do not revision a non-brahmanical feminist politics for themselves, (b) the left position thatcollapses caste into class andcontinues to question the distinct materialityof caste and who have registered a note of dissent on the declaration of December 25 as Bharatiya Streemukti Divas, (c) a self reflexive position of those autonomous women's groups who recognise the need to reformulate revision feminist politics and for the non-brahmanical renderings are viewed as more emancipatory. To go hack to where we began this paper, namely. the issue of difference. It is apparent that the issues underlined by the new dalit women's movement go beyond naming of the 'difference' of dalit women and calls for a revolutionary

epistemologicalshift to a dalit feminist avoids the narrow alley of direct experience based 'authenticity' and narrow [see Harding1991]. standpoint The intellectual history of feminist 'identity politics'. For many of us nonstandpoint theorymaybe tracedto Marx, dalit feminists, such a standpoint is more Engels and Lukacs insights into the emancipatory in that it rejects more standpointof the proletariat.A social completely the relations of rule in which historyof standpoint theory focuses on we participated (i e, the brahmanical, whathappens whenmarginalised peoples middle class biases of earlier feminist beginto gain publicvoice. The failureof standpoints are interrogated). Thus adopdominant groups to critically and ting a dalit feminist standpoint position systematically interrogate theiradvantaged means sometimes losing, sometimes situation leaves their social situation revisioning the 'voice' thatwe as feminists scientifically and epistemologically a had gained in the 1980s. This process, we disadvantaged one for generating believe is one of transforming individual knowledge[Grant1993]. Such accounts feminists into oppositional and collective may end up legitimating exploitative subjects. 'practical politics'even thoughthey may [This paper was first presentedat a seminaron have good intention. A dalit feminist dalit visions organised by the Vikas Adhayayan is since Kendra In Pune in March 1998.] standpoint seen as emancipatory the subjectof its knowledgeis embodied References and visible (i e, the thoughtbegins from the lives of dalit women and these lives Ahmad, A (1996): 'The Politics of Literary arepresent visiblein theresultsof the and Postcoloniality' in P Mongia (ed). ContemporaryPostcolonial Theory, OUP. New thought).This position argues that it is Delhi. more emancipatory than other existing Alyosius, G (1997): Nationalismwithouta Nation positions and counters pluralism and In India, OUP, New Delhi. relativism whichall knowledgebased Ambedkar, B R (1982-90): Castes in India, by andpolitical claimsarethought be valid to Speeches and Writings (of Dr Bahasaheb Ambedkar, Vol I, Government of Mahain theirown way. It places emphasison rashtra,Bombay. individual experiences within socially constructedgroups and focuses on the Akerkar, S (1995): 'Theory and Practice of Women's Movementin India',Economicand structural hierarchical, changing multiple, Political Weekly, Vol XXX. No 17. WS-2-24. power relationsof caste, class, ethnic, Bhakre, N (1997): 'Punyatil Christi Samajik whichconstruct a group. is obvious such It Sanghatanaaani church hyanche Lingabhav that the subject/agent dalit women's of VishayakDrishtikon',WomenStudiesCentre. Pune University (mimeo). is even standpoint multiple, heterogeneous i e, thatthe category'dalit Bannerji, H, S Mojab and J Whitehead (eds) contradictory, (forthcoming): Property and Propriety: woman' is not homogemous- such a n Gender and Class in Imnperialis.and Nationalisms. recognitionunderlinesthe fact that the subject of dalit feminist liberatory Barrett,M and A Phillips (eds) (1992): Destabilising Theory, Polity Press, Cambridge. knowledgemust also be the subject of every other liberatoryproject and this Bhagwat, V (1990): KanishthaJathinchi Calval aani Jotirao Phule, June, pp 80-86. a requires sharpfocuson theprocessesby - (1996):Maharashtra Times,Mumbai, Septetiber whichgender,race,class, caste,sexuality 15. - all construct each other.Thuswe agree - ( 1997):Maharashtrachya Itihaasachya Snamajik thatthe dalit feministstandpoint itself is Dishene, Women's Studies Centre, Pune University. open to liberatory interrogationsand Chakravarti,U (1998): Rewriting History: The revisions. Life and Timesof Pandita Ramabai.Kali for The dalit feminist standpointwhich Women, New Delhi. and emergesfromthe practices struggles Chatterjee, 1989):TheNatlonauld/tsFragmenlts: P( of dalit woman, we recognise, may Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. OUP, Bombay. originatein the works of dalit feminist if intellectuals itcannot but flourish isolated Chatterjee,P (1989): 'Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question' in Vaid and Sangari fromthe experiencesand ideas of other (eds), Recasting Women:Essays in Colonial whomust educate themselves about groups History, Kali, New Delhi. socialrelations Collins, P H (1990): Black Feminist Thought: thehistories, preferred the and utopias and the struggles of the KnowledgeConsciousnessand the Politics of A transformation 'their from Empowerment,Urwin, Boston. nmarginalised. cause' to 'our cause' is possible for - (1986): 'Learning from the OutsiderWithin', Social Problems, 33: 14:32 can subjectivities be transformed. this By Political Analysis we do not arguethatnon-dalitfeminists Joseph, S (1991): 'CultureandVol Nos in India', Social Scientist, 19, 9-10, can 'speakas' or 'forthe'dalitwomenbut October-November. can 'reinventthemselves as dalit Grant, J (1993): Fundamental Feminism, they feminists'. Such a position, therefore Routledge, New York.
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