scholarly journals Classism, Casteism and Sexism a Curse in the Life of Dalit Women: A Social and Literary Analysis

Author(s):  
Ambreen Safdar Kharbe

Class, caste and, gender systems prevail since ancient times in society. Lot has been said and studied about it but yet society is not free from these stigmas. The division of society on the basis of class, caste, and gender has hindered the progress of society at the same time has treated the lowest castes also known as Dalits or former ‘Untouchables’ as underdogs and have tremendously ill-treated this section in the society. The mainstream has made them marginalized and unheard. Dalit women are triple victims and are the most sufferers in Indian community. Though the Indian Constitution talks about equality, freedom, and justice to all Indian Citizens, irrespective of caste, class, creed, religion, and sex there are many who are not privileged for the same. This research paper focuses on the understanding of class and caste system with addition to Dalit women as the triple victim of class, caste, and gender with the background of social structure in India and Dalit and Non-Dalit writers unveiling their plight and sufferings. Select works of major writers such as Mulk Raj Anand, Munshi Premchand, Mahasweta Devi, Urmila Pawar, will be considered for this research. The research makes the unheard voice of Dalit women reach the masses and ignite the spark of justice and respect for them in society.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
Tanvi Yadav

Abstract The Caste system is a social reality in India, despite the Constitutional rights of equality, protection from discrimination, and the ban on untouchability, the discrimination against Dalit communities or Schedule Castes, still persists. Outside the caste and within the caste, Dalit women are placed at the very bottom in gender hierarchy, which caused double discrimination based on caste-and-gender, and violence against Dalit women. Declaring a Dalit woman as Witch, accuse her of witchcraft and persecute her as witch-hunting, is one of the most common weapons, in a patriarchal society of rural India, to maintain the suppression against Dalit women. Grabbing property, political jealousy and personal conflicts, getting sexual benefits or settling the old scores have been found the most common reasons to declare a woman as a witch and most of the victims are notices as single, old or widow. Victims of witch-hunting face physical, economic and cultural violence from social exclusion to burning alive. This paper analyses the violence against Dalit women in the form of witch-hunting and the failures of legal mechanism and judicial institutions in eradicating the menace of witch-hunting.



Divisiveness among humans is so inherent, rampant and intuitive that none would find it easy to escape the oppression resulting from this man-made setback. The Human psyche covets to rule, master and exploit its power over others; and this is the core and the most intimate cause of all intolerance and oppression in our world, whatever label one wants to bracket then under, say, caste, creed, race, gender or faith. This paper titled, Grapple for Equality: A Critical Analysis of Caste and Gender Discrimination in Bama’s Vanmam (Vendetta) is an attempt to identify the gender inequality and sexual violence among Dalit women exposed by the author. The main themes of the Dalit writings in India usually centre on subjects like social disability, caste system, economic inequality, contemporary cruelties and cultural assertion that have been uniquely entitled ‘the struggle for identity’. Bama, one of the renowned Tamil Dalit woman writers, dwells on the themes of caste and gender discrimination in most of her novels. The novel Vanmam mainly focuses on Dalit women, highlighting how they are subjected to social discriminations of multiple sorts.



2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
Anandita Pan

This essay is concerned with ‘Dalit woman’ as a category constructed through the intersection of caste and gender. It contends that in their effort to present ‘woman’ and ‘Dalit’ as two distinct and unitary groups, mainstream Indian feminism and Dalit politics treat caste and gender as mutually exclusive. As a result, Dalit women and their issues are either ignored, or they are assimilated separately within ‘women’ or ‘Dalits’. This article proposes that mutation, as an interventionist theoretical tool, can become useful in posing ‘Dalit woman’ as a new social organism. Taking P. Sivakami’s autobiography, The Grip of Change (2006), as a case study, this article investigates the contours of ‘Dalit woman’ as a mutable category built in contradistinction to ‘woman’ in mainstream Indian feminism (wherein gender becomes the exclusive analytical structure) and ‘Dalit’ in Dalit politics (which sees caste system at the core of their oppression). Since this study investigates identity construction of ‘Dalit woman’, the exploration of the homogeneous representations of ‘woman’ and ‘Dalit’ primarily draws from autobiographical narratives.



2021 ◽  
pp. 2455328X2110093
Author(s):  
Tahira Tashneem

As one of the major pillars of Indian social structure, the caste system distinguishes Indian culture from all other cultures of the world. Though the Constitution of India assures equality of status and opportunity for all citizens and various academic and political discourses also appealed for the complete eradication of the caste system, it has not been eradicated even after five decades of democracy. In this context, it becomes really interesting to re-examine the views on caste as reflected in Jawaharlal Nehru’s prose writings. Nehru’s major prose works unquestionably delineate his concern for caste. Focusing mainly on An Autobiography and the Discovery of India, this article seeks to examine the different representations of caste in his prose works and will also try to locate the gaps and the shifts underlying his views on caste.





1975 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Af Edholm

The myth of the recurrence of the golden age after a period of accelerating miseries ("messianic woes") in the near future is of course not peculiar to the chiliasm of the European later middle ages. On the contrary, it belongs to the basic eschatological themes of millenarism in general. These themes are found also in Hindu tradition. To determine those general characteristics of traditional Hindu society which can contribute to an explanation of the relative unimportance of peasant rebellions and the lack of chiliastic mass movements, is not a problem to be solved within the field of the history of religions.  For example, the egalitarian message of the bhakti saints, disputing the hierarchy, did not preclude that the salvationist sects did adapt to the caste system. The religious movements contributed to and gave ideological form to adjustments within the existing social structure. Obviously there was little need for millenarism in this process.  



2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Poonam Singh

The paper attempts to project Bhim Rao Ambedkar as one of the foremost liberal feminists who advocated for Hindu women’s legal rights through the constitutional provisions listed in the Hindu Code Bill. He proposed four major stipulations, “one change is that, the widow, the daughter, the widow of predeceased-son. All are given the same rank as the son in the matter of inheritance. In addition to that, the daughter is also given a share in her father’s property: her share is prescribed as half of that of the son.”[1] To contemplate the predicament and marginalized position of Indian women, Ambedkar posited that caste and gender are intertwined. The imposition of endogamy was made compulsory by Brahaminical hierarchy which eulogized by Hindu religious scriptures to ensure sustained subjectivity of women, which eventually depreciated the egalitarian position of women. The focal point of the research paper remains a close textual analysis of Ambedkarite canon with archival study and genealogical examination contouring the discourse. The paper also encompasses potent reasons to establish the differences between the marginalization of upper-caste women and Dalit women. Difference between them is maintained by the ‘graded inequality.’ After having observed such differences, the paper intends to extend the idea that Ambedkar worked as a socio-political champion for Dalit women and Indian women concomitantly. To guarantee the freedom, equality, and individuality of Indian women, Ambedkar resorted to legalized mechanism and constitutional provisions. Key Words: Ambedkar, Hindu Code Bill, Manusmriti, Indian Women, Dalit Women, Indian Feminism, Caste, Patriarchy



2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Zoi Arvanitidou

The Ballroom scene is an underground subculture created by African Americans and Latinos and gives emphasize in issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation within the heterogeneous society. The members of this subculture live in an organized social structure based on the acceptance and the celebration of sexual and gender expression. Balls are competitions where transgender people are involved, performing different kinds of dances. Balls provide to the queer community a cozy place to build their sense of self in their hidden world without the limitations imposed by society on gender and sexual expression. Balls are a combination of fashion, competition, and dance. “Voguing” is the characteristic dance of Balls and it is an extremely stylized dance form. Vogue magazine’s model poses to inspire it, and it uses the arms and legs with dramatic, rapid and feminine edgy ways. “Voguing” includes catwalk, dance, spins and other risky styles of movement. The “Voguing” has the major role in Ballrooms that contain fashion catwalk and competitions, where African and Latinos gays and transgender participate in a competition, imitating fashion models in the catwalk with gestures and poses to win an award. The panel of the critics, in a Ball, judges them from the movements of their dance, attitudes, costumes and the ingenuity in all of these areas. Today there are three basic types of Voguing: a) the Old Way, b) The New Way and, c) The Vogue Femme.



Author(s):  
Neetika Mehta

By creating a robust intellectual property structure, a high-quality job future can be secured and sustained. Therefore, promotion to innovation/invention requires adequate protection. The multinational giant Colgate- Palmolive can be seen caught up into legal dispute where accusation is over the company for having purloined an archaic formula to have its roots to ancient times, and also being used by Indians for generations. India foiled an attempt by consumer goods giant Colgate-Palmolive to patent a mouthwash formula containing herb extract by citing ancient texts that show it was traditionally used in ancient medicinal practices. Traditional Knowledge Digital Library of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR-TKDL) had submitted proof in the form of references from ancient books, which said the herb and its extracts in Indian systems of medicine. The proactivness of Indian community to safeguard its traditional knowledge obstructed the profit-making strategy of the company.



Author(s):  
Rachana Johri

Globalizing cities in India offer the promise of escape from caste- and gender-based identities, but those who make the journey often encounter difficulties, including the fragmentation of their home experience, and even violence once they get to the city. Lower-middle-class girls are seen as a challenge to ideals of chaste Indian womanhood, while Dalit boys and girls are challenging dominant ideals in Brahmanical India by questioning the nation state and its inherited ideals, including the caste system. This paper draws on cinematic and lived narratives to argue that cities in India are characterized by highly contested spaces, bodily practices, and technologies of the self, where the body of the city, and bodies in the city, are the lived realities of these tense negotiations.



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