Abstract

Politics in India revolves around caste, gender, religion and ethnicity. Even after independence, communities and collective identities have remained powerful and continue to demand recognition. This demand for recognition of difference should not be misconstrued as a demand for inclusion and respect alone. Considering the historical position of certain communities and groups, Dalit and Adivasi women especially need a distinct recognition both in the realms of theory and practice. This paper attempts to highlight the differences between Dalit and Adivasi women’s assertion and their participation in democratizing society. An attempt has been made to provide an overall understanding of the transformation from a historical paradigm to a political paradigm of the Dalit and Adivasi women based on lived experience of women from the community.

Introduction

The non-privileged sections, especially Dalits and Adivasis have had a long history of struggles against dominant formulated stereotypes. They have challenged ‘imposed’ identities and have reconstructed their own, alternative identities and concomitant political categories for their advancement. Within these contestations ‘dignity of self’ became an outcry to challenge the nature of existing social control. In the past decades, dilution of ideological content towards emancipation has taken place at the national, regional and local level – especially in the socio economic domain. The Dalit and Adivasi women’s movement has come under tremendous strain and face numerous difficulties.

The content of this paper is drawn from proceedings of the first National Dalit and Adivasi Women’s Congress held at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai) whose participants came from across the country representing multi-disciplinary fields such as activists, bureaucrats, academicians, researchers, professionals and students. In my own meaning-making process, I have culled out from the proceedings what I felt was important for me to engage more deeply with; based on the varied dialogues that took place in the Congress among Dalit, Adivasi, Nomadic Tribe/De Notified Tribe and Other Backward Class women who engaged in finding and articulating common agendas, perspectives, struggles, experiences and theory building. Consequently, this paper focuses mainly on the dialogues pertaining to the first session of the Congress, themed ‘Dalit and Adivasi Women’s Movement: History and Politics’ which was further structured into three subthemes (i) Tribal Women Activism: The Struggles Against Exploitation & Marginalization of Tribal Communities, (ii) Presence of Dalit & Adivasi Women in Public Sphere: A Case of Political Parties and (iii) Thoughts of Ambedkar, Phule and Shahu: Experiences of Working on Atrocities Against Dalit Women. Three very prominent speakers Dayamani Barla, Sivakami and Manisha Tokale spoke extensively on these themes.

Context

There are differences among Dalit and Adivasi women in India. The life of Adivasi women is linked to natural resources and forest giving rise to a notion of livelihood. Dalit women on the other hand are still bound by caste based occupational duties. However both Dalit and Adivasi are facing extremely horrendous atrocities. Dalits and Adivasis constitute the most marginalised groups in India today. The Dalits are treated as untouchables and outcaste and Adivasis as primitive and uncivilized. It is believed that emancipating them from the clutches of such traditional bondage is the first step towards empowerment. Simply put, they have to be treated as human beings on par with others in a supposedly civilized cultured modern society. Even then Dalits and Adivasis are subjected to systematic human rights violation on the basis of caste-based discrimination and civilizational subjugation respectively. This discrimination impinges their civil, political, religious, socio-economic and cultural rights and their right to freedom of choice to develop as individuals. Discrimination runs in schools, colleges and livelihood in domains across economic, social, religious, political and cultural context contributing greatly to the backwardness of the communities. They are considered the most marginalized and are subject to all types of discrimination and atrocities. While endogenous efforts for emancipation are present, they remained at the lowest ladder of development.

While the position of Dalits and Adivasis as a community remains marginalised, it is important to comprehend the realities of women within these communities. The social, civil, political, economic and cultural rights with respect to the status of women, relatively receives minimal or no attention at all. The National Dalit and Adivasi women’s congress paved the way for women from these communities to discuss on pertinent issues relying basically on their own knowledge and perspectives and essentially on their own terms.

The Dalit and Adivasi movements have played a vital role in helping to galvanize and formulate collective identity and a collective assertion process. However the pivotal historical and political role of Dalit and Adivasi women is located in the overarching Dalit and Adivasi narratives. Like the larger patriarchal narratives that have relegated women’s issues to the margins, the history and politics of Dalit and Adivasi women has also been ignored and neglected. Since these issues are not discussed prominently in public spaces, they gradually diminished in importance and receive no attention from the community at large.

Rivisiting Dayamani Barla on ‘Struggles against Exploitation & Marginalization of Adivasi Communities

Most of the adivasi/tribal movements were a result of oppression and discrimination, neglect and backwardness and apathy of government towards adivasi/tribal problems. In these movements 50-60 per cent women participated to protect their land and identity. But this factual data is never found in history because it was unwritten and mainstream media always tries to portray a different image of the history of Adivasi movements. However, today many women leaders are emerging from the Dalit and Adivasi community. From the Munda community Dayamani Barla a women journalist, started writing about the Adivasi struggle, issues, language, culture and identity in the newspapers. The main idea of her writings is that until Adivasi people use the weapon of writing for the development of the community, the prejudice ridden mainstream media will continue to use this weapon against the Adivasi community. Her views about tribal women included not only those from Adivasi women perspective but also from the Dalit women perspective.

Dayamani Barla opines that during the independence struggle, Adivasis were the first who started their struggle against the British, when M.K Gandhi was not even born. Between 1700 and 1800 in the Adivasi regions of Chota Nagpur, Sindra Bindra, Birsa Munda, and in Santhal Pargana – Sidho Kanho, Tilka Manjhi were leading struggles against outsider occupation. Agitation by Sidho Kanho, Sindra Bindra, Birsa Munda are known to many people, but the women who have stood with them have remained invisible. Phulo and Jhano who are sisters of Sidho Kanho, Maki with Birsa Munda and Devmani Rana- Rana Bhagats wife also stood bravely against the invaders. Besides this there was also continuous humiliation of the Dalit community; because of the nature of the problem and perspective of the people, it is indeed on rare occasions that the different perspectives from Dalit and Adivasi community come together. Though there has been no direct collective movement of Dalits and Adivasis together, however there has always been a connection between them from the beginning of British Rule in India. An unknown part of history is that Dalit and Adivasi women walked with men equally opposing the oppressors. History indicates the contribution of women through agitations to protect water, forest and land in Jharkhand during British Rule. Nearly 60 -70 per cent of those who participated in these agitations were women.

Post Indian independence the adivasi struggles has been characterized as formulated around (i) exploitation of natural resources by outsiders, (ii) economic deprivation and (iii) separatist tendency. Another categorization of the adivasi/tribal movements is conceived according to the difference in orientation. Based on orientation, the movements are divided into (i)movements for separate state or political autonomy, (ii) agrarian movement, (iii) forest based movement- to safeguard their resources and (iv) socio- religious movements or movement for recognition of cultural identity.

She argues that the struggle of the Adivasi community is always interlinked with the struggle for water, forest, land and their culture, traditions and customs, which are in turn always correlated with nature. Forest land and its resources provide the best means of livelihood for the adivasi people and many adivasi/tribes including women engage in agriculture, food gathering and hunting. Their survival and identity is dependent on forest produce. Therefore when outsiders exploit the adivasi/tribal land and its resources, the natural life cycle of tribal ecology and life is greatly disturbed. Adivasi communities settled their villages within forests, inter-linking their life and livelihood closely around nature. The forests are their only world. This insidious process carried on from ancestors to the present community. However this fact did not reach the other mainstream people and thus Adivasi history, being unwritten, became a mysterious affair for others.

She believes strongly that the betterment of Dalit and Adivasi community can be achieved through political activism which plays a vital role in deconstructing and thus lay bare the fundamental problems of the society that then could be corrected. Such struggles she argued have brought the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. However even though one has attained much she questions whether Adivasis and Dalits possess any ownership over land? And whether they hold right to live with dignity? Her answer is an emphatic ‘No’. She argued that the Government of Jharkhand has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 107 companies. In these MoUs, a single company has demanded nearly 12000 to 20000 hectares of land for steel plant. Among those 107 companies, 98% of them are mining companies. By her calculations, if this is going to be scenario there won’t single piece of land for the Adivasis and Dalits. Each and every place would be occupied by factories and dams. It is also utter misery to note that people who are challenging such marginalization process and are protesting against the government to stop the mining in the adivasi/tribal land the government’s answer would be, “do you want Jharkhand to be developed or not?”. She related that in Jharkhand, in the name of ‘development’ out of two crore Jharkhandi, 80 per cent of Dalit and Adivasis have been displaced from their home and no one knows where they have gone. At the pace at which displacement is happening in the whole state and country Adivasi population are being totally destroyed. Such processes are taking place in the adivasi/tribal community and it is because of people’s vocal resistance and the unwilling spirit not to compromise that has somewhat reduced the intensity of appropriation.

She argued that all the people need development but the people who are implementing do not have a proper vision towards inclusive and sustainable development. Their very conception of development is characterized by an utter destruction of everything natural. The government seems hell bent on exploiting adivasi/tribal land and natural resources paying no attention to the utter destruction of adivasi realities and livelihoods in the process.

Rivisiting Manisha Tokale on ‘Experiences of Working on Atrocities against Dalit Women

The progressive ideas and work of Savitrimai and Mahatma Jotiba Phule were revolutionary considering the fact that they belonged to an era where Brahminism dominated every sphere of social life. Manisha Tokale, a vocal advocate of women’s rights and Dalit rights in Maharashtra while speaking at the congress related a story. She stated that when she was in college, she asked her friends whether they knew Savitrimai. Their friends replied that they knew her well. However it was revealed later that they thought it was Satyawan’s Savitri. Ever since childhood, she argued, my friends were socialised into becoming Satyawan’s Savitri. There is rarely a case where girl students have been taught about real women leaders who stood up against injustice and wrong. This became one of the incidents that convinced Manisha the need to start learning and talking about Savitrimai and her works.

The work of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Dnyanjyoti Savitribai Phule in the field of women’s education are landmarks in the annals of India’s cultural history. Savitrimai had understood the importance of education and through her own work moved against the tide of age-old orthodox religious traditions and practices. They stood for eradication of the caste system and widow remarriage in an age when it was unthinkable to do so. Many reprehensible practices prevailed during her period. Girls who were raped, widowed, abandoned or unwed mother were penalized and look down at by society at large. It was situations like these that Savitrimai stood up against and provided alternatives. She would move around and hang banners in the village which read ‘whoever is in pain, abandoned and pregnant can be taken care of’ and she would give her house address for the same. This work in that day and age was nothing short of radical in nature, and it was such acts by Savitrimai that exclusionary practices have gradually reduced in society and especially in relation to Dalit women.

Mahatma Phule and Savitrimai’s work was a search for truth. They searched the truth and stayed committed to walking the path towards truth. This gave birth to a movement known as Satyashodhak. This movement was aimed at unshackling the Shudra and Untouchable castes from extreme exploitation and oppression. Mahatma Phule persistently condemned illegal practices through his writings and activism and opposed Hinduism and the privileged status of priests in it. He openly condemned inequality sanctioned in the religious texts, the orthodox nature of religion, exploitation of masses by the means of it, blind and misleading rituals and hypocrisy prevalent in it. While confronting the above, Phule established Satya Shodhak Samaj with the ideals of human well-being, human happiness, unity, equality and easy religious principles and rituals. History records that the Brahmins felt that their livelihood had been snatched away from them, so they filed cases against Savitrimai for performing marriage ceremonies carried out under Satya Shodhak.

While making another case for acts of heroism and resistance of Savitrimai, Manisha stated that in relation to another ritual followed in India which relates to the carrying of an earthen pot in order to make the soul rest in peace by the heir of the family after the death of the person in which a male member of the family have to light up the fire, in the case of Savitrimai, she herself lit the the funeral pyre of Jyotiba Phule. This was a radical act by a woman challenging fundamental dogmas and religious ritual. Ironically, history makes no mention of these heroic acts by Savitrimai.

Manisha Tokale further touched upon the subject of honor killings which she argued as being another dangerous phenomenon prevalent in Indian society. An honour killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to a belief of the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community. Honor killings are directed mostly against women and girls. The law falls short of protecting couples who enter into inter-caste marriages as there is no separate provision in the law. While on the subject she argued that Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s perspective on relationship between husband and wife was a totally new concept. Babasaheb pointed out that whatever traditions and customs are imposed on women by society were stigmatized and were followed without introspection. Before imposing such stigmatization on women, people need to introspect on grounds of humanity and not pressurizing women to follow all the rituals.

The courageous act done by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar on 25th December is one of the most memorable days in the history of Dalit movement. In 1927, thousands of Dalits, among which large number of women supporters and other like-minded people gathered at Mahad to burn the Manusmriti. This act challenged the very ethos of religious text that were especially damning to women. While greatly symbolic yet the sanction that such a text gives to society in relation to treatment of women that reads: …One should not accept meals from a family exclusively dominated/ managed by women (Chapter 4 Verse 217) …Girls are supposed to be in the custody of fathers when they are children, women must be under the custody of their husbands when married and under the custody of their sons as widows. In no circumstances is she allowed to assert herself independently (chapter 5 verse 151) …Men may be lacking virtue, be sexual perverts, immoral and devoid of any good qualities, and yet women must constantly worship and serve their husbands (chapter 5 verse 157) …Women have no divine right to perform any religious ritual, nor make vows or observe a fast. Her only duty is to obey and please her husband (Chapter 5 verse 158) …was nothing short of revolutionary. Such notorious and barbaric religious text was whole heartedly rejected by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and the Dalit people. The Hindu Code Bill drafted by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar argued for fundamental rights to women in subjects such as property rights, divorce rights, remarriage right and right to inter-caste marriage. The basis on which these rights were created was the Constitution of India. However, whether in effect these rights have have been helpful or even implemented is a major question? Further, it is unknown as to how far many of the special laws created to benefit women actually are of use to Dalit and Adivasi women.

Manisha Tokale emphasized the imperative of Dalit and Adivasi Women’s unity and stated ‘Dalit and Adivasi women need to fight against the caste system and patriarchal institutions together. If we fight separately then we would not win. It is only when we fight taking these issues together will we attain complete liberation”.

Revisiting Sivakami on ‘Presence of Dalit & Adivasi Women in the Public Sphere’

Sivagami, while speaking on the ‘Presence of Dalit and Adivasi women in Public Sphere’, argued that the public sphere if conceived as a forum where some possibility of social contestations exist, then for Dalits, it could be characterized as being located into three important spheres; (i) Dalit women in panchayats, (ii) Dalit women in bureaucracy and (iii) Dalit women in political parties.

Panchayati Raj operates in a three tier system. Consequently, Dalit women get placed in three layers since reservation is available for them separately. The testimonials from Panchayat women presidents, counselors, ward members etc. reveals that most of them are merely proxies for dominant caste or proxies for their husbands or male members of their household. Some women also gain personal dividends as it is seen that they become ‘marginally richer’ by shaping their personality as per needs of the dominant. Sivakami argued that Panchayati Raj as of today is an unjust and unfair system and earlier even Dr. Ambedkar had identified ‘villages are like corporation toilets where there is utter darkness and where caste rules and you can’t get justice in villages’. The operationalization of the Panchayati Raj concept can be classified further more according to the power structure: from the centre to the state, state to the district, district to the block and block to the village. At the grass root level, there is an important feature that operates in villages till date; these are parallel villages or a village within the village which may termed in Tamil as ‘Cheri’ and ‘Harijan basti’ in Hindi. Panchayati Raj states that a minimum of 500 people is sufficient to have a Gram Sabha, but there are many villages which have Dalit habitations of 2000 to 3000 people but does not have recognition to be one. Systematically and through ingenious ways the caste Hindus demarcate villages in such a manner that the Harijan Basti is split into two or three units and clubbed with the next adjoining Caste Hindu villages that is then formed into a Panchayat. So they see to it that in each Panchayat the Dalits constitutes a minority and therefore cannot act independently. Sivagami therefore put forth the idea that, “instead of aspiring to become a part of the Panchayati Raj, people should oppose Panchayati Raj. If Panchayati Raj has to stay, it should be separate for Dalits not because I want it to be so but because in the present state, it is being mismanaged. Geographically the Harijan basti is located far away from the caste Hindu village. Why then should Dalits thrust unity at the cost of freedom just in order to create goodwill and a congenial environment within the village as well as within the Harijan basti?” Budgets of the Gram Panchayats consist of 29 items of expenditure and out of these only four relates to Dalits. The expenditure includes repairing temples, ponds, main roads and creation of a commercial complex in the village where the small petty shops could be housed, social forestry etc. The four items are spent from the main expenditure heads like SC/ST welfare, child health, noon meal centre etc. Only a marginal amount from the entire budget is actually allocated to Dalits. This, she opines is nothing but misuse of the resources.

Sivakami pointed that the percentage of Dalit & Adivasi women in the bureaucracy is extremely low. Adivasi women are much less than Dalit women and it is only in North Eastern states that there might be a considerable number of Adivasi Women in the bureaucracy. But apart from the North East States, in places like Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and several other places where large number of adivasi lives, the representation of the Adivasi women is poor. In the case of Tamilnadu there are 36 adivasi/tribal communities amounting to 1 per cent of the total population. The presence of the tribal women in bureaucracy is extremely poor. Among Dalit women, Sivagami happened to be the first one to join the civil service in 1980. Now in Tamilnadu there are only four to five Dalit women among a total of 400 civil servants. Therefore, Sivakami argues that the government rarely comprehends and even care about Dalits and Adivasis and thus not meant for Dalits and Adivasi as their presence is minimal.

Women’s representation in political parties is just to show distribution and diversity within a political party. All the plan and decisions would be taken by the senior male political leaders and women are made to sign on the dotted line. However in the outside political parties showcase women as if she was the one who implemented the same. Most Dalit women carry sheep or cattle in the buses and lorries for political meetings and they are given a day’s meal. This is how women are used by political parties. The only benefit Dalit women will get after joining a political party is to buy some property and to earn a lump sum amount from the powers that be. Apart from that, there is no real improvement in Dalit villages. The presence of Dalit women in other political parties remains and is premised on the same grounds and there is no change whatsoever.

Sivakami further related a recent tragedy that happened in Dharmapuri where 268 houses were burnt by caste Hindus. The reason for the atrocities was that a Caste Hindu girl married a Dalit boy. The estimated loss of the Dalit community was around seven and half crore. Dharmapuri incident was a preplanned attack. They had been planning and scheming for one month. They bought and stocked petrol, prepared petrol bombs, collected arms, and booked lorries and vehicles for transporting nearly 2500 people to the three villages they attacked while 300 policemen were mute witnesses to the horrendous crime. There was no action or legal measures taken against the accused either by government, political parties, and intelligence agencies. The only action taken was a report sent to the district administration. An eye-witness account from Dharmapuri district relates that when caste Hindus were burning Dalit houses, a lady cried foul and begged “please don’t do this I know you and you know me too, I am just returning from your field working for you. How can you do this to me?” the reply from the perpetrators was “That is correct but you should not have the courage to think of marrying a caste Hindu girl in the future”. Sivakami pointed out that in this particular case, the government stood mute and justice was not given to the Dalits who were brutally assaulted by the dominant castes.

Sivakami dreams of having a village which would have a common work shed and where people could travel long distances and go for work. The village would have a separate playground for women because after marriage people abandon their health and they don’t play, as a result many health problems arise. While men will always find their playground in an open field and play volleyball, throwball, kabbadi or any village sport, the same is not the case with women and hence providing that space is crucial. Sivakami also proposed the idea of having a common meeting place in the villages where women can speak and talk to each other. She further proposed a clinic for the older women because women are seen as a reproduction machines and once the baby is born all the importance and facilities from the government are stopped. Sivagami hoped that this dream village could be made a part of the women’s movement agenda.

Conclusion

The Dalit and Adivasi Women’s Congress is the beginning of the Dalit and Adivasi women movement in the academia. This beginning must seek to achieve the dream of Dr.Ambedkar, Ramabai Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Savitrimai. As Dr. Ambedkar stated “education is something ought to be brought within the reach of everyone”. The women’s movement has to be inclusive and encompass theoretical, political, historical, social, economical, emotional and intellectual domains in order for the movement to be sustainable and radical present. This congress opened me to the truth that emancipation is not something to be achieved after the revolution but Dalit and Adivasi women’s struggles have to be fought on a day to day basis. Dalit and Adivasi women’s revolution is a processual struggle against humongous forces of oppression. It is thus inevitable that Dalit and Adivasi women join hands in their demands and support to struggle together for the liberation of both. Emancipating them from the clutches of traditional bondages is the first step towards empowerment. These factors collectively contribute to shaping any social fabric of the future.

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