Looking Idan and Jhuthan beyond Gender, Identity and Region: The

similarities and dissimilarities in the lives of the two Dalit

autobiographers.

By

Uttam Kumar Verma

MA history

Center for historical studies

Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Phone: 9818266526

Email:

Uttamverma1432@gmail.com
..जाति न पूछो साधू की, पूछ लिजीये ज्ञान।

मोल करो तरवार का, पड़ा रहन दो म्यान।..

-संत कबीर
Contents
Looking Idan and Jhuthan beyond Gender, Identity and Region: The similarities and dissimilarities in the
lives of the two Dalit autobiographers........................................................................................................1
Acknowledgement.......................................................................................................................................4
Turning the pages up: Dalit autobiographies in the eyes of scholars..........................................................5
Reason for writing: Reciting stories to express dissent............................................................................7
The single narration: the Scholar’s accusation........................................................................................9
Favor of the narratives: the supportive argument.................................................................................10
The feminist view point: looking oppressed through the eyes of oppressed........................................11
Jhuthan And Idan: The lives of Omprakash Valmiki and Urmila Pawar.....................................................14
Living in the Same age but different direction...........................................................................................14
Caste prejudices: Failing in education.......................................................................................................14
Joint family: Living in the multifaceted environment................................................................................18
Rebelling against tradition: marrying on their own will.............................................................................20
Division among Dalits and their identity crisis...........................................................................................22
Mode of protest: thespian resistance........................................................................................................25
What was uncommon in their life?...........................................................................................................31
The patriarchy in Dalit family.....................................................................................................................31
Pawar’s experiences as a mother..............................................................................................................33
Pawar’s role in women's movement and as a women Dalit activist..........................................................34
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................................36
Acknowledgement

This paper is of utmost significance to me, despite traversing through relatively turbulent course
this semester; here i am-

Acknowledging each and every one who kept me compelled and driven while I was fighting the
demons of procrastination and under confidence at the very initial stage of project.

I begin my acknowledgement by hailing the immense support of Prof. Sangita Dasgupta for
being a guiding force throughout. I would take this opportunity to acknowledge the
unconditional love & humongous support of my Parents.

I would also like to acknowledge my friends and classmates for being a therapeutic support
system.

And ultimately I would like to thank a supreme authority who creates & annihilates!

Part-1: Secondary foundation

Introduction:

Writings have always remain one of the most loving aspects of Human civilization. The feelings
of sadness, happiness, carelessness, acceptance have come across through the writings of any
individual human being. Like an omnipotent God the art of writing have existed from ancient
time. Even till now the literary writings have remain major source for our understanding of past.
All types of poetry, ancient tales, philosophical intellectual discussions, religious writings,
political commentery, and other art’s have been presented through the art of writing. Most of the
Human beings in his life use this format to express their thoughts and feelings; In Gunjan
Kumari’s: “Words act as the window to our personality. It is majorly through words that our
attitude towards our life as a whole is reflected. While writing, we emphasize on those words
which seem close to our heart. For instance, if a person is sad, he would use depressing words,
whereas the tone of a delighted person would change automatically.”1 the great philosophy’s,
idea’s, and historical texts have remain with us despite the original author’s demise.

1
Gunjan Kumari, writing as a therapeutic practice: a study of select dalit autobiographies, Unpublished theses,
(2013):p.15.
The art and style of writing’s have change time-to-time; where as earlier we use leafs or other
objects for writing now through the invention of Computer’s and other technology’s the process
have become more easier. After the coming of social media the broader and unlimited space have
open for any indivisual to show their creative writing art. The most interesting thing is that the
art of writing have brought many new things and new aspects which have able to surpass the
pain, greef, happiness, sadness of different identity such as women’s, tribes, disable and most
importantly to the Dalit’s whose writings is the discussion for our paper.

By coming of previous century different types of new studies have been encouraged by the
scholars and historians. The event centric focus have change completely. Instead of this
economic, cultural, philosophical and societal lives have been looked. After the decades of 80’s
the situation drastically changed; after the rice of subaltern study’s the life stories of
downtrodden were been looked; those who were living in worst conditions have not only got
education after lots of struggle but after that they have written their experience in the form of
autobiography’s. Which is the central theme for the discussion to our paper. In this paper we will
firstly examine various arguments of the scholar’s and academics who devoted in the field of
Dalit Autobiography’s. How they looked these autobiography’s as the method for understanding
the Dalit’s life and what are the challenges and difficulties arises? While interpreting these texts.
After that in the second part we will investigate the autobiography’s written by Omprakash
Valmiki and Urmila Pawar who wrote down their life experience in the form of autobiography.

Turning the pages up: Dalit autobiographies in the eyes of scholars

Deriving from the three Greek words, autos, bios and self, autobiography means writing of the
self. The Oxford English Dictionary defines autobiography as the “story of the person’s life
written by that person”. Smith and Watson quote the famous critic Misch to state the definition
of autobiography, “the description (graphia) of an individual human life (bios) by the individual
himself (autos)”. Autobiography has a “philosophical dignity” and “...is the highest and most
instructive form in which the understanding of life comes before us”. However it was during the
Renaissance that autobiography became the subject of learned works. The Humanists in the
Renaissance showed interest in the ancient autobiographies which provided them with a model
of self-portrayal which arrived at the objective view of autobiography. Autobiography as an
expression of the contemporary social environment occurs as a special genre in literature, and as
an expression of the self-awareness of the individual occurs as an interpretation of the
individual’s experience. The boundary of autobiography is more fluid than any other literary
genre, and as George Misch states in his book History of Autobiography in Antiquity,
“autobiography is one of the innovations brought by cultural advance, and yet it springs from the
most natural source, the joy in self-communication and in enlisting the sympathetic
understanding of others; or the need for self-assertion”.2 L. Anderson in her book Autobiography
quotes Roy Pascal, that autobiography depends on the “seriousness of the author, the seriousness
of his personality and his intention in writing”3 When we read an autobiography says Anna
Robeson Burr in her book The Autobiography, we have planned to meet a number of interesting
men and women of high and low degree, of many professions and occupations and the
significant thing is that we are to meet them just as we would meet them in real life.4 Same
applies to our study of Dalit autobiography’s we found that from side to side through the
narration of the biographer we not only encounter the incidence of the author’s life but through
his account of journey we also get to know the life of different persons who belongs from
different socio-economic background. There is very interesting thing to observe in these
writings: Those who lives the life of upper-cast or to say those who are in power use their
language in totally different way towards them as compare to the author’s background. Even the
dialects of the language also change’s: that is the reason that in these the lower strata used local
dialect of Marathi and the upper-caste Brahmin’s used the standard Marathi into their day-to-day
speech. The same thing happened’s with Hindi also.

THE FUNDAMENTAL AND core feature of India’s social structure is its caste system. Even
after nearly seventy years of Indian independence, caste and the entrenched caste hierarchy still
remain the symbol and essence of Indian society, differentiating it from other societies. This
hierarchy, which accords some castes the privilege and the power to dominate over other castes,
has been present in Indian history since time immemorial. The dominant Brahminical cultural
code accords the socalled lower castes a highly inferior position in society and has drained them
of dignity and self-respect in every domain of their lives. The lower castes, or Dalits as they
prefer to be called, have always been marginalized by the upper castes, who have forced them to
remain within the confines of their lowly birth-based menial occupations.5

In the recent past, however, there is a visible upsurge in the assertion of Dalit identity, which
challenges the humiliation that they have faced for centuries. There has emerged a strong urge
among these marginalized groups throughout the country to assert their identity and self-respect
through their own cultural resources and challenge the cultural hegemony of the upper castes.
This is powerfully visible in North India, especially in Uttar Pradesh (UP), which lies in the
Hindi heartland and has one of the largest population and land areas in the country. And
Maharashtra which has witness neumrous dalit Andolan’s and contributed heavily for the up
liftmen of dalit’s. This reigion has given many dalit author’s and scholars who has contributed a
lot for the growth of Dalit literature. These scholar’s challenged the traditional narrative who
clamed that “dalit’s does not possess any culture or remarkable identities at their own. But these
scholar’s through their writing advocate for their strong cultural presence. They spoke against
2
Misch, George. History of Autobiography in Antiquity Part Ones. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2002:p. 16.
3
Anderson, L. Autobiography. London: Routledge, 2001 :p. 52.
4
Burr, Anna Robeson. The Autobiography. New York: Riverside Press, 1909.
5
Badri narayan, women heroes And Dalit assertion in north india : Culture, Identity and Politics cultural
subordination and the Dalit chalange, vol 5 (2006):p. 20.
injustice through their writings, coloms, and other scholarly paper’s. They mainly relied
presenting their narratives in non-fictional way because they believe that their suffering does not
need any amount of fictional presence and if they wrote in fiction, the highly Brahmmhinical
academia will turn these as just a fictional story and will put those stories of exploitation in the
garbage of history. Therefore, they have opted for biographical way to articulate their
expression’s in literature.

The word ‘dalit’ is a recent one but the concept of Dalitness is old. The term ‘dalit’ in Sanskrit is
derived from the root dal, which means to split, break, crack and so on. When used as an
adjective it means amputated, stepped on, split, broken, burst, destroyed or crushed. Dalit implies
those who have been broken and ground down by those above them in the social hierarchy in a
deliberate and active way. There is in the word itself an inherent denial of karma, pollution and
legitimized caste hierarchy. ‘Dalit’ has come to symbolize change and revolution. According to
Nandu Ram, though the term ‘Dalit’ represents a particular social category of people, and it is
now being used by all the untouchables irrespective of traditional and parochial caste distinctions
as representative of their social identity. The term Dalit was first used by Dr Ambedkar but some
sources claim that Swami Shraddhanand, a follower of Arya Samaj, first coined it. However, the
etymology of the term goes back to the ancient times when they were known in the ancient
Hindu religious texts as shudras, atishudras, chandals, antyuj and so on. In the 19th century, a
Marathi social reformer and revolutionary, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, used the term ‘Dalit’ to
describe the ‘outcastes’ and ‘untouchables’ as the ‘oppressed and crushed victims of the Indian
caste system.’ Apparently, it was used in the 1930s as a Hindi and Marathi translation of
‘depressed classes,’ a term used by the British for what are now called the scs. In 1930, a
newspaper was published for the depressed classes in Pune called ‘Dalit Bandhu’ (Friends of
Dalits). Dr Ambedkar also used the word in his Marathi speeches. With increased sensitivity, the
leaders of the Indian freedom struggle replaced it with a new term, ‘Harijan,’ coined by
Mahatma Gandhi. In cultural parlance, they were all commonly known as achhut while in legal
terminology they were called ‘Scheduled Castes’ or scs. Scs were the castes listed in the
schedule by the Government of India Act 1935.6

Reason for writing: Reciting stories to express dissent

“What cause Dalit’s to write their heart-wrenching story’s of exploitation’s?” “what were the
reasons behind these autobiographical writing’s?” “why they have chosen to reveal themselves
through their story’s in literature?” “how these story’s will judge for their accuracy and
authencity?”These are very crucial question which should be asked necessarily in order to
understand these Dalit writings which will be discussed below in this paper.

6
Badri narayan, women heroes And Dalit assertion in north india : Culture, Identity and Politics (2006):p. 25.
The Ambedkar’s appeal “Educate organize and agitate” has marked tremendous importance
behind the rise of Dalit literature. When Dalit movement was in full swing these Dalit scholar’s
have organized themselves and started penning their experiences through the their writing’s.
Gunjan Kumari asserts this view by saying: “when Dalits got exposed to education coupled with
enlightenment and the democracy. They started penning down their experiences, and to inscribe
their experiences for the first time in the history of Indian Literature, they used various literary
modes including poetry, short stories, novels and so on. But the focal point of dalit literature was
constituted of autobiographies, for it was only through autobiography that they could vent their
anguished hearts. These authors were not equipped with so-called scholarship, but they were
overflowing with heart-rending experiences, and their desire to be heard became so intense that
they began penning down their intense emotional outpouring in their autobiographies.”7

The tier’s and exploitation of Dalits narrated in the form of autobiographies can surely made us
to thing how after getting independence we still can not able to free our self from old slave
mentality. After getting equal rights for all the citizens of India inscribe in the constitution we
still have not been able to give them equal rights and opportunity’s to grow. How these
biographical stories are very essential part for the study is well-defined by Aniket Jaaware
Anupama Rao: “storytelling has the ability to terminate the telling at crucial points of ethical or
political “destitution,” it provides a special opportunity to abandon the narrative at an ethical
conundrum or even an aporia, thus allowing us, in fact forcing us, to think about it.”8 the same
path is also being followed by Jens Brockmeier he asserts: “autobiographical texts, whether
spoken or written — are useful vehicles for exploring not only the ethical dimension of identity
construction but also the ethical fabric of the social worlds in which they emerge. As such, the
study of autobiographies allows us to better understand the aforementioned dialectics between
ideas of the good life and the specific historical and cultural realities in which these ideas
originate.”9

It is the well-known fact that the Dalit’s or Kshudra Class have never allowed to study; they had
spent their entire life while serving to these three upper class. Because of the large-scale class
exploitation they didn’t have their own written history or literary texts. They have no means to
know what they were, what they did, or what they said and what they felt; and we believe this is
the correct time to investigate their past memory’s their ancestral lives and the current state of
situation. Therefore its become essential to write down the experiences of their past in the form
of autobiography or any other means which is available to them.

7
Gunjan Kumari, writing as a therapeutic practice: a study of select dalit autobiographies, Unpublished theses,
(2013):p.19.
8
Aniket Jaaware Anupama Rao, Practicing caste Fordham University Press (2019):p. 12.
9
Jens Brockmeier, Narrative and Identity Studies in Autobiography, Self and Culture, University of Toronto :77.
The single narration: the Scholar’s accusation

From time-to-time scholar’s have express concern regarding the nature of biographical writings.
They argues: “do the personal narratives can helps for the grouth of historical understanding?”
“does these narratives offer’s factual accurate informations?” “does these texts are completely
free from biasness?” “how much the author’s personal opinion can be close to historical truth?”
Historian Judith M. Brown enquired: “whether life history can, at a time of considerable
historiographical flux and contestation, be a helpful door or entry point into the historical study
of significant themes in the experience of women and men, adding depth and substance to our
understanding and arguments, without simplifying the study of the past as older biographies
tended to do with their focus on a single life and its influence.”10 As per my opinion these
questions are totally irrelevant: these are just not a narratives but the description of wounds
which has inflicted by our society’s. Therefore, the the importance of autobiography’s increase
also; because we did not have any historical texts to reconstruct their lives. We have only those
text which is preserved by the Brahmins and so-called upper class. Therefore to reconstruct their
history we need to here their story. Another point is the scholar’s concern about the factual
accuracy and author’s biasness for that the simple fact is that all the events which the author
narration could have political connotation but it doesn’t change the fact that they haven’t face the
wrath of caste exploitation; they wrote their experiences to educate the Dalits regarding their
political and identical experences. Because of the same reason they haven’t opted for fictional
mode of expression.

While contributing to the same debate we can bring the argument of the translator of our Primary
autobiographical narrator “Joothan”. Arun Prabha Mukharji while writing in her introduction
asserts that Valmiki’s critical writing repeatedly stresses the authentic portrayal of society as a
Dalit literary value. One aspect of such an insistence on truth is Valmiki’s use of real names in
Joothan. Valmiki’s insistence that all people and events in Joothan are true poses a considerable
challenge to postmodernist critics who propose that autobiography’s truth is “constructed,” that
the auto biographic narrator shapes a presentable self by reprocessing his or her memories in
order to fit the present. Dalit autobiography claims the status of truth, of testimony. Naming
people and places by their real names is one strategy through which Valmiki establishes the
status of Joothan as testimony. The concrete materiality of his village and the cities that he later
inhabits, and the rendering of historical Dalit protests that he participated in or wrote about in the
newspapers at a personal cost, give Joothan the status of documented Dalit history. The timbre of
his voice is exhortatory. It demands answers and points out contradictions.11

The other question arises regarding the theory of writings; Jurgen Habermas claims that
experience is certainly of great importance, but theories should be based on reason rather than
10
Judith M. Brown , Windows into the Past: Life Histories and the Historian of South Asia University of Notre Dame
Press (2009):p. 104.
11
Omprakash Valmiki, trans, Arun Prabha Mukherjee, Joothan, columbia university press (2003):p. 45.
experience or emotion.12 If we discard Habermas‘ point of view, then most of us will lose the
chance of theorising. Nevertheless, experience undoubtedly plays a pivotal role while writing
autobiography. Therefore, ‗lived experience‘ certainly has a crucial and major part to play,
especially in writing autobiographies.

Favor of the narratives: the supportive argument

Raj Kumar in his book “Dalit Personal Narratives: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity” looked at
various aspects of the Dalits life; such as caste, class, language, religion, ethnicity and gender.
He suggests that the act of writing autobiography is a historic revolution. It is the symbol of their
retaliation against the oppression through which they had been going since time immemorial.13 In
the same spirit: a feminist, professor and great scholar, Sharmila Rege‘s book, Writing
Caste/Writing Gender: Reading Dalit Women's Testimonies is an incommensurable contribution
in the sphere of dalit autobiography. Taking a feminist standpoint, she proposes that gender
should be read along with caste and class. The book is a mix of theories, inferences and a very
careful observation of everyday life of dalit community, which is written from the perspective of
dalit women, using eight lives -narratives or testimonios by dalit female authors starting from
1920‘s till date. She follows the same pattern while rewriting each life-narrative, exploring
similar themes which remain real hurdles in their path of progress, such as “the household, food
and hunger, community, caste, culture and practices of labour, the school, humiliation, violence,
resistance and collective struggle.”14

Gunjan Kumari describes the Dalit’s experiences in totally different way; she looks these
experences through the feminist and Humanist prospective; she argues that the Dalit
autobiography is a therapeutic genre. She wrote: “I am indeed presenting the entire analysis of
Pennebaker‘s theory while talking about various studies which prove that the act of writing one‘s
emotional or traumatic thoughts results in physical health and well-being. So, do I mean to prove
that Dalits have been emotionally, if not physically sick for century? Do I mean to propose that
they have been traumatized at the hands of the so-called empowered people of India? These are
but rhetorical questions.” According to her, Dalit autobiographies are nothing but the expression
of the harrowing experiences suffered by the dalits. They are the manifestation of grief,
grievances against the society and demand for justice from the society. She also take up the issue
of double oppression of dalit women, and the role of autobiography as a psychotherapeutic genre
in their context.15

12
Jurgen Habermas, Theory and Practice, Heinemann Educational Books (1974):p. 72.
13
Raj Kumar, Dalit Personal Narratives: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity, Orient BlackSwan; (2010):p.40.
14
Sharmila Rege, Writing Caste/Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women's Testimonios, Zubaan; (2013)
15
Gunjan Kumari, writing as a therapeutic practice: a study of select dalit autobiographies, Unpublished theses,
(2013):p.18.
The feminist view point: looking oppressed through the eyes of oppressed

After 1980’s the women’s have made themselves in the field of academics; they published short-
story’s novel’s and article’s related to every issues but special focus have given to look the worst
situation of women’s in the society. They wrote extencievely to destroy the binary generated by
the male patriarchal academics and scholar’s who did-not pay much heat to the women’s issues
and intentionally and deliberately ignore their appearances in every field. Their written works
have made much impact in literary and social circle and included in the syllabus of the university
courses as-well. The other feature of these writings was that these authors have mostly wrote in
their mother-tongue. And transformation of their works into international language’s made this
work to reach in a wider international audience. At the same time distinctive experience that
shaped the identity of Dalit women too appeared as an issue in social science scholarship.16
These women’s started highlighting the soceo-economic problem’s which they have to face
daily; and the presence of high scale patriarchy in Dalit families which they have to deal
regularly. They have to the perform hard-hitting labor, suffer daily caste exploitation, serving
into the power of landlords, and State.17 Uma Chakravarti in reference to Kumud Pawade
memoir «1992» while explaining to Dalit feminist stand-point writes: “Caste stigma is a running
theme in all the writings—the offending touch, the association 'unclean' occupations, and finally
the quality of inhered in certain castes. The most powerful present in Dalit writing is from access
to the resource of water, the very basis of life without of land itself would be rendered
meaningless.””18these types of incidences have repeated time to time by the upper-caste groups;
we found similar narration in our primary autobiography Idan (the weave of my life) as-well;
“The houses of the Marathas and Brahmins were at some distancefrom our house. Bhandari and
Kulwadi women could drinkwater from their wells but untouchable women were
absolutelyforbidden to do so. This was a permanent wound in father's heart.Therefore he had
given strict instructions to my mother to allow theuntouchable women to draw from our well.
The rope and bucketwere permanent fixtures to the well. These were never removed(Pawar,
2003: 23).19

According to Gopal Guru (1994) the lack of space provided by the feminist to Dalit women’s
cause to developed their own mode of protest.let me quote him: “dalit womenhave of late
protested against their 'guestappearances' in a text or a speech of a non-dalit woman and instead
organised on tlheirown terms. They consider the feminist theorydeveloped by non-dalit women
as unauthenticsince it does not capture their reality.”20 It also criticises the internal patriarchy of
16
Gopal Guru, Dalit Women Talk Differently Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 30, No. 41/42 (Oct. 14-21, 1995),
pp. :5.
17
Uma Chakravarti, in her own write: Writing from a Dalit Feminist Standpoint, India International Centre
Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 3/4 (WINTER 2012-SPRING 2013)p. 135.
18
Ibid: p. 137.
19
Urmila Pawar, Idan (eng: the weave of my life), trans, Maya Pandit, Colombia university press, (2008):p. 23.
20
Gopal Guru, Dalit Women Talk Differently Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 30, No. 41/42 (Oct. 14-21, 1995),
pp. :2548..
dalit families and ways of initiating upper caste norms of control over the women and education.
The penetration of upper caste norms of ‘virtue’, ‘beauty’, ‘morality’ in the contemporary era is
another factor that dalit feminism critiques. Dalit feminism conceptualises caste system in
relation to patriarchs both within the families and within the whole society.21 These activists
quote Phule and Ambedkar to denote their idea and asserts differentness from the non-Dalit
women’s. In the same continuing line Gopal Guru argues that because of the Dalit patriarchy
these women have come to organized themselves differently; in the post ambedkar era Dalit
leader’s have never allowed women’s to express freely; to free themselves from the suppression
they organized themselves against their own leader’s. Not only in the political field but in the
cultural field also they have face exclusion. These women’s have criticize their male oponents
for not giving equal space in the literary field. Dalit men writers have always carry dismissive
attitude towards the writings of Dalit women’s. Conferring upon the same view Gopal Guru
gives three reasons for this dissent:

1. It is not onlycaste and class identity but also one's genderpositioning that decides the
validity of an event;
2. Dalit men are reproducing the samemechanisms against their women which their high
caste adversaries had used to dominate them;
3. The experience of dalit womenshows that local resistance within the dalits is important.
The whole situation compelshighlight commentus to defend the claim of dalit women to
talkdifferently.22 They were double suppressed, marginalized; one in the form the caste
system and another from the male member of the society. They place in the society as an
observer at all and nothing else.23

Responding to Gopal Guru’s arguments Sharmila Rege, in her essay titled ‘Dalit Women Talk
Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and Towards a Dalit Feminist Standpoint’ wrote that
privilege knowledge claims on the basisof direct experience on claims of authen-ticity may lead
to a narrow identity politics.Such a narrow frame may in fact limit theemancipatory potential of
the dalitwomen's organisations and also theirepistemological standpoints.24 She argues that all
Dalit and non-Dalits feminist could fight for their each-other’s rights; dividing feminism in caste
class and other identities makes the feminist movements narrow. She explains her views in her
other essay titled; ‘'Real Feminism' and Dalit Women: Scripts of Denial and Accusation’ “An
internal critique does not call for non-dalit women to freeze into guilt or tocelebrate an uncritical
dalit womanism.Neither does it imply a submission to some'imagined authencity ofhomogenised
dalitwomen's voice', it means a recognition ofconnections of power that exist between women. It

21
D Aruna, Caste and Gender – A Study of Dalit Feminism, CREATIVE LAUNCHER Vol. II & Issue III (August- 2017)
22
Gopal Guru, Dalit Women Talk Differently:p. 2548.
23
Tutul Mahato contesting dominance in select Dalit female autobiography's, Centre for English Studies, School of
Languages, Central University of Jharkhand:p.19.
24
Sharmila Rege, Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and Towards a Dalit FeministStandpoint,
Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 44 (Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 1998), p. WS43.
means speaking, not just 'asone' or 'for the other' but within and aboutthe space between the 'self'
and the 'other.25

At last I will end this sections debate by following D Aruna’s conclusive remark: there is a fresh
articulation of their own issues by young women from deprived back grounds, both dalit and
adivasi, which is in their language and based on their own experiences. While some use the terim
Dalit Feminism for these articulations, other have evolved a new terminology marginalized
Indiam Womanism for their articulations. Feminism in India has not been able to fully
encapsulate their experiences and so a new term is in order, they feel. As more and more young
dalit woman enter academic, political and governance through sheer talent and persistence, this
will surely bring in salutary and much needed freshers into our jaded institutions.26

25
Sharmila Rege, 'Real Feminism' and Dalit Women: Scripts of Denial and Accusation, Economic and Political
Weekly, Vol. 35, No. 6 (Feb. 5-11, 2000):p. 494.
26
D Aruna, Caste and Gender – A Study of Dalit Feminism, CREATIVE LAUNCHER Vol. II & Issue III (August- 2017): p.
9.
Part-2.

The primary work

Jhuthan And Idan: The lives of Omprakash Valmiki and Urmila Pawar

2.1: similarities

Living in the Same age but different direction

The most stimulating fact contained in these two autobiography’s is that The lives of Omprakash
Valmiki and Urmila Pawar begins in the same age; both have born during the decades of fifty’s
and spend their childhood days in their village. Both lives under the highly conservative family.
Where caste discrimination was presence everywhere. Their journey flows carrying the time with
fast paste: they do their study’s with the same time frame: during the decades of sixty’s they
went for their schooling, for their college education, circumstances change their way towards
Mumbai; where they involved in Dalit movements and theatrical activity’s. Later both of the
autobiographer becomes very influential writer’s in their respective field. But despite these many
similarities both carry distinct identity at their own: where one as born in the north India, on the
another hand one has born in the hilly area of Konkan district Maharashtra. Where one has taken
birth as masculine gender so another has born in feminine gender. Despite their separate gender
and reigional differences they both carry same Identity: both belongs from the Dalit caste. In this
they also carry remarkable difference: where one has born in Cuhra caste of Uttarpradesh and
other has born in the Mahar caste in Maharashtra.

Caste prejudices: Failing in education

Education is the basic necessity for everyone: it is very essential for our survival in the world.
Our economic, social, and cultural life always relay upon education; giving importance to
education our government have also enacted various laws have formed to provide the basic
nececities to the citizens of India. The most important mention in this regard could be right to
education (RTE) which has included in the 86th amendment of the constitution under article 21
and ratified by the parliament on 4 august 2009, where states have given responsibility to provide
free and compulcery education to every children under the age of 6 to 14. The states have also
made similar laws special mentions could be Karnataka State Universities Act, (2000) and
Kerala Education Act 1958 also known as (Act 6 of 1959). For the weaker section constitution
has made special provision under article 15, 17, and 46 to safeguard the education interest of
weaker sections. Article 15 states, “Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of Article 29 shall
prevent the state from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and
educationally backward classes of citizens or for the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes.”27
despite these ambitious laws has not able to fulfill the basic requirement of a common citizen.
These laws has not able to surpass the boundries of social and cultural laws of this land. Because
of the heavy discriminetery attitude towards the Dalit and other marginalized students by the
teacher’s most of the underprivileged children’s either failed in the class or had to drop-out from
the school. Let us turn the pages of our selected biography to justify these same factuall truth.
Both the author’s have narrated in their memoir about the discrimination they suffered in the
hand of the teacher’s. And how the bigoted attitude of the teacher’s towards lower caste ruin
their life.

The both the author Urmila Pawar and Omprakash Valmiki has remain very intelligent students
in their class. They extremely performed very well in their class as compare to other upper-caste
students. We have to remember this fact as-well that this was the time when class discrimination
was so high that only few children’s from the Dalit community could get into education. During
the decades of fifty’s and sixty’s sending their children into school’s were not given more
priorities. If the child is girl then probabilities of going her into school’s was also less. Even the
upper class girls were also not been encouraged for going into the schools. After discerning the
above fact talking about Dalit girl should made us to think about the worst situation of the time
in turms of education.

Despite the high intelligence among the all students both of students were failed: the reason was
plane simple: to stop them for getting education. To stop them for persuing further because in the
eyes of them their works is to serve the three upper Varna of the society. There place was the
field not the school; there original work is to perform the cleaning, kooking and other various
works in their home. These were the reason’s that these author’s had to failed in their respective
class dispite high intelligence.

Let us look to the narrations one by one; in Idan when the author was in fourth standard she was
angciously waiting for her result. She wrote: When Guruji came to the class with the result sheet,
I had eyes for nothing else. He began to announce the results. He would read the name, the roll
number, and then shout Pass or Fail so loudly that probably even the surrounding villages heard

27
Article 15.3, the constitution of India :p.15.
our results. There was another problem. The classrooms had tin partitions; sometimes the voices
of different gurujis, declaring results on either side of the partition, got mixed up and one would
hear Pass instead of Fail or vice versa. We would sit, literally with our souls in our ears, praying
to the thirty-three crore gods to allow us to hear the results right. The moment a student heard the
word pass, he jumped in his seat and rushed to the guruji to receive his progress card from him.
Students kept returning to their seats, triumphant, brimming with joy. Looking at them made me
feel more scared than ever. Will I pass? Crouching low in my seat, I sat frozen with fear awaiting
my turn. I was desperately praying to God, begging Him to pass me so that I would be able to
escape the clutches of this monster, our Herlekar Guruji. Two students before me had passed, but
two had failed and were now sitting like squashed mice in their seats. Finally, Guruji called out
my number. I was all ears. My heart thumped loudly in my chest, my legs turned to jelly. I
somehow managed to scramble up to the Guruji’s table. He stared at me furiously and kept on
staring till I had reached his table, his eyes boring holes in me. Then he placed the progress card
in my hand with a flourish, as if he were bestowing some honor on me, shouted my name and
announced, “Fail.” The other students began to laugh. As I turned and started returning to my
place, he fired the parting shot, “Show that progress card to your mother!” He went on to speak
at length. A dark pit had opened under my feet into which I began to sink. The word fail
reverberated in my ears. I heard nothing else. The thought of sitting in Herlekar Guruji’s class for
yet another year petrified me. It was far more overwhelming than the fear of facing my mother at
home with my progress card. Tears choked me, but, desperately trying to hide my tears, I
somehow returned to my place. I wanted all students after me to fail. I sat down, watching the
faces of students who were declared to “fail” and in the same boat as me.28

The same narrative goes with omprakash Valmiki as well but in his later age when he was
appearing for inter’s examination. The act of failing him was also deliberate by his high caste
Brahmin teacher’s because he had earlier achieves the status of passing his metric examinations
from first class marks. Even he became the first Dalit Men to have surpass the metric
examination and appearing for his inter level (class 12th) examinations. First of all the teacher
brijpal singh does not allow him to sit in the laboratory though the author had always gets good
marks in chemistry. The entire year he desperately try to enter into the chemistry class for the lab
practices but the teacher Brijpal singh does not allowed him to sit in the laboratory as the result
he got failed in his class 12th final examination in chemistry. While narrating to this story
Valmiki wrote: Brajpal Singh was still teaching chemistry. I had not an iota of respect for him in
my heart. I had never, however, exhibited any disrespect toward him publicly. I enjoyed studying
chemistry. My marks in chemistry in class eleven’s annual exams were very good. But soon after
starting class twelve, I felt that whenever I went to the lab for practical’s or experiments that
would be counted in the examinations, Brajpal would keep me out on some pretext or other. This
was my last year in the intermediate program, and I would take a board examination at the end of
term. My whole future depended on how well I did on this examination. When I was unable to
do any lab experiments after trying for several months, I began to feel certain that I was being
28
Urmila Pawar, Idan (eng: the weave of my life), trans, Maya Pandit, Colombia university press, (2008):p.56-57.
kept out deliberately. I asked him,“What have I done? Have I damaged anything?” But Brajpal
didn’t bother to reply. When I told Ram Singh of my problem, he suggested that I go and meet
the principal. The principal,Yashveer Tyagi, heard me attentively.He assured me that he
wouldn’t let anything happen to me. He said he would talk to Brajpal Singh to solve the problem.
But what happened was just the opposite. I was unable to conduct any experiments during that
whole year. Not only did I do very poorly in the lab tests on the board exam but I also got low
marks on the oral, even though I answered the examiner’s questions quite correctly. When the
results were announced, I was among the failures. I had good marks in all other subjects except
chemistry. I had failed the lab tests. This turn of events put a horrendous barrier in my path. I no
longer felt interested in studying. I couldn’t make up my mind about what to do next.29

These similar experiences of the both of the author’s needs to see in the following point-of-view
that not only their one entire year has wasted but they suffers from extreme mental and
psychological pressure in their early year of childhood. If we overlook the wastage of a year but
still the basic questions needs to be answered:

“does education is only for the privilege class?” “why after drafting several laws and instead of
constitutional protection we have not been able to give them equal opportunities for their growth
and development through the light of education?” “why marginalized students are still working
in the field and not appearing in academia?” If we don’t find appropriate answer to these
questions but still its doesn’t make much impact: because nowadays the quality education is only
preserved for elite upper-highly wealthy class. All the government school and institutes where
the children’s of lower and poor people goes for the study has suffering from high shortage of
teacher’s, infrastructure, basic books and other necessitical equipment for the quality education.

When the author’s completed their schooling those were the decades of sixty’s: poor
infrastructure is and Poor facilities of schooling inter alia other discriminatory factors are still
present; as a result in drop out of 50 per cent of the Dalit children at high school level30 Again, at
school level the pass percentage of Dalit students (69 per cent at class X and 71 per cent at class
XII), is much less than the average (75 and 77 per cent, respectively;31 And those who could
surmount the obstacle to reach the universities suffer severe inhuman assaults in the class
room’s.

The basic fact needs to be understood that education doesn’t mean just going to school everyday
and sitting in the class room; education means developing critical thinking to a student;
providing intellectual capabilities so he can make appropriate decision for not only himself but
his family, society, and for the nation. Looking to this devastating situation of education in India
economist Amartya Sen puts it: “India is the only country in the world which is trying to become

29
Omprakash Valmiki, trans, Arun Prabha Mukherjee, Joothan, columbia university press (2003):p. 79.
30
GOI (Government of India). (2014). Educational statistics at a glance. New Delhi: Bureau of Planning, Monitoring
and Statistics, Ministry of Human Resource Development.
31
Kumar Rana, educational exclusion in India: Sub-group Divisiveness among Dalits (2017) :p. 104.
a global economic power with an uneducated and unhealthy labour force. It’s never been done
before, and never will be done in the future either.”32

In the same line Kumar Rana also highlighted the lack of opportunity for education of Dalits he
believes it is because of the lack of literacy amoung Dalit’s that they have divided into various
groups and sub-caste; he wrote: “the lack of opportunity of literacy is directly related to the
social system where Dalits are divided and sub-divided into hundreds of groups, where some
groups have numeric, social, economic and political advantage over others. Unfortunate as it is,
literacy, which is a centrally freedom enhancing element, appears to strengthen rather than
weaken the caste boundaries––inside and outside the Dalit domain.”33 He later remarks that if
india has to achieve progress in the global world it has to include the everyone in educational
sphere; if I have to quote him exactly: “India cannot make progress by excluding its Dalit
peoples who form nearly 17 per cent of its population and who populate 580 of its 593
villages.”34

Joint family: Living in the multifaceted environment

One distinct quality which India possess is the environment of Join family where every one
supports each-other in terms of crises. If we have to define the joint family system then there are
lots of definitions provided by the scholar’s; Irawati Karve defines it as “a group of people who
generally live under one roof, who eat foodcooked at one hearth, who hold property in
common.”35 according To Aggarwala “what constitutes the essence of a joint family is their
common way of living or way of living common to their constituents."36 This common element
can be achieved irrespective of the place that the members of a joint family live whether it is
Delhi, Calcutta or any other rural place. Because of this system of joint family many calamities
and tragic incidence have been prevented successfully. This could also been attributed to these
two author’s Urmila and Omprakash who also gets full support and co-operation during the time
of crises. Urmila Pawar wrote while eknowledging the contribution of her father in these words:
“My father, who was a teacher, had built a small little hutlike house on the road to the bazaar, in
Ratnagiri proper, especially for his children’s education.”37 Similarly the father of Omprakash
32
amartya Sen: India can’t become a global economic power with an uneducated, unhealthy workforce. Retrieved
30 November 2015, from
http://qz.com/557199/amartyasen-india-cant-become-a-global-economic-power-with-an-uneducated-unhealthy-
workforce/ ———.
33
Kumar Rana, educational exclusion in India: Sub-group Divisiveness among Dalits (2017):p. 12.
34
Ibid: p. 12.
35
T. Mathai Thomas, Modernity and the Hindu Joint Family System, International Journal on World Peace, Vol. 12,
No. 1 (MARCH 1995), p. 3.
36
Ibid:
37
Urmila Pawar, the weave of my life:p. 22.
Valmiki also push his son towards education with the conviction that later by getting proper
education he could be able to contribute for the reformation of caste; he always use to say to his
son: “Bete parh likhkar tujhe jati sudharnaa hai (after getting educated you have toreform the
caste)” during the eighth or ninth standard when the author was just developing the critical
consciousness on himself and question’s the ritual of Salam38 which every Dalit newly bride has
to perform his father appreciates him by giving following remarks: “Munshiji, sending you to
school has been a success. I too have understood your point.We will now break this custom.”39
And after that they broke the old-age custom of performing Salam to the Uper-caste family.

Dalits have to routinely face economic hardships every day; when Omprakash had to quit the
school after the fifth standard and later he express his feeling of going to the school again to his
parents, at that time his Bhabhi give her anklet for cell so that he can rejoin again the school his
father kept saying: “No, Bahu . . . Don’t sell it. I will arrange somehow to send him to school.
Don’t you worry . . . You have just the one ornament . . .How can we sell that too? . . . Go on,
keep it.”40 But she wouldn’t listen to him and insisted on putting it in his Ma’s hand. Similarly in
the case of Urmila Pawar when her teacher bruetly beats her into the class and insulted her at that
time only her mother stood for her side and because of her authoritative tone the teacher stops
insulting.41 That was the spirit of join family and because of these helping hand they have
become success in their respective career. Because of this supportive family spirit While writing
on join family our current voice president presented his observation in the following words: “If
there is one cohesive, cementing force at the heart of traditional Indian society — a single,
powerful strand which for centuries, has woven the tapestry of our rich, social fabric replete with
diversity, into a whole — it is our family system.”42

Apart from possessing these positive characteristics The joint family system has also some of the
negative aspects to it; to understand its negative connotations we have to look critically the
structure of this family system as-well. In the join family the oldest male member enjoy’s high
authority and power; he was largely responsible for taking decision on most of the issues.
Because of the highly power and authoritative atmosphere to challenge their decision was almost
impossible; we get to same glances while reading to the biography of Urmila Pawar as-well; she
writes; “Baba had tremendous power over the household. Everybody was so scared of him.
Anybody who dared to contradict him would be sent back, with an aching body and an aching
mind. I sometimes felt so mystified.”43 Even the women’s have to play almost subordinate role in

38
OmPrakash valmiki: “The bridegroom goes from door to door at his own wedding. It is awful. The bridegrooms of
the higher castes don’t have to do that.This bride will also go door to door after she arrives in Barla.”
39
Omprakash Valmiki, trans, Arun Prabha Mukherjee, Joothan, columbia university press (2003):p. 90.
40
Ibid: p. 67.
41
Urmila Pawar, the weave of my life: p. 52-53.
42
Venkaiah Naidu, Why the Indian family is a great institution, the Hindu: May 14, 2018
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/why-the-indian-family-is-a-great-institution-
ep/article23884420.ece

43
Urmila Pawar, the weave of my life: p. 38.
the family; from cooking to cleaning, from doing to house hold chores she has to serve her
family for-ever. The status of women was lamentably low with complete denial of their
participation in economically gainful economic activities. Their life activity is restricted within
the four walls of their houses. In these autobiographical narration most of the women’s have
contributed for the above mentions facts from cooking to weaving, from house hold chores to
caring the members of the family. Their economic life is highly restricted.

Rebelling against tradition: marrying on their own will

One of the foremost reason why caste have still predominant impact on India is the restriction of
inter-caste marriages. There are 3,000 castes and 25,000 subcastes in India, each related to a
specific occupation. Further we have to note that Dalits did not come under this number; they
have considered out-caste and untouchable according to the Hindu mode of system. The
prominent element preserved in these castes is that all of the caste are not allowed to
intermingled through marriage or other boundation. Each caste is being encourage upon to marry
from their own caste or clan, if any one dared to marry from their own free will he or his family
was declared out-caste and economic and social boycott is being imposed by the clan member’s.
Therefore, in the context of India To think of marriages between different castes and different
religions is a difficult and socially unacceptable proposition. To every such marriage social
stigma is attached, making it difficult for the couples to survive.44

When it comes to marriage between different castes and communities then it is like a taboo for
most of the people. But it is believed by various social reformers that in order to remove this
barrier of caste and religion, it is very much necessary that inter-caste and inter-religious
marriages must take place. Even today after getting indepandance for many year’s still inter-
caste marriage’s have not taken in the larger scale. In this context it is necessary that these
author’s has cross the first barior regarding the urgings of inter-caste marriage’s. Before we talk
about the inter-caste marriage’s we need to remember that according to Hindu families
patriarchal structure, forget choosing their partner! The girls have not even the rights of making
decision regarding her marriage. But in this regard both carry their struggle for choosing their
partner’s. In this regard one fact needs to be remember is that both of their lover’s belongs from
their own caste and clan. And those days marrying with the person of the same clan is also not
been encouraged. Their fore, it is very significant that both of them have enunciated their will to
marry with their choice. Let’s move to their story in this regard;

44
Samarth Trigunayat, Inter-caste & Inter-Religious Marriages: Social And Legal Issues,
https://www.lawctopus.com/academike/concept-waqf-muslim-law/
She meets her future partner one day after coming to school, when she saw him for the first time.
Her mother informs her that he was the friend of the Khedaskar and works in his office. She then
after went to give him tea and have conversation with the first time. They not only formally
introduced with each-other and after that starts meeting often in different place. She describe his
characteristics of her first meet with this word; “He was a dark man with a fresh-looking face. He
had a wide forehead, amber eyes, straight nose, thick curly black hair, nicely trimmed
moustache, and smiling lips.”45 At that time of her first meeting with Harishhandra she was
studying on eighth standard. Thereafter, they often meet in different place’s of their village’s and
according to the author it took a year to understand that they loved each-other. When they were
in love the utmost opposition comes from her family mostly to her brother and mother. She
marks: “Everybody in our family noticed that Harishchandra came to our house frequently and
that we sat chatting for hours. They had no objection to his coming as a friend. But nobody
wanted us to be married. He was only an SSC-pass and worked as a simple clerk. My sister
wanted my husband to be at least a graduate. My brother in Mumbai wanted me to marry a man
who was more educated than me and equal to us in status. And my mother considered my age,
sixteen years, as quite dangerous. So when Harishchandra came visiting, she kept me occupied in
some work. She often threw veiled suggestions at him to come less frequently and leave
sooner.”46 Thus no one was willing to get her marrying with Harishchandra and that doesn’t stop
them for carrying their efforts with their utmost capability. One day Harishchandra arrived at the
author’s house with his baba, kaka, mama, and mami and made a formal proposal of marriage.
That time some of the family members of hers were favor of the marriage and by this time, the
opposition of the others in the family had considerably weakened too. So finally after much
efforts their parents were agreed: but with the approval her family put some conditions. They
were: “The marriage will take place at your village Bhiraunde; the expenditure of the marriage
will be shared equally by both parties; we will not buy any clothes or a gold ring for the groom;
we will not insist on your buying anything for the bride; our own traveling expenses to and from
Bhiraunde will be borne by us!”47 finally the marriage takes place; and they live happily for
year’s up until the death of her husband Harishchandra at the age of 67.

Omprakash Valmiki married in December 27 1973 with her Bhabhi’s sister after much
struggling to his family. When he established himself in good position working in the ordinance
factory in Mumbai their parents started force him for the marriage. His brother Jasbir find him a
match from his own clan but when the author enquire heavly and try to find necessary
information about the girl then he discover that his mother’s brother was behind this match. He
wanted to tie this noose around him so that he would never be able to get out of his clutches.48
When he got relevant information about the conspiracy then he forced his brother and parents
that “he wants to see the girl.” The author also narrates the situational conditional social reality

45
Urmila pawar, the weave of my life: p. 89.
46
Ibid: p. 91.
47
Ibid :p. 112.
48
Omprakash Valmiki, Arun Prabha Mukherjee Joothan (2003) :p. 168.
of that time which we have discussed above that “our community didn’t have the custom of
showing the prospective bride. The elders decided it all. And the boy and the girl would go along
with their decision. No one in the boy’s family would go to see the girl. It was considered
impolite. The mediator was trusted. Many a time this trust had led to horrible tragedies. My
demand was like a bombshell. Everyone was staring at me, their eyes popping with
astonishment.”49 Thereafter, with so many excuses they avoided to show the girl. At this point
omprakash Valmiki felt very depressed; his family were arguing strongly to marry with the
chosen girl for him; they ridiculed him: “How dare I flout the rules of our caste, our community?
Education did not mean that one should stop obeying the hallowed customs of our people.”50 In
this difficult circumstances he met Swarnlata Bhabhi’s sister, Chandrakala, also called Chanda.
Telling her about everything in detail, he also told her what was in his heart,“Will you marry
me?”51 Chanda was studying for her intermediate then. According to the author Surprise was
written all over her face, and she asked,“What are you saying?” “Think about it and let me
know,” he said confidently and left. After then in the next day she agreed and both get marry
after convincing very hard to their parents.

Division among Dalits and their identity crisis

How Dalit society is divided in many caste and other groups is also well recorded in these
autobiography’s. However, it is needs to be remembered that not only the Dalit’s but the entire
Hindu society have divided in caste, clan, family history and other lines. This division is not
limited to Hinduism but in Islam and Christianity have also went into the fazes of same division.
As Clifford Bob writes: Given this diversity, viewing Untouchables as a single cohesive group is
sociologically problematic. Indeed, there are conflicts among Untouchable communities, often
based on occupational hierarchies within the broader group.52 Even they have been divided as a
social and political category’s which makes very difficult to unite themselves in a single
cohersive group. Because of this division they haven’t able to achieve the decisive victory in
their struggle’s for equality despite forming 16% of population. Both the author’s highlighted
how the Dalit’s have divided in different caste and how because of their struggle’s from each
other makes very difficult to form a single unit among Dalit’s. In U. P. And Maharashtra both
place’s as our study of narrative goes the situation remains same. And this led to identity crisis
among them. To avoid the caste exploitation and discrimination they try to change their caste
with up-er caste sounding names.

49
Ibid :p. 169.
50
Ibid:
51
Ibid: p. 169.
52
Clifford Bob, "Dalit Rights Are Human Rights": Caste Discrimination, International Activism, and the Construction
of a New Human Rights Issue, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Feb., 2007), pp. 173-174. -
Let me elaborate this section with the words of Valmiki: The Dalits who have become educated
face a terrible crisis— the crisis of identity—and they are trying to find an easy and
instantaneous way to get out of this crisis. They have started to use their family gotra as their
surname after just a little bit of fine-tuning. For instance, Chinaliye has become Chandril or
Chanchal, and Saude has been changed to Saudai or Sood. One gentleman has converted Parchha
to Partha. My mother’s family’s gotra is Kesle, which some people have changed to
Keswal.They find that the easy way out. Behind all such acts is the anguish of identity crisis,
which has come about as a reaction to the blatant inhumanity of casteism. Dalits want to join the
mainstream of society after getting an education, but the savarnas prevent them from doing so.
They discriminate against Dalits. They think of them as inferior beings. They cast doubts on their
intelligence, their ability, their performance. They use all kinds of nefarious means to attack
Dalits. In these times of dire danger to our existence, when a man like me comes around with his
caste-marker surname, all those people who want to hide their caste become wary. They feel that
someone is letting out their secret. They find it easier to run away from the problem. But the
truth is that change won’t come about through running away. It will come about through struggle
and engagement.53

Similar narratives of changing the identity to hide their caste is also evident in Urmila Pawar’s
work; while reading this we got to know how in most metropolitan city of India Mumbai, caste
system has mark the full presence. And to hide themselves the Dalit’s change their caste surname
with the similar sound of upper caste. “There were many Dalit officers living around But the
nameplates on their doors told a different story; these were all Brahmin names like Tambe,
Kamat, Sahasrabudhdhe, Barve, and so on.54 It was quite difficult to make out whether they
belongs from dalit family or belonged from upper caste people. One day the author decides to
find out the truth with her friend. They climbed four flights and, panting for breath, pressed the
bell of a flat. “Someone peeped through the eyepiece. “What do you want?” A voice inquired.
The cold tone startled us a little. But soon we regained our composure and answered, “We are
starting a Dalit women’s organization, want to talk about it.” The woman quickly lowered the
chain, opened the door, let us in, and closed the door again, with a worried expression on her
face. “Sit down,” she said and went inside to get some water for us. We looked around. Classy
furniture, color TV, phone … quite an affluent house. But no signs of Phule and Ambedkar! The
woman returned with glasses of water. She was plump, fair, and decked out in heavy gold
jewellery! “All right, what is it?” She said. So we began our well-rehearsed speech. But she was
not even listening. “How did you know that we are one of you?” She asked us. “Oh, we just
guessed.” “But how could you? Nobody here has the slightest suspicion that we are like that. In
fact, because of our looks, they think we are Kobras.” “Kobras?” Meenakshi was completely at a
loss. “Kokanstha Brahman!”.”55 Because of this incidences both of the writer’s share major
concerns about hiding the identity’s to move away from the caste. They thought that changing

53
Joothan :p. 197.
54
Urmila pawar, the weave of my life: p. 172.
55
Ibid:
the caste name into upper caste will help their situation into the betterment. But both the author’s
share major concern regarding this. Urmila Pawar asserts: “Many people in our community look
after their own interests alone; they change their surnames, hide their caste. But does it help the
oppressed people in their community? Does their situation change? Don’t you think this is
escapism?” 56 when omprakash valmiki worked their in Maharashtra while observing to dalit
community’s he had also found out that because of the division between Mahar’s and Mehtar’s.
And how a distrust have built in these communities. “Looking at Maharashtra’s Dalit bastis—
both rural and urban— fills one’s heart with sadness. Thanks to Ambedkar’s consciousness
raising among the Mahar bastis, Mahars had turned to education en masse. But Mangs and
Mehtars and others were still illiterate. Dalit activists had plenty of pluck. Their resolve and
activism filled one with hope. Even the activists, however, har- bored feelings of caste
differences. Although they talked outwardly of forgetting the differences between
Mahars,Mangs, Chamars, and Mehtars, all untouchable castes, internally they were caught in the
clutches of these beliefs.”57 Even for attending Ambedkar Jayanti which has remain one of the
most celebrated festival for dalit’s only the Mahar’s were more enthusiast for the celebration.
When Ambedkar had converted into Buddhism with him many mahar’s community’s had also
accepted Buddhism. But despite the conversion lots of families were still tied to the Hindu gods
and goddesses. Valmiki states: “Babasaheb’s message had not reached the Mehtar bastis at all.
Whatever little had trickled in had come packed in a casteist mold. Whenever I talked about it
with a Mehtar, he looked at me in surprise. Mehtars had respect for Babasaheb, but his followers
had not been able to win their minds and hearts. They were Mehtars, placed at the very bottom of
the social ladder. This feeling prevented them from joining the movement. They were suspicious
of the Dalit leadership. The internal contradictions of the Dalit movement have weakened it, and
the consequences have been felt at the political level too.”58 Even he find many similarities
between Mehtar community with his own community. “There is no real difference between
Maharashtra’s Mehtars and Uttar Pradesh’s Chuhra Valmikis; except for the language,
everything else is similar. The Mehtars also breed pigs. They too make an offering of pig and
liquor in the worship of their gods and goddesses.Their customs and traditions are pretty similar
as well. The centuries-old inferiority complex affected a segment of the Dalits, and this
compelled them to hide their identity as Dalits.They kept their distance from other Dalits in order
to win favor from the savarnas, and they worked against Dalits, reporting on their activities to the
savarnas.”59 Because of the differences and identity crisis among the Dalit’s both the author’s felt
very urgent need to fix this issue.

56
Ibid: p. 172-173.
57
Omprakash valmiki Joothan: p. 177.
58
Ibid: p. 177.
59
Ibid:
Mode of protest: thespian resistance

In Maharashtra likewise Dalit literature Dalit theater had also rising slowly in the decades of
70’s. The idea’s of Ambedkar’s message and the burning issue’s which impacts Dalit’s were the
major focus of these theater. Both the author’s have not only contributed for the theater by acting
but wrote and created many play’s which got well appreciation from all corners. The Dalit
theater had also originated among Marathi speaking people. And now, it has presence all over
India. While defining the Dalit theater Satish Pawade writes: “Dalit Theatre is actually a
theatrical discourse on Ambedkar’s ideology. This discourse enables us to see, understand and
judge the racial and ethnic attitudes of the world. It converts Ambedkarite vision, its contents, its
meanings and its imagery into a palette of colours and devises theatrical means for presenting
Ambedkarite thought and philosophy.”60 Analyzing the rebel and pro-change elements of Dalit
Theatre, Dr Sayavan Rao writes, “Dalit Theatre created a form that was anti-model and
deconstructed the process of conventional theatrical forms.”61 Even these artist have challenged
the traditional notion of art and craft in theater. It adopted indian style of folk art discarding
Sanskrit influences. They created their own heroes. Their voice became a weapon for change.
Elaborating on the role of Dalit Theatre, well-known Dalit dramatist B.S. Shinde says the main
objective of the Dalit Theatre is to unite everyone who has been oppressed and exploited under
the umbrella of humanity and dignity. Dalit Theatre’s voice is the voice for humanity and self-
respect. It has been fighting for emancipation of the humans and is committed to Ambedkarite
consciousness. Yashwant Manohar writes that Dalit Theatre takes the thoughts of the great
Ambedkar and Jotiba Phule to society and relieves the sufferers of their sufferings.62 Following
the same path both the author involve themselves in theater’s and actively work with their full
capacity. Let us understand their contribution and involvement in theater by looking the
instances of their life.

When Urmila pawar was studying in the ninth standard, she had a teacher called Vasantrao
Deshpande who decided to stage a one-act play called Kalalavya Kandyachi Kahani (The tale of
the onion that poisoned people’s minds) for the interschool one-act play competitions. The story
was simple. A princess once found an onion among the fruits. Out of curiosity, she started
peeling it, which made her eyes water. The tears simply would not stop. The king made a public
announcement that the man who made her laugh would receive half his kingdom. So many
people came and gave it a try and finally the princess did laugh. While remembering those days
the author says that “The subject was amusing enough for children. At that time I was quite a
hefty girl. My elder sister, who was thin as a straw, used to say, “Don’t stand next to me! You
will break my bones if you accidentally fall on me!” The teacher thought that I looked funny
60
Satish Pawade, Dalit Theatre and Ambedkar, august 15 2017, Forward Press,
https://www.forwardpress.in/en/author/satish-pawade/

61
Ibid:
62
Ibid:
enough for the role of the king. I had no stage fright, as I regularly participated in many
programs. The teacher also knew that fellow students found my mimicry of other teachers quite
entertaining. We did lots of rehearsals and performed well in competitions but did not win any
prize, but I got at least one for my performance. For quite a long time, the water seller named
Aagashe, near Lata Talkies, and some people would call out, when they saw me passing by, “So
your royal highness, how are you?” People remembered my role for a long time.”63 This instance
of involving into theater in 9th standard not only boost her competition but in future prepare her
for theater. Omprakash valmiki have not introduced himself into the theater in school days the
reasons behind might be that those days in his school the atmosphere of the school was not
acquainted with theater. But when he reach in Ordnance Factory Training Institute for his
training he discovered theater with the involvement of Marxist students. He writes: “I joined
these Marxists in forming a theater group.We rehearsed in the hostel.We staged many plays in
the institute’s auditorium.”64 At the training institute he discover himself he started writing
poetry, reading different types of literature and the involvement of the theater’s is already
discussed now. After the theater had introduced to him In the training institute from that point
onwards he starts writing the short-story’s and play’s and acted and directed in those play’s as-
well. “I also began to write short one-act plays and to stage them. I did both acting and directing.
It was the beginning of my involvement in theater. Shri Vermaji was a well-known theater
person in Khamaria. I staged several plays under his direction.”65 When omprakash valmiki later
move in Mumbai for his further training he indulged in watching theater’s regularly. “Every
Saturday and Sunday both of us went to Bombay to see plays. Once in a while, if there was a
good show in the middle of the week, we would sneak out.”66 And that made him to write and act
in play’s later in his life.

Urmila Pawar starts working in theater as a women artist from early age. The reason behind this
was that those days the great theater artist Shantabai Jog came to stay in Ratnagiri. Those days
Ratnagiri where Urmila lives was also a place for theater lover’s. She informs that “Any theater
company from Mumbai would come to Ratnagiri first before embarking on the tour of
Maharashtra. There were many theater groups. Our Marathi teacher, Vasantrao Deshpande, was
an amateur theater artist. He performed the main role of Dada in the play Vedyacha Ghar Unhat.
People liked him so much that he founded a group called Natraj Sewa Mandal. Many people like
Baban Bane, Suresh Gandhi, Shanu Mestri, Bhau Shetye, and Bapu Pandit became its members.
In those days women artists were difficult to get; they had to be hired from Mumbai. So they
forced my friend Sumati Vaidya and me to be members of the group. Maybe they believed in our
histrionic abilities!”67 the childhood involvement in the theater’s made her to understand the
power of theater later in life. And that also helps to spread his idea’s into the common masses.

63
Urmila Pawar, the weave of my life: 104.
64
Omprakash valmiki, joothan: p. 149.
65
Ibid:
66
Ibid: p. 153.
67
Urmila pawar, the weave of my life: p. 110.
Later when they both starts working in their respective area’s besides the work they both devoted
time for theater. And for them these activities carried immense happiness and pleasure. Urmila
Pawar happly narrates those story’s of involving with theater while working in offices. Women
from Ratnagiri were a little hesitant about acting in plays. There were two women called the
Hegishte sisters who could be hired to act in plays. But they were busy. So someone asked me if
I would like to act. I agreed on two conditions: no late-night rehearsals and no physical contact
with co-actors. I acted in several full-length plays, such as Mala Kahi Sangaychay, Ashrunchi
Zali Phule, Shantata Court Chalu Ahe, and quite a few oneact plays, like Bandu Natak Karto,
Bandu Undir Marto, Swapna, and so on. My role as Benare in Tendulkar’s Shanata Court Chalu
Ahe was widely acclaimed and I won the first prize for acting.68 Similarly later when valmiki
was working in the ordinance factory he founded his theater group namely Meghdoot Natya
Sanstha in 1974 and actively engaged in the group till his transfer from Mumbai in 1985. He
notifies: “In 1974, with the help of a few friends, I started a theater group called Meghdoot Natya
Sanstha. Soon this group became well known around Nagpur for its engaged perspective. A
campaign had begun with regular shows and street plays to acquaint the wider public about
contemporary issues. A team of brave young men was devoting itself fully to this task.”69 But
actively involving into the theater the problem of caste was still remains’: in the field of theater
where people expect that people working here transform’s the boundary of caste, class, religion,
region and so on. But the truth was different. Valmiki made aware of this fact with the
description of celebration of the Ambedkar Jayanti: “Residents of the Ordnance Factory Colony
in Chandrapur celebrated Ambedkar’s birth anniversary with great fanfare. I participated in it
with great enthusiasm. We organized poetry readings, panel discussions, and art exhibitions and
staged plays and street theater. The savarna caste members of our organization, which was called
Meghdoot Natya Sanstha, would inevitably be very busy with some important matters at such
times. They disappeared from the scene during the Ambedkar birth anniversary celebrations.
Only during Ganesh Chaturthi, Shivaji Jayanti, Janmashtami, and Ramnavami, all important
festivals of the gods worshipped by the savarnas, did they work on behalf of Meghdoot Natya
Sanstha’s endeavors. This behavior exposed the internecine divisions among us.”70 This
discrimination by the Svarna member’s in theater’s made us to think that the caste system in
India is so rooted that despite getting good education it have not been able to eradicated. Because
of these reason’s Valmiki began to search those people’s who can actively wants to devote for
the theater’s and wants revolutionary change in society. With the continuous efforts he stage
many Dalit play’s and influenced many other with his work. “We staged many Dalit plays. One
was Mumbai Nagri by Daya Pawar. A convocation of Nagpur University was held in
Chandrapur. Meghdoot Natya Sanstha staged a play at the convocation. Many intellectuals,
writers, and professors commented positively about the production.71

68
Ibid: p. 145.
69
Omprakash valmiki, Joothan: p. 166.
70
Ibid: p. 178.
71
Ibid:
His Natya sanstha got several awards and recognition’s from many organization’s. His theater
group has won first prizes many times. While reliving this memory he wrote: Ballarpur Paper
Mills sponsored a drama competition every year. This competition for Hindi and Marathi plays
was important not only for the theater people but also for the audience in the Ballarpur area.
Meghdoot Natya Sanstha had made a name for itself in this competition by staging plays like
Aadhe Adhure, Himalaya ki Chhaya, Sinhasan Khali Hai, and Paisa Bolta Hai. We won many
prizes. I was awarded the best actor and the best director prize several times. Chanda won the
best actress prize for her central roles in Himalaya ki Chhaya and Aadhe Adhure.”72

Working for the emancipation of Dalit’s: The activism in Mumbai

It is very strange that both of them have born in different region but when they came for the
better opportunities of work in Mumbai they both after spending year’s became associated with
Dalit movements. They actively participated and extensively wrote for the growth of this
movement. The strike differences is that after the coming in Mumbai the Urmila Pawar does not
associated immediately with the Dalit movement because of her study’s and family responsible’s
and office work’s but later from 1988 she devotes herself for the cause of Dalit’s liberation. Both
of the author takes note of the struggle of changing the name of the Marathwada university in to
Ambedkar university in their autobiographical account. This incidence becomes major point for
the Dalit’s. When this incidence happens Urmila Pawar was in her second year of her B. A.
Course. And while acknowledging to the impact of the movement she feels guilty for not
participating in it. Valmiki too was working in ordinance factory. And closely saw this
movement and struggle’s of the dalit’s for the assertion of their rights. Let us recall those days of
activism for changing the Marathwada university to Ambedkar Univercity from both the
autobiographical narration. Urmila Pawar while informing to the movement and feeling guilty
for not participating it writes: “The movement for changing the name of the Marathwada
University to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University was gaining ground. Mumbai
reverberated with the slogans raised at processions held by activists from all over Maharashtra.
We saw innumerable activists camping in the Azad Maidan, the public park in south Mumbai,
with their banners. Since it was very close to our offices, we got to watch these scenes every day.
We saw so many women from the villages and slums walking in the processions, carrying
children in their arms. We used to feel guilty that middle-class women like us did not participate
in the protest marches. I often spoke about it in my speeches. But we had never participated in
any protest marches till then.”73 Valmiki while closely observing to this movement ad’s: “In
1978 the Dalit Panthers organized a huge rally in Bombay, demanding that Marathwada
University’s name be changed to Dr. Ambedkar University. Dalit Panther activists from all over
72
ibid: p. 191.
73
Urmila Pawar, the weave of my life: p. 156.
Maharashtra gathered in front of Bombay’s legislative assembly. The state assembly passed the
bill for the name change. Savarnas, or upper-caste people, had opposed the bill on a large scale,
and rioting and destruction of public property occurred in several towns and cities. Ahmadnagar,
Aurangabad. Nagpur, Sholapur, Bombay, Nasik, and Amravati were tense. Marathwada felt the
effects of the rioting the most. Dalit neighborhoods were torched. Hundreds of people died. The
news in the papers broke one’s heart. The name change had become a selfhood issue for Dalits.
Nagpur saw incidents of violence. Protesters had also marched in Chandrapur. The Maharashtra
government withdrew the name-change bill. The Dalits were disappointed. They did not lose
heart, however, and were working relentlessly to keep the issue in the public eye. They
channeled all their energy into the movement. The inspiring leadership and impassioned
speeches of Bapu Rav Jagtap and Jogendra Kavare kept Dalits fired up. The hatred of thousands
of years was once again visible in its original form. I saw this movement of Dalit assertion from
close up. Each follicle of my body felt the heat of the movement. The cruel social arbiters of
Indian society were denying individual merit. In their eyes Ambedkar was simply a Mahar, and
they could not care less if his scholarship was as vast as the sky. The battle for Dalit selfhood
that Ambedkar had fought in his life had unleashed the flow of self-confidence among the
Dalits.”74

Both of the author tirelessly work for the Dalit liberation and wrote many article’s and thought
provoking poems and published in various news paper’s. Both involve actively in writings and
speaking in public forum’s. While reading to these accounts we get to sense that though they are
actively involve for the Dalit cause but never meet with each-other in their life. One side we have
Urmila Pawar who work’s and understand the lives of Slum area’s “Participating in public
programs like Ambedkar Jayanti and Mahaparinirvan Din in the slums, however, made me see
the poverty and suffering of our people at close quarters. A few of our relatives lived in slums, so
I knew what life in the slums was like. But those slums were not like the ones I went to! Life
here was impossible! Tiny, eight-feet-by-six-feet huts, crammed back to back in a very small
space … cane partitions in between … low tin roofs with a couple of old rags and a few pots and
pans by way of possessions … stinking open drains and gutters in front, with clouds of flies and
mosquitoes hovering over them … attacking humans for trespassing on their land … mice and
bandicoots chasing each other all over the place … children defecating and pigs roaming on the
dung heaps nearby …people spitting everywhere … women throwing dirty water anywhere …
bitter quarrels going on …and, even in this atmosphere, people with pale, emaciated faces trying
to strengthen each other’s resolve to live in the hope of a better life!”75 even till this day the
difficulties of living in the slums areas of Mumbai have highlighted time-to-time by various
publications. The recently released film Gully Boy’s (2019) directed by Zoya Akhtar and starring
Ranveer singh and alia Bhat which became super hit has also highlighted the lives of and
working conditions of the people who are living in the slums.

74
Omprakash valmiki, Joothan: p. 173-174.
75
Urmila Pawar, the weave of my life: p. 164.
Valmiki also with his active participation in these movements narrates how because of these
struggle’s he find out his inner sides of activism. The incidence happened in 1984 closely relate
to this; while describing about this incidence he wrote: In January 1984 an incident that took
place in Malkapur in the Amravati district that epitomized the narrow-mindedness of these parts.
A Marathi textbook meant for class seven included a lesson on Ambedkar.All the students ripped
out the lesson on the orders of a Brahmin teacher. The class included some Mahar students, and
they felt that ripping out the lesson was wrong. Those students quietly picked up the torn pages
from the rubbish and took them home to show them to their families. The news spread. Protests
began. Someone sent a detailed account along with the torn pages to Lokmat’s Nagpur bureau.
Lokmat published the story and photographs of the torn pages. Rallies and protest meetings
began all over Vidarbha as soon as the story broke. This incident became a symbol of Dalit
oppression. Thousands upon thousands of people came to a huge rally staged at Bhadravati. I too
addressed the rally. Most speakers spoke in Marathi. I spoke in Hindi.This was a new experience
for me. The crowd was simmering with anger.At that moment I experienced my belonging to the
Dalit movement intensely. I wrote a poem entitled “Vidrup Chehra” (Crooked Face), and many
magazines and newspapers published it. The movement was gathering force by the day. In many
places savarnas threw stones at Dalit marchers and rallies. The police were indifferent. The board
of education took no disciplinary action against the teacher [who had told the students to tear the
Ambedkar chapter from their books].While Dalits called impassioned meetings in many places,
the administration was trying to suppress the whole thing. This whole episode affected me
deeply. Now I was spending most of my time in Dalit bastis.76 It is evident that how because of
their involvement of the Dalit movement’s made huge impact on the lives of Dalit’s. Their
work’s and writings have become very influential work in Dalit literature. Because of their active
involvement in these struggle’s in Mumbai it shed important light of caste discrimination and
conflict in urban India. And established the fact the not only in the village’s the level caste
discrimination is high but urban India is also not an exception.

76
Omprakash valmiki, Joothan: p. 180-181.
 2.2 Dissimilarities

What was uncommon in their life?

Every human being has different life experiences and understanding. With the so many
distinctions it was challenging for us also to denote the similarities of the two lives. It is also
very astonishing fact that despite taken birth in different gender, different region, different caste,
their lives experiences are inter-connected. But in their lives many dissimilarities could also been
noted down; and it is understandable. Every human being has different experience. And
therefore, in their case the dissimilarities in their life is not an exceptional fact. As urmila born in
feminine gender her experiences as mother, facing patriarchal structure of the family, forming
the Dalit women organization, facing the stigma of menstruation and many such issue’s
differentiates her from Valmiki’s life. Even their birth in different regions increase the possibility
of this distinction further. The cultural difference of Maharashtra specially the village’s of
Ratnigiri and Uttar Pradesh’s Barla village’s also forms various differences altogether. The food
habits, caste dynamics, cultural subtleties also helps very much. Therefore, let have quick and
brief look to some of the dissimilarities of their live experiences.

The patriarchy in Dalit family

The notion of patriarchy in Dalit family’s is highlighted in great detail by Urmila Pawar in her
autobiographical naration’s. As in historiography section “The feminist stand point: looking the
oppressed under the oppressed” we have looked how the women activist and academician’s have
wrote about the patriarchal structure of the Dalit family’s and how the Dalit movements have
failed to integrate this. Urmila Pawar later when she established herself as distinguished author
not only established Dalit women’s organization but actively highlighted the patriarchal attitude
of Dalit leader’s and activist. But the story is not limited to the Dalit leader’s and activist. She
had to face it from the beginning; as she informs that her husband doesn’t opposed to her
education at the beginning but when she completed her graduation and enrolled herself for M. A.
Course then he starts opposing her; Urmila remarks: “I enrolled myself for the M.A. course.
Frankly speaking, I had a great desire for further education. It was at this particular point that
Harishchandra realized that he had lost control over his wife, that I had gone too far ahead of
him.”77 He argues to her by saying: ““Why do you want to do M.A.? Now pay more attention to
the children and the house.”78 The notion of carrying the household chores and responsibility for
taking care of children’s have still ingrain among Dalit families. And that is the reason that they
can’t pursue their education and other out-side work further in their life. After passing the M. A.
Exam her involvement in public events, her writings made tremendous impact on her personal
life. While recognizing the contradictory character of her husband she composes: I slogged the
whole day in the office, at home, and after an arduous journey was dead tired by the time I got
back home. And yet at night, though my body was a mass of aches and pains, I pressed my
husband’s feet. I was ready to do anything he wanted, just to make him happy. I was ready to die
for a smile, a glance from him. But he accused me, “Let alone an ideal wife, you are not even a
good one!” Later on he began saying that I was far from being a good mother as well! I failed to
understand what exactly he wanted from me and became miserable. Gradually it became clear to
me that everything that gave me an independent identity—my writing, which was getting
published, my education, my participation in public programs—irritated Mr. Pawar no end.
Gradually, he began to be full of resentment. His attitude toward me was full of contradictions.
On the one hand, he was proud of my writing; he admitted as much to his friends and relatives.
But, on the other, he immensely resented my being recognized as a writer, my speaking in public
programs, and my emerging as a figure in the public domain. Our arguments would invariably
end in bitter quarrels.79 The common characteristics of the patriarchal perception is that men
wants to give the educational environment till the limited standard so that she can take care of
the house very well. But when Urmila cross the boundary by liberating herself through the
education and starts writing actively her husband fear losing control over her. But despite the fact
that she still pay her utmost attention to the family works from taking care of the children’s to
taking care of her husband. By involving in women movements her thought process also went
very significance change’s. She starts believing on individual freedom. The thought of equality
between men and women also rises after the involvement in the women’s movements. She
remarks: “I was full of many new thoughts. I felt that a woman was also an individual, just as a
man was, and was entitled to all the rights of an individual. If man has muscle power, woman has
the power to give birth. These are distinctly different capacities and need to be evaluated
differently, not in the same way. On the other hand, the people of my community often
confronted me with, “Who are those women you are mixing with these days? Take care; they
belong to a different caste. Our community does not need their thoughts and values.” While they
said this, their way of talking made me feel as if I had joined some criminal gang. I had realized
that I now had a new vision, a new perspective on looking at women. I had lost my fear. The
women’s movement had given me great strength to perceive every man and woman as an equal
individual. It had taught me to relate to them freely, without any prejudice whatsoever!”80
77
Urmila Pawar, the weave of my life: p. 155.
78
Ibid:
79
Ibid: p. 159.
80
Ibid: p. 160.
This patriarchal attitude was not limited to home: but in the Dalit conferences and other events it
becomes strait with full strength. She mentions how in the dalit conferences the voice of the
women’s were absence. All the space has been occupied by the men’s. To counter this problem
she adopted humorous approach. “well. I would often tell a joke while making the point that our
leaders are not as aware of women’s issues as they are about the internal differences among
themselves; hence people get disillusioned with them.”81

Pawar’s experiences as a mother

One of the most differential aspects of these autobiographical narration’s is that Urmila pawar’s
narration has detailed account of working as a mother and how socially and economically she
has to face many responsibilities. Even one of the foremost reasons for staying in Mumbai is that
they want better future for their children’s. But on the other hand we need to bare in mind that
Valmiki doesn’t have any child therefore, he doesn’t testify the experience of his father figure.
Urmila Pawar informs us how because of the education and founding the good books made
aware of the many complexities of pregnancies. She recall’s: “About a year after this, I found
myself pregnant. But, unlike the heroines in Hindi movies, I did not feel any ecstatic euphoria
when I gave this news to Harishchandra. But he was absolutely thrilled. One day he got me a
book to read with something like Before and After Childbirth as a title. It was a guide of sorts for
baby care. When our neighbor, Mohan Methar, saw the book, he heartily laughed at us. “Mr.
Pawar,” he said, “If a man reads a book on swimming and jumps into water, will the bookish
knowledge save him from drowning? He has to learn swimming by doing it. You don’t need a
book to learn that!” “Maybe you are right,” Harishchandra answered, “maybe the man will
drown. But reading a book certainly helps him to get an idea about the whole business. There is a
possibility that he will be able to save himself.” The debate went on and on. And then Aai burst
out, “To hell with the book! All I want is safety for the two lives.” I understood what she meant
when I went into the labor room. In truth, they should have hung a big board with “Torture
Room” instead of “Labor Room” written on it!”82 and later after hard struggle she gave birth to
son and two daughter’s. Responsibility raising the child is also narrated by her where she informs
that in the beginning they admitted their children’s into Marathi medium school’s but later when
they grew they always complained to their mother for not admitting in English medium school.
She also feel’s regret in her narration that if she could admitted them into English medium school
life would be some-what better for them. Not only this, but she has to suffers the loss of her son
in such a younger age. This tragical situation has ruin her life completely. She wrote: “Life had a
brutal shock, similar to the kind Chandrika Ramteke had faced, in store for me as well. When the
tragedy struck, my grief and agony knew no bounds! It engulfed me completely, like boiling lava
81
Ibid: p. 165.
82
Ibid: p. 139.
out of an exploding volcano, reducing all my emotions, enthusiasm, plans, and hopes to a heap of
charred ashes!”83 she has to face the tragic eventual confrontation for the marriage of her
daughter’s. Despite the protest from her entire family she was the one who only supports it.

Pawar’s role in women's movement and as a women Dalit activist

To fight the patriarchal notion of the Dalit family she began to writing in full swing’s. Her short-
story’s were not only published in reputed newspaper’s and columns. Even her story’s were
included in the syllabus in Mumbai university. She went to found Dalit women’s organization to
bring the Dalit women writer’s in single place. While remembering this incidence’s she wrote:
“One day, Hira and I were having lunch in her office. Suddenly she had a brainwave. “Hey, we
always attend the Asmitadarsha, Dalit, Buddhist Marathi Sahitya Sammelanas. It is always men
who organize them, right? We women only present our writings. Why shouldn’t we have our
own independent platform for literature?””84 when this idea originated after much struggle’s she
has to face challenge’s for founding the organization but with the great determination she
completed this task.

Thus in conclusion we can say that these autobiographical narration supply’s us great
information regarding of their personal experiences with the detail account of Dalit movement
and how it impacted their lives. They highlighted the effect of caste exploitation of the society
and informs how because the cruel caste system they have to suffers various misery’s in their
lives. While observing the impact Valmiki remarks: What historical reasons lie behind this
hatred and malice? Whenever I asked those who find the varna system ideal and take pride in
Hindutva, instead of replying directly, they either avoid my question or get angry. They talk
about gyana, or knowledge, in a convoluted vocabulary, but they will not accept the truth, that
depriving human beings of human rights on account of their birth is not justifiable on any
grounds. Savarnas harbor all sorts of preconceptions that make it impossible to develop normal
personal relations with them. Caste is a very important element of Indian society. As soon as a
person is born, caste determines his or her destiny. Being born is not in the control of a person. If
it were in one’s control, then why would I have been born in a Bhangi household? Those who
call themselves the standard-bearers of this country’s great cultural heritage, did they decide
which homes they would be born into? Of course, they turn to scriptures to justify their position,
scriptures that establish feudal values instead of promoting equality and freedom. The savarnas
constructed all sorts of mythologies: of chivalry, of ideals.What was the outcome? A defeated

83
Ibid: p. 183.
84
Ibid: p. 170.
social order in the clutches of hopelessness, poverty, illiteracy, narrow-mindedness, religious
inertia, and priestocracy, a social order embroiled in ritualism, which, fragmented, was
repeatedly defeated by the Greeks, Shakas,Huns, Afghans,Moghuls, French, and English. Yet in
the name of their valor and their greatness, savarnas kept hitting the weak and the helpless. Kept
burning homes. Kept insulting women and raping them. To drown in self-praise and turn away
from the truth, to not learn from history—what sort of a nationbuilding are they dreaming of?
Times have changed. But something somewhere continues to irk. I have asked many scholars to
tell me why savarnas hate Dalits and Sudras, the lower castes, so much. The Hindus who
worship trees and plants, beasts and birds, why are they so intolerant of Dalits? Today caste
remains a preeminent factor in social life. As long as people don’t know that you are a Dalit,
things are fine. The moment they find out your caste, everything changes. The whispers slash
your veins like knives. Poverty, illiteracy, broken lives, the pain of standing outside the door,
how would the civilized savarna Hindus know it? Why is my caste my only identity?85 It is very
hard to answer the questions raised by Omprakash valmiki; and if we have to achieve the real
progress and want to established India as a great power then we have to rise above the caste
lines. The caste system of India constructed by the Hindu’s is the mostly responsible for all the
major social problem’s of India.

85
Omprakash Valmiki :p. 204-205.
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