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INSIDE INSIGHT
Contents Pages
Editorial
Dalit Feminism
3
Caste and Gender Special
♦
History and Reform in the Women’s Reservation Debate:
Smita Patil 7
♦
Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki!:
Shaweta Anand 12
♦
My journey that’s just begun:
Sujatha Surepally 14
♦
“My restlessness grew and started taking form quite early”:
An interview with Pushpa Balmiki 17
♦
 
“Coalition is the philosophy and need of the hour”:
An interview with Du Saraswathi 20
♦
“Kadhal Kondaen" - Sketching Gender and Caste Relations:
Article by students from PondicherryUniversity 23
♦
“Dalit Feminism Needs Theorizing”:
An Interview with Prof Mary John 27
♦
“Need to redefine Dalit Movement”
: An Interview with
 
Rajni Tilak 29
♦
GSCASH
: Sensitizing Campus, Preventing Abuse 32
♦
 
“
It Is Comforting
”: An interview with Kanika Singh 33
♦
‘Common concern’ - Possible Framework for Dalits and Women:
Y. Srinivasa Rao 34
♦
Negotiating Caste and Gender - An Experience of Andhra Politics:
Dr. P. Kesava Kumar 37
♦
“
That I am not inferior was always in the mind”:
An Interview with Dr. Vimal Thorat 41
 
Columns
♦
 
Our Icon:
Muktabai - “Listen To What I Have To Say”
45
 
♦
 
Letters with Insight 47
♦
 
Voices:
Gaddar -
 
Sing. For Our Freedom Sings With You:
B. Prakash 49
Commentary
♦
 
Fear of History in MJ Akbar’s India:
Shamuel Tharu 53
♦
Dalits in Nepal: Politically Manufactured Karma:
Suresh Singh 55
♦
Celebrating Ambedkar Jayanti in Bonn:
Dr. Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp 61
♦
 
JNU celebrates Babasaheb Ambedkar’s 114th Birth Anniversary:
Harish Wankhede 63
♦
Maligning Ambedkar on his Birthday by Inaugurating Multi-Media Exhibition on Gandhi:
Dr.Narendra Kumar 64
 
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Editorial
Dalit feminism
Guest Editor - M. Swathy Margaret
I am a Dalit-middle-class, University educated, Telugu speaking Dalit-Christian-Woman. Allthese identities have a role in the way I perceive myself and the worlds I inhabit. I, as a Dalitwoman, primarily write for Dalit women to uphold our interests.This statement of mine is necessary because if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others – for their use and to our detriment. This voice is not representative of allDalit women. However, I know that my voice is important because it is the voice of a sociallydenigrated category, suppressed and silenced.My own self-perception and understanding as a Dalit woman, as a point of intersection/anoverlap between the categories “Dalit” and “woman”, took shape in the University of Hyderabadwhen I joined there for my M.A. in English. I fell in love with the sprawling campus instantly.Some familiar-looking young men came to my aid in filling the endless forms and challans,saying they are from the Ambedkar Students’ Union. Hearing Ambedkar’s name I knew I belonged there. However, it did not take much time before I realized they refused to see an equalintellectual comrade in me.Like the majority of men, they acknowledge a Dalit woman’s presence as only fit for handingover bouquets to the guest speakers they invite for their meetings. At the most, she can give thevote of thanks. They do not consider her in important decisions or in writing papers.Later I learned that excluding women from their committees was a deliberate policy theyfollowed as they believed women’s presence would cause “problems” and come in the way of serious politics. Women inevitably mean “problems”, their sexuality being an uncontrolled wild beast waiting to pounce upon the unassuming Dalit men in the movement. It is assumed that theydivert the attention from the larger concerns of the movement.I was given a nice room in the corner of the wing in the Ladies Hostel. But the only thing wasthat it was unused for a couple of years in spite of it being the best room in that wing, I was told.I did not ask why. Later I was told it was the room where one Dalit woman Suneetha hungherself to the fan, after continuous sexual exploitation and ultimate rejection by a Reddy manwhen the question of marriage came up.Some inquired if that fact scared me. The ghost that stared at me was not the thought of ahanging female body but it was my own body which is Dalit and woman and is as vulnerable asSuneetha’s. The stories of Dalit women being used and thrown by upper caste men, told andretold by my mother came back shouting loudly in my ears.I also saw the urban, fluent-in-English, extremely confident women, who called themselvesfeminist, who I could hardly talk to. When I did talk to them I was struck by their confidence,
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