21HEMA25

Ankit Kumar Dubey

Writing Caste Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women's Testimonios

Sharmilla Rege, born in Kolhapur District on 7th October 1964, was brought up in Pune, where she
got her education from Ferguson College and the Department of Sociology, University of Pune. She
has published her works on gender and sociology, Dalit feminism and social history of popular
cultural practices in Marathi and English. She has also published several essays on the history of
African- American feminisms and several booklets and music cultures of Ambedkarite counter
publics and pedagogical issues in Dalit cultural studies. Among her works, today we will focus on her
second book, Writing Caste/Writing Gender: Reading Dalit Women's Testimonios, (2006). As in the
West, there has been some criticism of feminist movements in India also. They have primarily been
criticized for focusing too much on women who are already privileged, and neglecting the needs and
representation of poorer or lower caste women. This led to the creation of caste-specific feminist
organizations and movements, which is discussed in the book on Writing Caste / Writing Gender:
Narrating Dalit women's testimonies. This book explores the Dalit feminist standpoint by featuring
extensive extracts from eight Dalit women's life narratives—or testimonios (as the author prefers to
call them)—on issues such as food, hunger, community, caste, labor, education, violence, resistance,
and collective struggle from the 1920s until today. The book brings to vivid life voices that
unequivocally show that Dalit feminism, far from being silent as so often presumed, is rich, powerful,
and layered—as well as highly articulate.

In her book Rege introduces Dalit Feminist Standpoint. Here, Rege argues that Dalit womanhood has
been erased and excluded from anti-caste movements which are primarily male-led, and male
benefiting. The Dalit man is still considered impure and oppressed, or less than, based on his ability
to control and manipulate the women around him, an argument commonly used to justify his
oppression, and hold control over her sexual conduct. Sharmila corroborated Ambedkar's definition
of caste, further arguing that the endogamy of caste can only thrive as long as men control women's
sexuality and reproduction. Thus, Rege manifests sexual politics as being intimately intertwined with
caste, and gender in subjugating and controlling women. The problem of caste status affects all
women, but compounding marginalized identities affects lower caste (Dalit) women to a much greater
extent. Hierarchy of casteism births several forms of patriarchies. Higher caste women are not
allowed to hold public or productive jobs, while lower caste women are limited to being pawns
controlled and utilized by both lower caste men (as their conduct reflects on the men who they answer
to ) and by higher caste men and women to serve as religious and political justification of superiority.
In the section immediately following the introduction in the book, the author debates the consumption
and significance of Dalit testimonios. She argues that although publishing Dalit life narratives in
English has gained popularity in the later years, the politics behind the consumption of Dalit literature
is important to remember. The imminent two dangers of such politics are firstly, prioritization of
certain types of literature and control of publication by the non-Dalits and secondly, the politics of
selecting works, what is translated and by whom. The popularity of Dalit autobiographies in recent
years can perhaps be explained by reading them as narratives of pain without needing to engage with
politics and the theory of Ambedkarism. Another serious issue is the token inclusion of Dalit writings
in the academy. In this context, Rege discusses which issues have been part of debates in Dalit
literary circles of Maharashtra. The debates on the naming of this literature of protest started since
1960s. Dr. Ambedkar first used the term 'Dalit' in 1928 in Bahiskrut Bharat. Although some Dalit
scholars argued against writing autobiographies (as they prefer forgetting instead of digging stench of
the past), some defended this genre's importance by emphasizing its specific characteristics and
volume for the community. Rege and many others have argued for the political significance of
narratives of Dalit life. Despite the reasonings against bringing the undesired past to the present, it is
an undeniable fact that life narratives are the most direct ways to address silence on and
misinterpretation of Dalits.
Another significant justification given by Rege is that Dalit life narratives are testimonies that speak
for and beyond the individual. It contests the 'official forgetting' of histories of centuries of caste
oppression, struggles, and resistance of the Dalits. Dalit life narratives become the testimonies that
remember and summon the truth from the past for all to witness. Rege reasons that in testimony, the
primary intention is to communicate the situation of a group's oppression and struggle. To this effect,
the narrator calls upon the reader to respond actively. On one hand, in testimonio or Dalit life
narratives, the individual seeks collective affirmation. On the other hand, by bringing their
experiences on a public platform, in a way they are trying to challenge communitarian control over
self. This dialectics of self and community gains more significance in Dalit women's testimonios
because their location as women in the community influences their articulation of gender concerns,
thus challenging the singular communitarian notion of Dalit community. As testimonios of caste-
based oppression, anti-caste struggles and resistance, Dalit life narratives are necessary for building
critical pedagogies on the caste system, as against canonical view of caste as ideology which hides
experiential dimensions of caste-based oppression. Thus, Rege makes a case for not reading them
merely as narratives of pain minus the Dalit movement's politics, not testimonios of caste-based
exploitation, everyday resistance and organized anti-caste struggles. Not only will it bring new
theories/ understanding hut also at a larger level, there will be democratization of knowledge.
This answers one of the central questions guiding this book: How can 'private' lived experiences of
one particular individual and the 'public' practices of anti-caste struggles be brought into analysis of
caste and gender? This book is part of pedagogical strategy to address dilemmas in Gender and Dalit
Studies. It 'translates' lived experiences of caste as articulated in Dalit women's 'autobiographies', or
as the author uses the term, testimonios.