Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Once again, Gupta has crafted a meticulous and groundbreaking contribution to the social and cultural history of the Hindi-medium public
sphere. Through insightful analysis of a remarkable range of early print
sources, including words and images, she chronicles the changing depiction of Dalits and especially of Dalit womenas vamps and victims,
as gullible converts and heroic martyrsas well as Dalit responses and
resistance to such representations. The result is a fine-grained study of
othering that sheds new light on the multiple selves that it seeks to
define and defend.
PHILIP LUTGENDORF, author of Hanumans Tale:
The Messages of a Divine Monkey
ISBN: 9780295995649
www.washington.edu/uwpress
gupta-jacket.indd 1
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Charu Gupta
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for
Peter Robb
my teacher and guide
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Contents
Abbreviations
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Conclusion
Glossary
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Bibliography
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Index
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Abbreviations
BSP
CMS
Deptt
Department
Home Poll
IESHR
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EPW
Judl
Judicial
MAS
NAI
NICTBS
NMML
NNR
NWP
OBC
OIOC
PAI
UP
UPSA
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Preface and
Acknowledgments
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xi
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xiv
me tremendous warmth, love, and happiness. My son Ishaan has provided unforgettable moments of sharing and laugher.
Above all, to Mukul. My best friend and companion. My most
remarkable partner. With my love.
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Introduction
Gendering Dalits
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n May 1927, Chand, the leading Hindi journal of early-twentiethcentury colonial North India, published an Achhut Ank, a
special issue on Dalits. Though overwhelmingly androcentric,
it had a distinct perspective on Dalit women, encapsulated in the
following:
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It is the story of days and nights of fasting; it is the story of those mothers
who leave the dead bodies of their beloved children in their broken huts
and go to do begar in the homes of demonic landlords; it is the story of
those wives who leave their essence of being, their godlike husbands and
their life-wealth on the deathbed, and in the face of the naked sword of
oppression go to do begar with their heads bent; it is the story of those
sisters who are subject day and night to the sexual passions of oppressors
in front of their parents and brothers;...it is the horrifying story of
extreme poverty;...it is the moving story of the desolation of Hindu
religion and Hindu society, and it is also the story of the rise of Islam and
Christianity in India; it is the heart-rending story of silent tears, soundless
weeping, and speechless suffering.1
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2Ranciere
2009: 12.
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2012: 239.
3Rao
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2000.
5OHanlon 1985; Omvedt 1994; Rao 2009. Particularly exciting are
studies on the caste question vis--vis Ambedkar and Gandhi: Zelliott 1992;
Nagaraj 2010; Jaffrelot 2004; Rodrigues 2002. In histories of modern India,
what Bengal has signified for gender, Maharashtra has meant for caste, each
providing much of the theoretical constructs. Perhaps Rammohun Roy and
Vidyasagar here and Jotirao Phule and Ambedkar there have played a critical
role in this.
6Also significant are works on South India: Pandian 2007; Basu 2011;
Geetha and Rajadurai 1998.
7Lynch 1969. Chamars/Jatavs are the largest Dalit caste in the region,
and most studies have centered on their experiences.
8Gooptu 2001. Also Joshi 2003; Bharti 2011.
9Rawat 2012: 5484.
10Khare 1984.
11Pai 2002; Chandra 2004.
12Narayan 2001, 2006, 2011; Brueck 2014; Amardeep 2012; Naimishray
2014; Hunt 2014.
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13Sangari and Vaid 1989; Forbes 1996; Sarkar 1999, 2001; Bannerji 2001;
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Engels 1996. One reason for this has been that the concern of most social
reform movements was largely about Hindu middle-class women rather than
caste: Sarkar 2002: 61.
14 W hile feminist historians in India have effectively critiqued the
homogenized and hegemonic representation by and of white, Western femi
nism, they have unwittingly privileged upper-caste women over women of
the lower castes by obscuring the latter. For further critiques: Rao 2003:
147; Rege 2006.
15Gupta 2001.
16It is often assumed in the West too that racism is what happens to black
men. Sexism is what happens to white women: Hull, Scott, and Smith 1982;
Smith 1998. In India, the trivialization of the identities of Dalit women not
only obscures the double jeopardy of caste and gender that they face, but also
limits our understanding of both caste and gender.
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black female body in print and visual culture, it is hoped that the
contradictory impulses of using a body that is marked and likewise
coded, will give way to an alternative symphony of voices that honor
the legacies of black womenboth real and imagined.24
Representations, Archives, and Print
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24Henderson
25Amin
2010: 17.
2005b: 2.
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26Arondekar
2009: 1, 6.
27Ibid.: 56; Derrida 1995; Cvetkovich 2003; Gupta 2011. Many feminist
historians in India have, for example, used gossip, memories, fictions, and
visual representations to present a gender-sensitive history: Sarkar 1999, 2001,
2009; Burton 2003; Ramaswamy 2011; Sinha 2006.
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28Derrida
1995: 13.
the multilayered impact of print: Eisenstein 1979; Chartier 1989;
Anderson 1991 (1983). In the Indian context: Orsini 2002; Naregal 2001;
Ghosh 2006; Stark 2007: 128; Blackburn 2003; Venkatachalapathy 2012;
Gupta 2001: 304.
30Blackburn 2003: 1011; Venkatachalapathy 2012.
31 Freitag 1989; Gooptu 2001; Gupta 2001; Hansen 1992; Orsini
2002.
29For
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32Before
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35Orsini
2002: 4.
2012: 13644; Joshi 2003: 247.
37Gajarawala 2013: 35
38Nijhawan 2012: 3; Thapar-Bjorkert 2006.
39Mirroring their male counterparts, these women were almost exclusively
Kayasth, Brahmin, Thakur, or Khatri: Orsini 2002: 245, 249; Nijhawan
2012: 10.
40Amardeep 2012; Brueck 2014: 2342; Bharti 2011; Hunt 2014: 3542;
Naimishray 2014: 3960; Narayan 2006, 2011; Rawat 2012.
41Satyanarayana and Tharu 2011, 2013.
36Rawat
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42Jigyasu
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48Stoler
2002: 9.
1992: 188.
50Lubin 2005: xi.
51Chatterjee 1994: 1947.
52Robb 2011: 21011.
49Giddens
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53Storey
2014: 1356.
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Dirks 1987, 2001: 318; Pinch 1996: 1720; Sarkar 1997: 35890; Bayly
1999: 196, 14486.
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courts, education, libraries, the press, and print, all coinciding with
the flourishing of a vital upper-caste Hindu mercantile culture and
the emergence of a dynamic new middle class in towns.55 New job
openings and professionssuch as law, teaching, and journalism
provided new arenas for upward mobility which benefited a section
of the upper and intermediate castes. By the end of the nineteenth
century a new group of landholders appeared in the region.56 These
substantial gains, borne along by Western influences on lifestyles and
corresponding to judgements of propriety, civilization, and modern
ization, gave the upwardly mobile a larger stake in the defence of
hierarchies; and they thus evolved new ways of strengthening their
claims over Dalit bodies, their labor, and sexuality. The construction
of Dalits as dim-witted yet burly figures capable of menial drudgery
was carefully fabricated by colonizers and the upper castes alike.
Alongside, there were growing economic insecurities for some,
as the colonial onslaught in UP posed a serious challenge to many
of the conventional occupations and dislocated existing relations.
Traditional sources of patronage were considerably reduced and
adversity overtook a section of the population.57 The problems were
compounded by a general crisis of employment for the educated.58 A
class of clerks, with low salaries and low status, emerged. Bemoaning
the supposed loss of a golden age, the upper castes painted a bleak
mental landscape of modern times as a period of social degradation.
The trope of Kaliyug signified a loss of manliness, assertive lower
castes, and disorderly women.59 The breaking down of taboos and
caste-specific behavior and dispositions was lamented.60 Brahmins,
abandoning their vocation of rituals and prayers, were seen as falling
prey to indolence; Kshatriyas, instead of being valorous and displaying
fortitude, had it was believed become sexually debased and enervated;
and Shudras, having abandoned their obligation of servitude, were
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55Bayly
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imperiously proclaiming their rights.61 Grieving over the status of Brahmins, a poem in a Brahmin journal reads:
Many [Brahmins] are servants of prostitutes, and roam about beating
small drums.
Our daughters-in-law have become beggars at pilgrimages, and many
[Brahmins] eat in Shudra homes!!62
[bahut kanchnin ke chakar hain, table firat bajate.
bani bahu tirthan firat bhikhari, bahut shudra ghar khate!!]
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rank castes according to social precedence. Even relatively betteroff castes and jatis like Kayasths, Khatris, Agarwals, and Marwaris
started claiming Kshatriya status, wanting a greater share in public
appointments and political representation.68 Intermediate castes
such as Ahirs and Yadavs too launched their caste associations and
journals.69 Print helped foster caste interests: various caste associations
published genealogical caste tracts and started their own journals.
There were transformations in relationships between castes, and
language and customs relating to women became critical to mark
ones caste status, counter the claims of other castes, and denigrate
low-caste practices.70
The vibrant public sphere of UP also grew in response to the
meteoric growth of a politics of Hinduization and caste reform that
reinforced certain tenets of Hindu praxis while challenging others.
Simultaneously, anxieties over Muslim and Dalit figures strengthened
debates about caste and its gendering. The cow-protection movement
in UP, between 1880 and 1920,71 sharpened the vilification of
Chamars (and Muslims) as cattle killers.72 Alongside, the activities of
the Hindu Mahasabha and the Arya Samaj expanded considerably.73
Facing Western criticism of Hinduism as severely oppressive towards
women and untouchables, movements like the Arya Samaj, while
legitimizing caste principles, also began to formulate limited critiques
of caste rigidities, deploying a vocabulary of sympathy.74 There was a
shiftfrom seeing the Dalit woman as herself intolerable, to seeing
that her dominant image had become intolerableresulting in a
transformation from perceptions of her as lascivious and stigmatized
to someone vulnerable and victimized, even if the change involved a
desexualization of the Dalit female body. Simultaneously, reformers
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68Harishchandra
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75It
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could not be wished away, and in fact took on new lineaments. There
was little to show that the rules of touch were falling into desuetude,
except insofar as they had become incompatible with the routines
of everyday life. For example, though supposedly no questions were
asked at railway stations by porters, the men who supplied drinking
water to passengers were still Brahmins. Postmen refused to deliver
letters to untouchables.80
The relationship between Dalits and Hindu reformers was fraught
in UP. The Arya Samaj and the Hindu Mahasabha were wary of the
Adi Hindu movement, which from the 1920s was gaining strength
among the Dalits of UP. In a resolution unanimously passed by the
11th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in April 1928, it was stated:
The Hindu Mahasabha emphatically protests against the so-called
Adi Hindu movement started by some self-seeking persons with a
view to create division between the Hindu community and warns the
so-called untouchable brethren against the dangers of falling a victim
to this harmful propaganda and calls upon them to remain faithful
to the well wishers of their ancestral Hindu faith.81 While some
Dalits were initially attracted to the Arya Samaj, they soon realized
its limitations and became critical of such reformist movements
from above. A pamphlet titled Dalit Brothers Protect Yourself from
Danger (Dalit Bhaiyon Khatre se Bacho) exhorted Jatavs, Chamars,
Khatiks, Dhobis, and Mehtars to beware of the superficial reforms
being launched in their name and poignantly asked the upper castes
if they had done the following:
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(1) Removed separated taps from pyaus (2) Made any effort to open
occupations like putting stalls of milk, curd or betel and various other
shops (3) Is there any example of the twice-born-caste girl breaking caste
taboos and marrying a Dalit boy (4) Can any Dalit claim himself to be a
Dalit and eat food at a dhaba (5) Can anyone rent a house in the name
of a Dalit (6) Can any Dalit have his own pyaus and give water to others
(7) Can any one of our caste become an office bearer of upper-caste
reformist organizations? None of this had been achieved.82
80L/PJ/9/108,
OIOC.
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83Singh
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90Royal
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97Mencher
1974.
1903: 258; Blunt 1931: 237; Briggs 1920: 2269; Cawnpore:
A Gazetteer: 104, 117; Joshi 2003: 7981.
99Bayly 1983: 340, 445.
100Census, 1921, UP: 1812; Dayashankar Dube, Kuch Achhut Jatiyon
ki Dasha (The Condition of Some Untouchable Castes), Chand, May 1927:
18, 20 (1624).
101Census, 1931, UP, Part II: 382.
102Gooptu 2001: 144.
103Ibid.: 14552; Lorenzen 1995:132; Schomer and McLeod 1987; Lele
1981; Kshirsagar 1994: 315; Wakankar 2010.
98Walton
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104Bellwinkel-Schempp
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108Gooptu
2001.