Article

Dalit Women and the Question Contemporary Voice of Dalit

15(1S) 8S–18S, 2023
of Representation: Issues of © The Author(s) 2022
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Caste and Gender in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/2455328X221108302
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Bhavesh R. Gohel1,2

Abstract
Gupta (2016) in The gender of caste: Representing Dalits in print points out that media and print are
responsible for creating the stereotypical images of Dalit women. They are always represented by
their caste identities and not as individuals. Female bodies are represented as closely knit to their caste
identities; the characteristic of the caste becomes the representation of the bodies of Dalit women. On
the one hand, Dalit women are represented by the upper caste as wicked, cunning, house breakers,
immoral, ugly and polluted, and on the other hand, they are represented as weak and passive victims
who need care and help to come out of their misery. But it is not the case when the Dalit women rep-
resent themselves. So, the question here arises: How are caste and gender related? What is the role of
caste in the manipulation of the identity of Dalit women? How is caste identity related to the question
of gender and the creation of stereotypes in the context of Dalit women? What are the structures
which are working in the formation of stereotypes which are directly or indirectly related to such rep-
resentations? This paper explores the complex relationship between representation, caste and gender
concerning the representation of Dalit women through the analysis of Joseph Macwan’s The Stepchild.

Keywords
Representation, caste, gender, Dalit women

Anupama Rao defines caste as ‘religio-ritual form of personhood, a social organization of the world
through the phenomenology of touch, an extension of the concept of stigma from the facticity of
biological bodies to metaphorical collectivities such as the body politic, and most importantly, it is an
apparatus that regulates sexuality’ (Rao, 2005, p. 5). Dr Ambedkar has talked about this in his 1916 paper
on caste and he has given the idea of endogamy as the basic foundation of the caste and by controlling
the sexuality, especially of women, the caste system has sustained itself. The caste system is formed in
such a way that it controls the lower caste as well as the women of all castes, and it has created division
and subdivisions with hierarchical positions due to that there are scarcely any chances of solidarity and

1 Department of English, Faculty of Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, India
2
Department of English, Government Science College, Pardi District, Valsad, Gujarat, India

Corresponding author:
Bhavesh R. Gohel, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat
390002, India.
E-mail: bhaveshgohel7693@gmail.com
Gohel 9S

unity between these groups. It is formulated with the integration of patriarchy and rules which fanatically
protect the purity of the bloodline and control sexuality through endogamy as well as strict social codes
which are imposed on men and women of each caste. In this struggle, the body of Dalit women and
sexuality is seen not as a body but rather as property or thing of consumption.
The question of representation has been at the centre of the Dalit movement and feminist movement,
both of these groups are historically discriminated against, excluded systematically and are not given an
entitled share in the national resources by their oppressors. After independence, the question of
representation became the topic of national and international debates and the above-mentioned
movements have emerged powerfully for representation of their communities and groups. But as these
movements have started critiquing the caste system and patriarchy, they were not aware of their limits
and it never came to their notice that they are treating the minority in their group, namely Dalit women
in the same manner as they were treated by their oppressors and so came the critique of the Dalit
movement and feminist movement by the Dalit Women’s movement after the foundation of the National
Federation of Dalit Women who raised questions of representation of Dalit women. The question of the
representation of Dalit women and the complexities of caste and gender are the topics of this current
paper.
Stuart Hall (1997) defines Foucault’s ideas about representation as a Discursive approach and
concentrates on the three aspects: discourse, the issue of power and knowledge, and the question of
subject. He further says

Discourse simply means passages of connected writing or speech. What interested him (Foucault) was the rules
and practices that produced meaningful statements and regulated discourse in different historical periods...
Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language. But since all social practices entail meaning,
and meaning shape and influence what we do – our conduct – all practices have a discursive aspect...The concept
of discourse is not about whether things exist, but about where meaning comes from. (Hall, 1997, p. 44)

If we apply this approach to Dalit women’s body, we will find that it is constructed in the discourse of
upper-caste power and knowledge on the basis and characteristic of the opposite or counterpart to upper-
caste women. Because in absence of a Dalit women’s body with certain characteristics, there won’t be
any standard for the distinction of superiority or inferiority, I will come to this point later. As Charu
Gupta (Gupta, 2016, p. 32) has pointed out ‘The presence of the Dalit women helped in the creation of
binaries, in the portrayal of opposites, and improving the social image of the upper-caste women’. Dalit
women came to be the victim of this upper-caste structure of knowledge and power production at the
highest level. They were harassed because of gender but mostly because of their low-caste identities.
They came to be living in the web of upper-caste knowledge and power productions and escape from it
is very difficult and the question of their representation became very ambiguous, negligible and also
controversial. Upper-caste discourse of power and knowledge reproduction was responsible for the
creation of stereotypes and rules for Dalit women. Terry Eagleton as cited in Gupta (2016, p. 32) talks
about power and legitimacy: ‘A dominant power may legitimize itself by promoting beliefs and values
congenial to it; naturalizing and universalizing such beliefs to render them self-evident and inevitable;
denigrating ideas which might challenge it.’ The legitimacy of superiority and inferiority has always
made public and differentiate from the other caste especially from lower castes and Dalits. The upper-
caste rituals and laws were separate from others and promoted as superior than lower caste, the upper-
caste law for and depiction of the lower caste became the unquestionable criterion. When it comes to
gender, the upper-caste construction of gender is based on caste rules and regulations. ‘Caste and gender
were not only constitutive of the social, but caste was also central to how gender was reproduced’. As
10S Contemporary Voice of Dalit 15(1S)

Charu Gupta (2016, p. 29) notes, according to upper-caste production and reproduction of caste, norms
of the hierarchical structure of caste as well as gender, upper-caste men are at the top, then comes the
upper-caste women, then lower-caste men and at the bottom lower-caste women. This hierarchical
position has made the situation for the Dalit women more severe, they are more prone to abuses (sexual
and others), and eventually made them voiceless. The caste system has justified the legitimacy of its
power and oppression through the religious text and also from socio-cultural rules. The characteristics of
masculinity and manliness are reserved for the upper-caste men; beauty and feminine characteristics for
upper-caste women. When it comes to representation of lower-caste male and female gender, they are
depicted opposite to their counterpart male as asexual, emasculated and subordinate while lower-caste
women as ugly, dark and polluted (Gupta, 2016). These stereotypical images were created by the upper-
caste males through the caste manual according to Charu Gupta, ‘Many caste manuals came to be written
by advocates of the Sanatan Dharm, by Brahmin and Kshatriyas. They ridiculed the customs of Chamars,
sweepers, washermen, and barbers, especially those about women, to stress how historically deep and
unbridgeable was the difference between them’ (Gupta, 2016, p. 41). These negative or misrepresentations
of the Dalit (male/female) body were created in the discourse of upper-caste knowledge and power
production and any breach in this system of the depiction of (male and female) Dalit body in physical or
written form were severely punished.
Caste rule became the basis for the patriarchal and upper-caste power. The distinction of gender and
the control over the female sex became the standard for the distinction between caste and the superiority
of one caste over another. ‘Caste distinction came to be marked through women’s bodies. Caste and
gender inequalities reinforced each other, and women emerged as a powerful means for Brahmanical
patriarchal attempts to consolidate social pyramids and express class exclusivities’ (Gupta, 2016, p. 19).
The space for the women became the basis of the distinction between caste, and even control and
restriction over them came to be the symbol of the elevation of the status of the caste. The upper-caste
women inhabit the private spaces of large homes and do not have to do physical labour, while the lower-
caste women have to go to the field and do physical labour. When the caste elevated socially or gained
economically, they withdrew their women from the field and impose stricter veiling rules to justify their
worthy elevation (Gupta, 2016).
But these representations and depictions of the Dalit body and gender were only one-sided and
prejudicial. After the rise of the Dalit movement in the 1970s, Dalit literature emerged from most parts
of the nation. Some authors have taken the concept of revolt by the Dalit Panthers as the subject matter
and theme for their literary work. Dalit writing in the Gujarati language has been started as early as the
1960s and 1970s. The form of poetry was predominant in the early phase of Dalit writing in Gujarat.
Poets like Neerav Patel, Praveen Gadhvi and Dalpat Chauhan were few but notable practitioners of Dalit
writing. Their poetry talks about everyday discrimination of Dalit people, experiences of untouchability,
atrocities, social and economic exploitations of Dalit people by the upper castes. Their poems are against
the caste system. They support humanity and also promote liberty, equality and fraternity. After the
1970s, Dalit writers in Gujarat started pursuing other literary forms for their expression. We have seen
the rise of Dalit short stories, novels, dramas and autobiographies. The short stories genre presented the
detailed study of Dalit societies, locals, dialects, customs and historical injustices done to them in Gujarat
(Parmar, 2014, p. 169).
Jayant Gadit has classified the short stories into three types based on the themes. These three types are
‘(1) sexual exploitation of helpless Dalit women by the upper-caste people. (2) Ingratitude of the upper
caste, and (3) poverty of the Dalits and situation born out of it’ (quoted in Parmar, 2014, p. 169). The
theme of sexual exploitation of Dalit women has been presented by many writers in short stories. These
are some of the stories which deal with the question of Dalit women’s sexual exploitation Meli
Gohel 11S

Matharavati [Deceitful Intention] by Raghavji Madhad, Rakhopana Saap [A Snake That Protects] by
Arvind Vegda Kalan [Marshy Land] by Mohan Parmar, Adhuro Pul [Unfinished Bridge] and Lakhu
[Birth-mark] by Madhukant Kalpit, Bhaat [Rice] Dazvu te [To Burn] and Navee [New] by Dharmabhai
Shrimali, Chhagan ne Na Samjata Sawalo [Questions That Can’t Be Understood By Chhagan] by Joseph
Macwan, Ek Chhaliya Daal ne Khatar [For a Bowlful Daal] by Vasantlal Parmar and Bheens [Clasp] by
Maulik Parmar. Atul Parmar (Parmar, 2014, p. 173) notes that economic deprivation and their caste
identity are the major reasons of sexual exploitation of Dalit women; this can be observed in all the
above-mentioned stories.
Joseph Macwan is one of the notable and multifaceted writers in the field of Dalit writing in Gujarati.
His literary career spanned three decades and he has produced poems, short stories collection, novels as
well as life sketches. His first collection of life sketches Vyathana Veetak (Stories of uneasiness) has
presented some of the best life sketches with simple language and sensitivity in Gujarati Dalit Writing.
Atul Parmar describes The Stepchild as

a gripping tale of love, heroism, humiliation, revenge and death. It presents a vividly coloured picture of the lives
of two neighboring villages in the Charotar district of central Gujarat. It also documents the politics of the pre-
and post-Independence years, as seen from the perspective of the downtrodden. On the other hand, the novel
portrays the relationship between the Dalit Vankar caste and dominant Patel caste, spurred on by two opposing
ideologies, the Gandhian and the Ambedkarite. (Parmar, 2014, pp. 186–187)

The Stepchild (original title Angaliyaat written by Joseph Macwan in 1987, it won the Sahitya Akademi
Award for 1989) was written by Joseph Macwan, author from Gujarat writing about specially Charotar
region (the region consists of present-day Anand and Kheda district of Gujarat); the novel was translated
by Rita Kothari in 2004. In the acknowledgements of the translation, the author remarked: ‘Although
Angaliyat received the National Sahitya Akademi award In 1989, it has still not been translated into any
Indian language’ (Mekavāna & Kothari, 2004). This shows the problem of proper representation and
reception of Dalit literature and the problem of proper scholarship and translation of Gujarati Dalit
literature. Achyut Yagnik in his introduction to this novel explains the title as

The Title of this novel Angaliyat carries within itself the age-old divide between the center and periphery in the
spheres of family and society of Gujarat. Originally a kinship term, the word Angaliyat stands for a stepchild
who, following the mother’s second marriage, comes to a new home holding her finger, angle (finger). In a
patriarchal and matrilineal society, such a child would always remain on the periphery of the stepfather’s family.
Similarly, in a society where the second marriage of women is a social taboo, the castes, and communities who
allow such a marriage would be considered either ‘backward’ or ‘excluded’. In the perception of upper-caste
Gujarati society, for centuries, the crucial demarcation between the ujaliyaat (savarna) or forward and pachchat
(Dalit) or backward communities has revolved around the practice of second marriage, naatru. In such a social
background, Angaliyat signifies the secondary, the peripheral, never accepted by the core, the core of family and
society. (Mekavāna & Kothari, 2004, p. xxviii)

The novel opens in the early twentieth century when the nationalist movement is at its peak and
independence is just a step away to achieve. The power of the empire is waning and Congress is planning
for the smooth transfer of power. The setting is Gujarat, particularly the Charotar region where the Patidar
community is powerful and they are the ruling caste having money, land and thus power. The novel
contains the constant clash between the upper caste and Dalits or lower caste. (In this novel, particularly
the Patidars, the Patel community and Vankar, communities who are traditionally related to weaving
work, were considered untouchables in the Charotar region.) The protagonist of the novel Teeha is aware
12S Contemporary Voice of Dalit 15(1S)

of the caste exploitations at various levels, which makes him feel disgusted about his caste and life. The
strongest female character of the novel is Methi. The novel revolves around Teeha and Methi’s life
making it the centre with their never-fulfilling love. The author has done a unique work with
the characterization of Methi. One can compare her characterization with Ragini, one of the main
characters of the long novel by Manubhai Pancholi Zer to Pidha che Zani Zani. Ragini belongs to the
upper caste while Methi belongs to the lower caste but when we compare both, we will have difficulty
in the comparison because both share similar characteristics. The life of Methi is very dramatic as well
as tragic. She is powerful and very strong in decision-making one of her strongest qualities, but she is
also submissive as we see her in the later part of the novel. She is compassionate, strong and beautiful;
when she was harassed in the very first chapter by one of the Patel boys, she was powerful enough to talk
back with a strong voice. ‘Bastard, which mother produced such an evil man?’ (Mekavāna & Kothari,
2004, p. 15).
But these depictions of bravery are on the outer side, and in these depictions, sometimes the readers
tend to miss the importance of gender prejudice of the author. The title of the novel represents the caste,
particularly the lower caste which is ill-treated by the society as the stepchild is ill-treated by the family.
The woman in the novel is at the margin of (the stepchild within) this structure and is ill-treated because
of her caste and gender. Methi’s life is branded with gender identity and chained with her caste rules; she
is presented as a commodity or a thing. For the protagonist, she always remains a desired beloved whom
he can easily sacrifice, forget or remove from life without any serious struggle or fight of protest. The
upper-caste Patidars to avenge their disrespect are constantly looking for a chance to ruin her life
throughout the novel, the people of her community knowing all about her husband, that he is a drunkard
and will not treat her well, force her to go as his wife. Even her father cannot do anything because he is
helpless and cannot go against the rules of the caste. When it comes to gender, although powerful, she
thinks she should live in the shadow of men, first her husband and then Teeho.
The important point to notice here is how the subjugation of women and their inferiority is internalized
through the rules of patriarchal society and the caste system. The rules and regulations of the society in
Gujarat are of utmost importance to people. The society or ‘Samaj’ which is caste holds tremendous
power over the everyday life of the people and the caste rules and regulations handle the life of people.
Those who break them or act beyond them face severe circumstances like ex-communication. The
majority of these rules are framed in the patriarchal society and made in a way that it will subjugate the
women but still they are followed and are supported by many women. Although it is not easy to write a
character who does not fit in the social and spatial setting, to make the character brave and at the same
time so timid and helpless accepting fate is Macwan’s realism, which can provide light into the reality of
the life of Dalits especially Dalit women. On the one hand, Methi does not care about family respect and
agrees to elope with the protagonist but she does not possess the power to confront the protagonist when
she gets the letter that Teeha does not want to marry Methi after the death of his friend.
The structure of the power and knowledge in which the novel is set is twofold. When the novel opens
in the early 1920s, there are two power structures and knowledge production forces. One is The Empire
and the other is the upper caste. At that time, the powerful empire is waning but still has some power, but
at the end of the novel, we can see the destruction of one structure of knowledge and power production
and the monopoly of the upper caste. This can be proved in this way when at the beginning of the novel,
Valji and Teeho complained through the Master to the collector, he helped them (Mekavāna & Kothari,
2004, p. 48) but, at the end, all the administrative and police officials refused to help (Mekavāna &
Kothari, 2004, p. 227). In the first instance, the collector was a white Britisher (or Gora Saheb) of the
British Raj, and in the second the upper caste in the Swaraj.
Gohel 13S

This novel is radical if we concentrate on the subject matter of caste; this is one of the first novels,
which took the caste struggle as the centre point in Gujarati Dalit literature. The Dalit characters are
powerful and we can say some aspects were taken from the Dalit Panther’s ideology of revolt. The male
characters are powerful with some exceptions. They give a good fight to their counterparts and sometimes
even sacrifice their life; however, when it comes to gender, the author becomes somewhat prejudicial.
He depicts female characters as passively supportive and sometimes helpless. They are depicted as they
need to live in the shadow of their husband or male companion. We cannot be sure but one of the reasons
for this may be the setting of the novel: it is the early twentieth century when a woman living independently
on her own is unimaginable in the rural Indian villages.
The female characters suffer more than the male characters and are even sometimes more helpless
than the male characters. This is because of the problem of caste. In the caste system, there is no place
for independent women. The caste system proclaims and demands from society that women should
always remain in the shadow or the bondage of the patriarchal caste system. The subjugation of women
at every level is a basis of the caste system and independent women are never desirable and sometimes
seen as a threat to the family and society as a whole. Caste plays a very important role in regulating and
sometimes controlling their lives, especially of lower-caste women. They have to follow rituals that they
cannot breach. The decision of the life of women with whom she would marry or divorce has always
been taken after counselling the males of the caste by the caste rules; these rules are generally not
favourable to the women.
For an upper-caste male, the Dalit women are considered as things which they do not have to give
respect and they can harass them anytime and anywhere. This is proved when one of the boys of the
upper-caste Patidar harasses Methi in the village bazaar. Even they plan to rape her but by the fear of
the sarpanch, they let go of that idea. To ruin her life, they tried to bribe a few people from the village
of her in-laws and settle her marriage with Chuthiyo whom she does not want to marry but by the force of
caste rules, she has to marry. Even the protagonist of the novel, Teeho who wanted to marry her refused
to marry after the death of his friend Valji, without even considering her view or without talking to her,
putting Methi in a dilemma.
If we analyse Macwan’s The Stepchild (2004), we can find that the old patriarchal trends and
invisibility of Dalit women and their problems persist throughout the novel. (1) Dalit women characters
are depicted as passive characters and are in the background. For example, in the beginning, the story
focuses solely on Teeharam (Teeha) the protagonist and his friend Valji. Methi the female protagonist
and Kanku wife of Valji remains in the background or totally supportive to their male counterparts.
After the tragic and brutal murder of Valji, Kanku becomes helpless and Teeha too in the grief leaves
Methi. After that story revolves around Teeha, then Valji and slowly on the Gokal, the son of Methi
and Chuthiya. The characters like Methi, Kanku and Valji all are stereotyped or made secondary or
supportive in one way or another. (2) They (Dalit women characters) are depicted as the property
or thing or medium through which upper caste can take revenge on the other Dalit men. In chapter two
of the novel, we see that how some Patel boys, upper castes, harass the Dalit girl Methi in the very
bazaar of the village in the presence of people of the village. In chapter nine, we see that how Methi
was kidnapped and kidnappers plan to rape her just to take revenge on Teeha who have disgraced them
in their village. In chapter 10, we see how Dehlavala Patel, the headmen of the village, is having an
affair with the Dalit woman of the Vankar vas and was caught red-handed when he was leaving. He
bribed the captor to keep his image clean. This is one such example where upper-caste men practice
untouchability with Dalit women but when it comes to sexual exploitation of Dalit women, they
behave as if there is no untouchability. (3) They are depicted as helpless and always dependent on
male characters. For example, in chapter 16, after the death of Valji, the elders suggested the remarriage
14S Contemporary Voice of Dalit 15(1S)

of his widow to her brother-in-law Danji, and in chapter 19, Kanku got married to Danji. Another
example is when Methi fatally wounded her husband Chuthiyo, she went to her brother’s home for
help when she does not get it, her last thoughts were to commit suicide and not of living on her own.
So, the shadow of patriarchy is always lingering over Dalit women like caste. When she reaches
Ratnapar with Teeho after he saves her. Her words are also servile and submissive after this. She
announces in front of all the elders that.

I have followed this one (Teeha) openly, putting aside my marital status. The truth is that he saved my life,
therefore now I must be in his service for the rest of my life. Since I came here leaving behind a living husband,
I cannot be considered a widow. But as long as my previous husband is alive, I cannot start a family with him.
Of course, if you can smoothly procure a divorce for me, my dreams of being with you will come true…Tonight
I will stay with Kankuben, but from tomorrow please open up a different house for me, my penance of spending
my life in your service will best be done from there. (Mekavāna & Kothari, 2004, p. 183)

Macwan’s novel is a critique of the caste system, and every Dalit character, in this novel, is struggling
due to the caste system or is living under the hegemonic structure of caste. And so, every major male and
female character gives a fight to that. For instance, at the beginning of the novel, the female protagonist,
Methi, is very brave and bold in her action against the upper-caste oppression when some upper-caste
boys try to harass her in the market. But after the incident, as the novel starts to develop this boldness of
her slowly and gradually starts to vanish. When it comes to gender-related or patriarchal issues, she
timidly accepts everything as her misfortune or fate. Towards the end of the novel, she and her character
start to disappear entirely. At the end, there is a panchayat meeting where Gokal (son of Methi and
Chuthiya) announces a donation in the name of Teehabhai Gopalbhai Parmar, the male protagonist of the
novel, who was the lover of Methi and who gave shelter to Methi and her son after she failed in an
attempt of suicide. He treated Methi’s son as his son or we can say, stepson. He also became the leading/
paternal figure in the life of Methi’s son after whom he modelled his life.

In the following month there was a huge meeting held in the village. Dehlavala Sheth had appeared as a respected
minister and there were plans to put up a high school in the village. It was announced that a marble plaque
bearing the name of the donor would be placed in the front yard for any donation of five thousand and one rupees.
Standing at some distance, Gokal spoke up: Rupees seven thousand and one from me.
Heads turned with surprise.
The man noting things down asked: ‘In Whose name, bhai?’
Gokal proudly answered:
‘In the name of Teehabhai Gopalbhai Parmar!’ (Mekavāna & Kothari, 2004, pp. 234–235)

Methi disappears as if she has not contributed anything to the life of her son. The writer was very fluent
in providing the critique of the caste system but to the problem of gender/patriarchy or the problem of
women in his ‘caste or society’, he prefers a blind eye. He also assumes that the problem of caste, which
is the problem of Dalit men, is also the only problem of Dalit women neglecting their problem and
situation and characterizing them in a stereotypical manner as weak, passive, promiscuous and always in
a supportive way. Dalit women get some short-lived active stage but it was only as of the aid to the Dalit
men, only returning to the background and disappearing into the void.
Macwan was very apt in depicting the male characters who are fighting and revolting against caste
but he fails to add even a single event of problem/revolt of Dalit women in this ground-breaking novel.
Like most of the Dalit male writers, he was successful in fighting against caste but fails to mention
patriarchy. This proves the claims of Dalit women’s movement against Dalit movement that of not giving
Gohel 15S

proper attention to female problems. Macwan was able to give proper representation to Dalit males but
fails to give equal representation to female characters.
In this novel, we will find that the upper caste dominates the discourse of knowledge and power
production, and reproduction. The lower caste lacks unity to fight against it. Ranchod Dehlavala knows
that as he says when he replied to his nephew about the Vankar rebellion, he says when asked by his
nephew what happens if they attack and he says that ‘I am telling you nothing of that sort will happen...
If they were united, it would have been difficult for us to live in the village. The day they achieve self-
recognition, the sun will set on us’ (Mekavāna & Kothari, 2004, p. xx). The upper caste controls education
and means of education, most of the characters in the Vankar Vas (Dalit Locality) are illiterate and that
thing also affects their progress. The other point is that the upper caste controls the land and they have
money too, which the Dalits of the village lack. At last, Ranchod Dehlavala the Patidar strongmen came
to be a strong supporter of Congress, and later minister of independent India, so the police and
administration slowly and gradually came under his authority. The upper-caste monopoly of power
and knowledge came to be the central point of the theme. When power centralizes with the majority, the
minority has to suffer. The system of centre and periphery came into existence and a constant fight for
the dominant discourse of power and knowledge production started. Before the independence, there was
a presence of a British power structure which was somewhat less discriminatory towards Dalits. So, the
Dalits were protected and not always seen as Dalits, they have some rights which are protected by
the law. This is only possible and imagined because Britishers do not carry caste prejudices. They do not
worry about caste unless it affected them politically. After the independence when India got ‘Swaraj’, the
power centralized according to the caste system and upper caste became the holder of power and Dalits
and lower caste were placed at the margins. The struggle is continued to annihilate this system of centre
and periphery.
Atul Parmar notes that ‘Daxa Damodara is the only Gujarati Dalit woman novelist. So far, she has
written two novels Shosh [Thirst, 2003] and Savitri (2008)’ (Parmar, 2014, p. 205). Shosh (Thirst) is the
first Gujarati novel written by Dalit women. This is the story of a young woman named Madhvi. She is
a strong and thoughtful person who knows her problems and often thinks about them. She knows that her
father always wanted a male child(boy) and the constant reminder that she is an unwanted child pains
her. This issue of gender discrimination is so common in Indian society that it is easily accepted by the
majority. She was married to Purander when she was in her second year and she is not happy with her
marriage, she is more interested in the soul and understanding of the partner while her husband is more
interested in body and physical needs. Her ideas on marital relations are also critiques of arranged
marriages in society she says that ‘Husband and wife’s relation, does it mean like a relation of political
leaders and the voters? When a sexual intercourse like an election ends, what is the importance of
identity of the voters to the leader’ (quoted in Parmar, 2014, pp. 206–207).
She struggles with her identity as she was stereotyped in traditional identity when her husband
reminds her that ‘You are a housewife. A mother of a child….and somebody’s wife. Don’t forget it’
(quoted in Parmar, 2014, p. 207) in and wants her to follow her duties. She also feels that she is trapped
and her freedom is chained by her caste and gender identity. Her husband feels that women should
remain in the four walls of the house, they are safe there to respond to this she says that

Safe….?.... In four walls…...? What a kind opinion! Woman’s safety lies in her infanticide, and abortion. The
four walls are created for a woman to become a victim of lust for her father-in-law or brother-in-law. Four
walls…. if you enjoy with other woman is known as adultery….and if it is done against the desire it is a rape….
Four walls are made to fulfil the rights of husbands to rape their wives. (quoted in Parmar, 2014 p. 207)
16S Contemporary Voice of Dalit 15(1S)

Shosh (Thirst) presents the issue of caste and gender in a way that no male writer will be able to present.
The issues which Dalit women face, irrespective of their caste and class, are well presented by Dalit
women. The issues of otherization of Dalit women should be avoided and they should not present only
as supportive and secondary characters to fade away in the background, they should be given proper
representation of their sacrifices and hard work they have done.
One can also compare the situation of the women character in The Stepchild with other characters in
other regional novels then I should compare it with the Dalit women characters of the G. Kalyan Rao’s
novel Untouchable Spring (originally published in 2000 and translated into English in 2010). This novel
also at some point places Dalit women in the supportive role of the Dalit men and comparison to upper-
caste women but it also empowers them with providing unique identity to each woman character and put
them on the active stage, not of the passive one. It is the Boodevi who is constantly requesting her
brother to raise the height of the entrance, the height symbolically talking about the life status of her
people or to abuse the village elders for their impotence of not helping her when her nephew is chased
away by the upper castes. It is Subhadra who defies gender and caste norms of her time and chooses
Yellanna for herself, and when Yellanna betrays her and leaves her to live her life toiling in the field and
when her land and water are threatened, she takes the spade in her hand to defend against the upper-caste
monopoly. She also marries her son to Sasirekha who, to support her husband after the famine, converts
to Christianity but is soon murdered by the upper castes.
Just like them, the younger generation of female characters holds active stage and do the work not
depending on any other characters whether they are Dalit male or upper-caste characters. They fight their
fights on their own. One of the scholars remarks that

All these Dalit women Boodevi, Subhadra, Sasirelha, Ruth, Mary Suvarta, and Ruby resisted gender and Caste
norms of their society by using various strategies, whether it is in the manner of questioning the nature of Dalit
masculinity, or arm rebellion, or enduring in the silence the hardship of Dalit motherhood, or critiquing the
canon, all these pointing to their power and subjectivity not the victimisation. They are represented here (in
the novel The Untouchable Spring) as agents and not just the instruments in the construction of Dalit identity and
rewriting Dalit History. Dalit women emerged here not only as visible subjects, but as conspicuous and larger
than life characters. (Majhi, 2017, p. 353)

After the rise of education in the Dalit community and after the Dalit movement, this monopolization of
the power knowledge is facing some serious counter-responses and threats. Dalit literature is one of the
facets of this critique of the power of the oppressors. The counter-discourses are emerging like the
feminist movement and Dalit movement of the 1970s. It is constantly questioning the patriarchy, upper-
caste power and other oppression for proper representation in political as well as social fields. The
question of representation of Dalit women too has origin in this critique of power and monopoly.
Gopal guru in his paper ‘Dalit women talks differently’ raises certain important questions related to
the representation of Dalit women. He emphasizes how feminism as well as the Dalit movement of the
1970s failed to provide a proper representation of Dalit women. When it comes to feminism, the Dalit
women faced prejudices because of caste; and when it comes to Dalit movement, they faced prejudices
because of their gender, so both the movements failed to give proper representation to Dalit women. In
this way, the question of Dalit women talking differently came at the centre, their voices which were
never heard have started making noise which no one can ignore anymore. As Sharmila Rege pointed out
that the feminist movement and Dalit movement consider ‘All “Dalits” are assumed to be male and all
women “Savarna”’ (Rao, 2005, p. 91). The Dalit movement and feminist movement have started as a
protest with the critiques of the caste system and the patriarchy. But the critique of the Dalit movement
Gohel 17S

and the feminist movement came from the Dalit women’s movement. They have accused that both of
these movements are based on the same exclusionary ideology which they fight against. These two
movements, which were fighting against the exclusionary system for representation, became insensitive
towards the issues and problems of minorities in their movement, namely Dalit women. This was aptly
protested by the Dalit women’s movement by presenting their critique and ability to fight for their
representation.
For Dalit movement, caste is an ultimate problem and for the feminist movement, gender and
patriarchy were the ultimate concerns; in this process, the Dalit movement fails to recognize the issues
of gender for Dalit women and the feminist movement fails to recognize the caste problem. But for Dalit
women, the problem is twofold, they were equally oppressed by the caste system and patriarchy. For
Dalit women, the caste system and patriarchy are equally restricting and oppressive (Rao, 2005, p. 1).
The Dalit women’s movement presented the critique by arguing that both these systems are becoming
homogenous systems and are focused on homogenizing the experience of its members. These movements
have assumed that for the Dalit movement, all women are Dalit and the women’s especially Dalit
women’s problems are similar to that of Dalit men. On the other hand, the feminist movement assumed
that all women are equal and the problems of the Savarna women and all the other women are the same.
These homogenous claims made both these movements exclusionary and patented in a way that mimics
the very system they are fighting against (Rao, 2005, pp. 1–2).
The critique by the Dalit women’s movement was similar to that of African-American women of
feminism/feminist movement in the United States. They also argue that the feminist movement
homogenizes the category of women without recognizing the layers of hierarchy within that category.
They argue that the feminist movement is only concerned about the problems of white women, and it is
assumed that the problems of women of colour and other minorities are similar to those of white women
(Higginbotham, 1992). This homogenization of groups sometimes does nothing to bring significant
changes/development into the life of those who are at the lowest level and whose voices go unheard.
Similar to Dalit women, African-American women too faced twofold discrimination based on their race
and gender, and are equally under-represented. Comparison of similar conditions of African-American
women and Dalit women has been done by many scholars and an appeal for the solidarity between these
two groups of women has been done by many scholars like Kalpana Kannabiran and Sharmila Rege
(Rao, 2005; Yuval-Davis et al., 2006).
The theory of deconstruction backs this kind of critique and provides a theoretical framework for
better understanding. Earlier categorization based on binary identification tends to homogenize
everything by putting forward either/or conditions. These either/or conditions lead to concentration on
one identity or collaboration with the expulsion of others. These theoretical frameworks should be
retheorized and restructured in more pluralistic and inclusionary ways. A person can share the
characteristics with other categories without losing his/her identity. This will not weaken the struggle but
it will strengthen the struggle against oppression and discrimination. The homogenization of issues
creates the same kind of systems that are discriminatory towards minorities in the groups as seen earlier.
We need now is the acceptance of plurality and systems of protest which are not limited to the
homogenizing of the group but which are based on the ideas of plurality.
We have to see Dalit women as the Subaltern counterpublics, as Nancy Fraser defines it that subaltern
counterpublics ‘are parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and
circulate counter-discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and
needs’ (Fraser, 1990, p. 67). Because the voices of Dalit women in the arenas of the mainstream activity
or movements like feminism and Dalit movement of 1970 are unheard or when they were heard they
were not given proper attention.
18S Contemporary Voice of Dalit 15(1S)

This kind of counter-discourse will give subaltern groups like Dalit women a voice through they are
heard well, they can make their point clear to the main arenas. Because when some movement declares
that every member of it is equal, then there remains the question of the authenticity of that declaration
from which vantage point it has been made. That creates the issues of representation. What we need is
not the homogenization of these groups into one but we need to create an alternate system where people
from various groups can unite without losing their identity and their voices.
This kind of solidarity can bring actual changes to the movement against discrimination. Where one
group will not only focus on only one kind of discrimination which one is facing but one can extend their
support, solidarity and empathy towards those who are fighting their battle against discrimination in such
a way one group is fighting against all kinds of discrimination and all groups are fighting against one
kind of discrimination without losing their voices, representation and identity, and have opportunities of
broader support. In these times of social media revolution and information technology, where spatial
limitations are somewhat weakened by technology, it can also create a network of global fights and
protests any kind of discrimination by global protesters strengthening the movement as a whole. This
kind of solidarity should create a sense of belonging and becoming on the basis of suffering in historically
discriminated groups such as Dalits (men and women), women, minorities, people of colour and victims
of racism and islamophobia, Jews and all other groups who are facing similar kind of discrimination but
are separated in spatial and cultural conditions (Yuval-Davis et al., 2006).

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr Deeptha Achar, Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, The Maharaja
Sayajirao University of Baroda for her guidance and keen insights which helped me develop this paper.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of
this article.

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD
Bhavesh R. Gohel https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0593-6388

References
Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social
Text, 25/26, 56–80.
Gupta, C. (2016). The gender of caste: Representing Dalits in print. University of Washington Press.
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (Vol. 2). Sage.
Higginbotham, E. B. (1992). African-American women’s history and the metalanguage of race. Signs: Journal of
Women in Culture and Society, 17(2), 251–274.
Majhi, J. R. D. (2017). The untouched daughter-in-laws: Representation of Dalit women in G. Kalyana Rao’s
Untouchable spring. The Criterion, 8(2), 349–354.
Mekavāna, J., & Kothari, R. (2004). The stepchild = Angaliyat. p. 240.
Parmar, A. (2014). Gujarati Dalit writing: Questions of narrative and translation [Doctoral thesis, The Maharaja
Sayajirao University of Baroda. Inflibnet. http://hdl.handle.net/10603/72873
Rao, A. (2005). Gender and caste (Issues in contemporary Indian feminism). Zed Books Ltd.
Yuval-Davis, N., Kannabiran, K., & Vieten, U. (2006). The situated politics of belonging. Sage.
 Chapter-IV
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ANGALIYAT (The Stepchild)

The story begins with the introduction of two best friends ever known Valji and
Teeha. The author describes them as very dear and more like brothers than friends.
Teeha is 3 years younger than Valji.

“But these two were an unusual pair. Inseparable, two bodies with a single soul.”

The story takes place at the central place in Gujarat, India. The main theme of
the story revolves around the fact that these people belong to the lower caste or get
treated as if they were untouchables. Valji and Teeha belong to the Vankars community
in Gujarat. Since every community is recognized by the work they do, Vankars are the
people who are dependent on weaving. In Gujarat, during the social riots between
lower castes and upper castes, industrialization made the Vankars stand out.

So, the brothers opt for the usual work as Vankars, which is weaving. They used
to weave the cloth and sell the same in an auction or at nearby villages. This has been
pretty much the thing for the two.

Valji gets married to Kanku, has children. Teeha gets to the eligible age of
marriage but he doesn't seem to be interested in marriage.

Kanku insists on Valji to make him marry her sister. But Valid was never a
persuasion. He wishes Kanku could have been better to make this communication with
Teeha. Since Valij cannot do that, he insists Teeha get married and settles. He confronts
him that he had no plans of getting married right then. So, even Valij cannot convince
him to get married to his sister-in-law.

The two-start preparing for the auction the next day. They go to the nearby
village, Shilapaar, where the auction takes place. There they effortlessly make some
good money initially. Teeha has a better build than valid even though hed younger than
him. Till forenoon, the brothers make most of their stuff sell and only a few items have
remained. Then out of the blue, some crack heads of the village teases a girl holding her
pot of water. They hit the pot with a stone, and it results in Teeha standing for her
against her villagers. The thing about the villagers is that they do not want any outsider

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to interfere in the matters of the village. But Teeha is an outsider, who wants to stand
against. One of the crackheads hits Teeha with a brick, which results in the flow of
blood all over his head. And the surprising element here is that none of the villagers
support Teeha as he stood against an upper caste of the villages, Thaakors. To his
surprise, the girl Methi, who got teased is the only girl who gives them food and
shelter. Her mother insists she helps them shelter.

Thaakors are the majority of the village. But Patels were the ones who are
economically sound and had given most of the land for lease to the Thaakors.
Technically Patels are the dominators in the village, even though they consist of only
twenty-five families. Patels make use of this fact to show dominance over them.

The Patels demand the person who fought with their children; they want Teeha
to be punished so hard, that he should fear entering Shilapaar. Moti, brother of Methi
makes a plan to get them out of the village, he gives performance weapons in case he
had to defend himself from the villagers. Moti insists Valji wear a saree and cross the
village. Valji makes it through the village, but the Patels were on to Teeha, they were
so furious and wants to attack him on his way home. The plan made him help leave the
place safely, though he had to fight with one of those crack heads involved in the mess
previously. Finally, Teeha and Valji manage to get out of the village safely.
Meanwhile, Valji proposes Methis’ name for his marriage, this time Teeha didn't say no
but thought what would the consequences if he marry Methi.

By the time they reach their village, the news says that the Patels of Methis
village announced that Methi along with her mother should be ostracized from the
village.

“If you have anything to do with any of your community members in Ratnapaar
or let any of them enter here, that will be your end. You will be thrown out of
the village, without even a drop of water from the lake. If you wish to live in this
village harmoniously, then let Moti Dhula and Heera Khana be ostracised and
made to answer for their conduct!”

(The Stepchild, Page30)

Following this regime, it took so much violence in the village for the brothers,
against those men from the village. Many crops and fields of Vankars were damaged.

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Many fights have taken place just because they couldn't punish the person who stood
against an upper caste. They couldn't help but tell Bhavankaaka all the story that
happened all along. Then Bhavankaaka takes them to the collector with the help of the
master to complain the Patidars(Patels).

A policeman arrives in the village, he assures that those people would get
punished and should find bail instead. The people felt a sense of warmth and some sort
of protection from the upper castes. They thought government could protect them from
any means of oppression. After all this the people tries very hard to make Teeha and
Methi’s marriage. No one would have guts to take the girl from the village, especially
from the eyes of the Patels. They thought Methi should get married to Teeha, and that’s
the only justice to her family.

Valji with all the fears in his head, agrees to the plan that all made. He also
helped in making it through. They plan abduction of Methi from her village. They set
up and arrange a car with the help of Dhehlawala from Methis village. Teeha stays at
Shilaapar and makes Valij go for the execution. Manji, from the Patels makes the whole
plan collapse. Methi coulndt go beyond the outskirts. Manji dresses like Valji, and the
car runs through the Valji, unfortunately his head hits to the banayan tree. Within no
time, Valji lost his life.

Methi laments his death. And she also loses the thought of marriage since no
doors are opened, as Teeha’s best friend has died. After three days Valjis body was
brought into the Ratnapar. Teeha was so shocked hearing the news about Valji. Kanku
on the other hand, had no idea how to react.

Kanku wants god to take her life, she in her grief recites a poem.

Wait a while ... my life, my lord, take me along I'll wear the sixteen ornaments,
take my breath away!

You left me for another land,

Whose summons did you follow,

O you warrior, hai hai

How am I to spend my night

Whom shall I tell my secrets to with you gone away, beloved

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 O you warrior, hai hai

Seven lamps once shone around me

Now all is darkness, my sun has sunk

O you warrior, hai hai

1 plucked the moon to light my room

So my lord would come and my night be joyful

O you warrior, hai hai

My heart is uneasy.O my prince

I have cooked kansar with my own hands, come soon my loved one

O you warrior, hai hai

I'll sing your favourite songs,

O colourful warrior I'll shall assume a form you like,

my lord For you warrior, hai hai

I’ll dress as you like, o king of my hearts I shall adorn myself in a way you like

O you warrior, hai hai

I'll sulk, my love, if you don't come to me

O you warrior, hai hai

My friend tells me that the East grows dark

What should I do now, my tears flow

(The Stepchild, Page 95)

Bhaavankaaka and all the close ones to the family insisted upon who should
take care of Kanku, then the right person should be Teeha. Methi, Ujjam, Moti and
Meera came to Teehas house and performed the rituals. Its been six months, Kanku had
not changed the cloths after Valjis death. The Ratnapur Vas wanted to take revenge on
the people of Shilapaar. Year passes. Kanku wants her sisters to get married. Many
options were available, one of them is Dana to tie a knot with her younger sister,
Moghi. This was actually proposed by Valji.

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 At last, things didn’t go as planned. Kanku gets remarried to Dana. And Methis
love for Teeha have gone into vain, she was forced to married a person from his village,
who is a drunkard. Use to beat Methi every day. She got two children. After some
years, Methi decides to commit suicide, then Teeha comes and saves her and gives her
shelter. She lives in Teehas’ house even though being a wife another man. And from
then on, Teeha took care of her as well as his child, Goka. Goka is now the stepchild,
an Angaliyat of Teeha.

He shuts everyone’s mouth by taking him as he is, without having any

relationship[ with Methi. She just stays with him, didn’t thought of what the villagers
would think.

Then, Dehlawala starts a school in Ratnapur village, then he asks villagers to

donate over the said amount, would be named to the school. Then Goka, donates seven
thousand rupees, and makes Teehas’ name to be on it.

The novel has a pathetic ending, when Teeha and Goka goes for auction there
Teeha was beaten to death by the villagers. This gives the readers many questions about
the situations and circumstances at that time.

Dr. U. S. Saranya in her article on “Dalit Assertion through Effective

Characters: A Study of Joseph Macwan’s novel The Stepchild” says

“The narrative style of Macwan moves on a linear progression as he never goes

back to flashbacks and he never has spiral movement. Opening of the novel
discusses about the relationship and the bonding between the characters and
how they are connected internally with love. Later on, it moves to various other
incidents which make the reader get to know the discrimination, vengeance,
hatred in the name of caste.”

MAJOR CHARACTERS:

Teeho

Teeho, the central protagonist in this story, is a guy who adheres to his own
ideas and customs, never mindlessly follow any rite. When he was eighteen, his parents
died within a year of each other. When his father died, he fed the pallbearers, but when

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his mother died, he rebuffed at the mention of the day twelve. While his peers thought
he was ambitious for his dad's money. "You will simply eat and forget," he replied. "
How will it benefit my poor dead parents? I don't see how your eating and drinking can
possibly reach my wretched parents!".

The good actions they gained have gone with them, and the rest is just for show,
which I am not in favour of. You are free to do whatever you choose". Valji and Teeho
were great friends, despite the fact that Teeho was younger, considerably larger in
stature, and had not yet engaged and all plots and efforts to convince him to marry had
failed. He was an entrepreneur who was both skilled and frugal. He inherited three
dwellings as well as a working family loom.

Despite this, he never developed a terrible habit. Valji and Teeho are best
buddies who fight all night. And it never really changed their love for one other. If
they were seen in such condition, one would've thought that they never agreed on
anything. However, these two seemed an out of the ordinary couple. Two creatures
with a single soul, inseparable. Teeha may only be engaged in plain sight by two
people in the village, Bhavaankaka and Valo. It was time of World War and cotton was
being sold. Teeho's participation in cloth manufacture made auction highly successful,
and he would actually aid the needy people with garments and then they would pay off
the debt on time. It was the moment when a bull came into the bazaar and heeded right
to Teeho's garments, but courageous Teeho got hold of the bull's hump and brought it
to tame to him, and he was regarded a brave man in the community from then on.

Even when he sold his property between 500 and 600 rupees, he was never
robbed by a highwayman, even when he came home late at night. Teeho questioned the
man that did such an awful act after a stone was hurled on a pot that a girl was carrying
and she was soaked in water. Even though he knew it was upper caste guys, he was
brave enough to resist them, and he assaulted the problem maker and his colleagues.
When he was taken to the village square, he pulled his sword and told Mukhi,
"Thakore, it is your obligation to guarantee that this package reaches me.

"Any of his mother's true sons may come forward. Today, this "bhavani sword" has no
friends" (27). He lived a life of great ideals, and he never married following the murder

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of his best buddy Valji. When Teeho was asked to approve Methi's marriage by Kanku
and he responds

“Teeho has taken an oath bhabhi, if you have denied yourself the world in your
widowhood, I have denied myself my desires in the separation from my friend.
You’ve become a widow in a worldly sense, I have become a widower in
another. Not Methi alone, but that very direction has become inimical to my
existence. Bring that up again over my dead body”

He provides refuge for Methi and her son and also takes care of his schooling, and
serves the people till the end. Due to Methi's desire, he marries and starts a family of
two boy infants, but he still takes good care of Methi and her son and oversees Methi's
son's marriage. When he travels to the town for an auction with his kid, he is ambushed
and bludgeoned to death by upper caste men.

Valji:

Valji is three years Teeho's senior, yet he is a great friend of Teeho's and will go
to any length to save his life. He is married to Kanku and has one son, whom he credits
with "so much happiness!" Valji's better half, Kanku, proved to be an excellent
supporter. "She was just not simply his wife, but his actual partner," he realised about
his wife. Quite useful. He is surrounded by people who are genuinely concerned about
his wellbeing. In general, she was more worried about others than when she was about
herself." She was deeply saddened by his passing. He put his life on the line. Teeha's
life is devoted to ensuring that she marries Methi. Monghi, Valji's mother, was Bijal's
second wife. Monghi had returned to her parents and gotten divorced after only a few
days of marriage to someone else. Bijal had fallen in love with Monghi, and they
married a month after the divorce.

Valji was born on the seventh day of the seventh month. However, some
misinterpreted it, claiming that Valji was not Bijal's son. "Valo is not a Bijals child, he
is from the previous house," they said. He was born here, and that's all there is to it.
Otherwise, he's unmistakably an Angaliyat".

Bhavaankaka:

Bhavaankaka acquired a natural intuitiveness and insight from his forebears.

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 People looked up to him because of his wisdom and presence of mind when it
came to solving complex challenges. He had a knack for separating the wheat from the
chaff. That is why, even among the highest castes, "no one like Bhavaankaka within a
hundred miles" was said. It was only by chance that a guy like Bhavaankaka was born
into the lower caste of Vankars. He said his goodbyes to the world and personal
concerns after the death of Bhali's wife. He lost his family when he was 26 years old.
He had no desire left over after seven decades and six years.

Teeho and Valji benefited much from his assistance. He travelled to Heera for
Teeho's wedding to discuss the wedding between Methi and Teeho. He lost hope and
was crushed when he learned that Teeho had been beaten to death by upper caste guys.
He fled the hamlet and no one knew where he went. He spent his entire life with high
morals, and his philosophy aided others.

Methi:

Methi was from Shilapaar. Teeha encountered her when he engaged the
uppercaste guys for her. She fell in love with him. she felt broken and her life was
wrecked.

She felt the jigsaw pieces fall into place as she learned that Valji perished in the
process of rescuing her. When she learned that Valji had died in the process of rescuing
her, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle began to fall into place, and her heart shattered.
Teeha's soul was Valji. Teeho would be like a body without him. Methi could no longer
endure the humiliation and went to Khushal's residence, where his daughter-in-law
recounted what had transpired while she was away. Chunthia viciously abused his wife
every day, and he did not return to the house for 10 days.

Finally, he arrived one day and began abusing the kid; it was time for Methi to
retaliate; she struck her husband as well, knocking him to the floor. She was well aware
that she had assassinated her spouse. She went to Khushal's residence at midnight and
requested for his assistance in accompanying her to her parents' place. She was about to
end her life when Teeho saved her and brought her home, where she continued to live.
She found out later in the morning that her spouse was still alive. She lived on her own
till she died. Teeho was convinced to marry and begin his life, and she assisted all

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pregnant ladies in giving delivery safely. She turned out to be an excellent midwife.
Teeho's death devastated her, and she died herself after a few days.

Style:

The whole novel is based upon how the upper caste treated the lower caste, the
Dalits. Dalits are a heterogeneous community made up of people from various castes
from around South Asia who speak a range of languages and follow a number of
religions. Dalit is a term that has been around for a long time. It was reportedly used in
the 1930s as a Hindi and Marathi translation of the British phrase "depressed Classes,"
which referred to what are now known as the Scheduled Castes. The phrase was
reintroduced in 1970 by the 'Dalit Panthers,' who broadened it to include tribal tribes,
impoverished peasants, women, and anybody else who was being exploited politically,
economically, or in the name of religion.

The story begins when the literature storm takes over Gujarat, it was the time
when all the there was a huge spike in numer of poets, writers across the state rose.
Then on the other side there were people from the same place, but from a minority
group, who are referred to as Dhedh, meaning lowest of the lowest. They suffered huge
hegemony all over their lives. They struggled alot to make an identify in the
community. As a result, Dalit is more than just a caste; it is also a symbol of
transformation and revolution. The term "Dalit" is not found in any of India's sacred
books or historical documents. It's a word derived from 17th-century European
perceptions of the Indian caste system. The term "ground" comes from Sanskrit, and it
signifies "suppressed," "crushed," or "broken to pieces." Jyotirao Phule used the term in
the nineteenth century to describe the tyranny endured by the once-"untouchable"
castes of twice-born Hindus. "The phrase emphasises their weakness, poverty, and
humiliation at the hands of the upper castes in Indian culture.

To designate the erstwhile Untouchables, Gandhi developed the term Harijan,

which loosely translates as "Children of God." The official names used in Indian
government papers to designate erstwhile "untouchables" and tribes are "Scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes" (SC/ST). However, after noting that "Dalit" was being
used interchangeably with the official word "scheduled castes" in 2008, the National

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Commission for Scheduled Castes declared the phrase "unconstitutional" and requested
state governments to stop using it.

In traditional Hindu society, Dalit rank has been traditionally linked to jobs that
are considered ritually unclean, such as leatherwork, slaughtering, or the disposal of
garbage, animal corpses, and trash. Dalits cleaned streets, latrines, and sewers as
manual workers. Individuals who participated in these behaviours were regarded to be
polluting, and this pollution was thought to be infectious. As a result, Dalits were
frequently separated from Hindu society and denied full participation. They couldn't go
into a temple or a school, for example, and were forced to stay outside the settlement.
To avoid accidental interaction between Dalits and other castes, elaborate measures
were occasionally followed.

In the private domain, discrimination against Dalits still continues in rural

regions, in everyday things such as access to dining establishments, schools, temples,
and water supplies. In metropolitan regions and the public domain, it has largely
vanished. Some Dalits have transitioned effectively into urban Indian culture, where
caste roots are less visible and less essential in public life.

This translation is intended for students and general readers interested in

regional Indian literature, as well as anybody attempting to comprehend South Asian
culture. Angaliyat transforms the defeated into the winner, turning the peripheral into
the centre, to portray the tale of exclusion. Teeha and Methi, as well as Valji and
Kanku, are adamantly opposed to two repressive social structures: landowning,
aggressive, and cruel Patidar and Thakoor village leaders, and selfish and manipulative
Dalit caste leaders.

The author portrays the richness and complexity of the principal Dalit
characters and elevates them via the use of compelling dialogue. However, the story's
dominating castes eventually vanquish them. The Dalit book genre has just recently
formed, and Angaliyat embodies it. By writing about their own lives, Dalits are
establishing their identity and confronting a society that has previously ignored them.

The author has produced pictures of his personal experiences using words,
having endured discrimination and pain - mentally, socially, and politically. The

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literary works are acts of defiance against injustice that they have personally
experienced and witnessed in their communities.

INSTANCES OF HEGEMONEY, OPPRESSION AND RESISTENCE:

“If you have anything to do with any of your community members in Ratnapaar
or let any of them enter here, that will be your end. You will be thrown out of
the village, without even a drop of water from the lake. If you wish to live in this
village harmoniously, then let Moti Dhula and Heera Khana be ostracised and
made to answer for their conduct!”

(The Stepchild, ch. 6, P.30)

Here, this incident is about how the upper caste people of Shilaapar shows the
authority on those who tries to get into their village without their consent. The Patidars
always wanted to show this dominance no matter how the people from the other end
take that.

The main thing here is that, if someone unknowingly commits an action which
is by any means a violation for them, they would simply make those people ostracised.
Those violations mean nothing to a fellow human being, not even a thing which sums
up to a little scar. The only thing they want the minority is to know them as an authority
and utter domination at all walks.

In the story where Moti was teased by the fellows of the upper caste, no one
would ever dare to even question the bastards. There is no such thing like they cannot
fight back or something, the only thing is the oppression they suffered all along, this
made them lead a habitual life. It takes an individual from another village, who took the
stand to help Moti. At last he was beaten to death. That was a kind of rancour the upper
caste had on the minorities.

“I can’t get this damn thorn out of my flesh-

how long will the world consider me an outsider?”

(The Stepchild,Chapter11, P.69)

Monghi, Valji's mother, was Bijal's second wife.

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 Monghi had returned to her parents and gotten divorced after only a few days of
marriage to someone else.

Bijal had fallen in love with Monghi, and they married a month after the
divorce. Valji was born on the seventh day of the seventh month. However, some
misinterpreted it, claiming that Valji was not who he claimed to be. Bijal's eldest son.
"Valo is not a Bijalschild, he is from the previous house," they claimed. He was a great
guy. He says that he was born here. Otherwise, he's unmistakably an angaliyat."
Villagers considered Valji an outsider, since he proclaimed that he was who he was, no
one had that original sense of that person.

This incident shows what people's mindset would be like at that time.

“For most villages there was nobody more qualified than a midwife to attend
to deliveries. It called for a strong, capable and skilful person to be a good
midwife. Many women breathed their last during the very first delivery. The
hospital in the town was ten gaus away and at odd hours, it was not possible
to find easy and quick transport. Doctors and nurses from charitable hospitals
were always more willing to help the upper castes than these poor people.
Coming to the mohalla was a nuisance for them. Therefore, those with limited
experience would often take up a midwife's job with some half-baked
knowledge based on observation. They lacked care and skill. As a result, some
contagious disease infected either the mother or the new-born. If carelessness
and shoddiness led to death, people believed it was predetermined. Hence
younger women pregnant for the first time were very apprehensive and even
had nightmares.” (THE STEPCHILD, P.192)

There is a wide gap between the treatment of upper castes and lower castes. It is
up to the imagination of an individual of how cruel this aristocrats were to the Dalits, it
is unbelievable, that even they showed the oppression even for pregnant women and
just borns.

Cruelty at its best. There are some instances where women from Dalits have
seen the atrocities of the upper castes, that they cannot even express themselves. This
shows how cruel the caste system used to be in those times. In some circumstances,
they had thoughts like, it is better not to born than to born as a Dalit.

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 Women from the Dalit community are particularly vulnerable. They are
frequently raped or beaten in retaliation for male relatives who are believed to have
performed some conduct deserving of upper-caste wrath. If they have male relatives
who are hiding from the authorities, they may be arrested.

The inspector ordered one of the fellows: 'Aye, go call Phuliya Patel right
now.' Unwilling to be in the bad books of the Patel, the fellow showed no
signs of moving. The inspector swore at him and struck him. (Ch 13)

This incident takes place after Valjis death. This is to show how the supremacy
of the upper castes makes an ill system. The police would know the truth for sure, like
who conspired everything. But, it's the power of the high class which makes everything
in the system work as in favour of them. Be it any situation, there aren't many rules
which equally imply for those of the high casters. It always boils down to the fact that
no matter what the situation/crime/action it is always the minors who get crushed even
by the system.

Raids, beatings in jail, failure to arrest offenders or investigate alleged crimes

have all been widespread police abuses carried out in cooperation with upper castes.

Despite hostility and intimidation from local officials and upper-caste residents,
grassroots initiatives to change are emerging in India. Caste tension has erupted into
caste warfare in various areas, with militia-like vigilante gangs raiding villages,
torching homes, rapping, and massacring residents. These raids are occasionally carried
out with the police's tacit approval.

“When you call me Dhed I am hurt And wish to slap you on the face When
you call me Harijan I am humiliated And wish to spit upon your back When
you call me a member of Scheduled Caste I am insulted And wish to monkey
at you When you call me Neerav Patel I suspect you call me convert (a crow
that dyed his feathers white to be called a swan) and wish to turn my face
away When you don't call me anything I am annoyed that you neglected me
altogether and wish to call you back to call me. Yes, it's all a mess since the
beginning Like the tale of a seven-tailed mouse. (Introduction to The Stepchild
by Achyut Yagnik, THE STEPCHILD, P.xvi)”

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 Neerav Patel, emphasised this point by stating that he does not want to describe
Dalit writing in terms of any ideology or judge it according to any established aesthetic
standards. Neerav Patel conveys his rage against caste Hindus as well as his angst for
identity in a powerful poem.

The lower castes were called Dalits, and the thing hasn’t stopped there. There’s
another word for those who were considered untouchables. It is Dhed. ‘Dhed’ refers to
those who are even treated brutally, as they even belonged to the lowest of the lowest.
This is what made the writers and educated from the Dalit community to exasperate,
and to make a revolt against them.

The Patels insisted, 'Penalize him and fill him with such fear that he never again
steps into this village till the day of his death." (TS, Chapter 5)

Teeho, being an outsider of Shilaapar, helps a girl from their community.

Helping doesn't even mean helping. It solely means that he violated the rules of the
upper castes in the village. The Patels wanted him to make sure that he should not be
able to step into the village as he made the mistake of standing with the girl. The cruel
authorities wanted Teeho to even die, so that no one ever dares to attempt these stunts
in the future. As they did so, Teeho was beaten to death at last.

Thinking of wrapping up the day's business once the last two swatches were
gone, Teeho called out, 'Hurry up fellows ...! As Teeho was saying these words, c-r-
aash came a sound and a young woman carrying a pot of water on her head stood
completely drenched. The stone that had broken her pot struck Teeha's hand and fell
right next to him. As soon as the pot shattered, the woman's companions withdrew and
stood at some distance. The woman herseif, wet from head to foot, stood rooted to the
ground. After a while, her words, "Bastard, which mother produced such an evil man?'

Mind your bloody language ... you slut!' so saying, a man from the opposite
parapet got up and the rest guffawed. Their eyes roved over the woman's nipples visible
through her wet blouse. Flustered under

heir lascivious gaze she re-adjusted her wet pallav across her chest. As she was
taking a step or two to join her companions, Teeho, his other hand caressing his wrist,
stood beside her. In a challenging manner, he addressed the man who had stood up
from the parapet,

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 Whose courage is this bhai!

'You mind your own business, outsider!' The fellow raised his voice to snub
Teeha.

"You coward, little credit are you to your mother. Step down, if she a truly bore
you ...!

Sick Teeho had taken up the cudgels before Valji could bring him round. A
low-caste man publicly humiliating an upper-caste, a Patel no less! How could anyone
allow this? The troublemaker's companions jumped off the parapet.

Teeho assessed the situation. He took a few steps backwards and said, 'Listen
fellows! I won't let this man off in one piece today; I say this to you all now. If anyone
here wants to stop me, be prepared to lose an arm and a leg. If you are true sons of your
mothers, I suggest you keep out of this. This bastard has to pay for his deeds!

Without looking left or right, Teeho pounced on the man. As Teeha's head
rammed into his chest, he fell against the parapet wall. Before he could collect his
breath, Teeho grabbed him by the collar and threw him to the ground.

Valji took the measuring rod in his hand and waited to deal with the other three
fellows. People crowded around to see the scuffle. Since the component of Thakores in
the village was high, Dhoolsingh Thakore was the mukhi. He too rushed over. He
disentangled the man from Teeha's grasp and asked why the fighting had begun.
Furious, Teeho said, Vem ange.

'Ask this scoundrel to face everybody and admit the truth or else, here are the
women of your village. Ask them!

A shattered pot, a charming young woman, drenched and abashed, and around
her feet the broken pot shards, the Thakore did not need to be told. He understood it all.
The man that Teeho had beaten up had a bad reputation. His companions too were no
better. Dhoolsingh Thakore asked them with a smouldering look:

Were you sitting here to tear the village's dignity to pieces! Go away, all of you.
off to your homes!

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 Contrition took the form of arrogance and he said, 'You are the mukhi. I want
to file a police complaint against this dhed (low-caste)'

'In that case I want to file a complaint first against the harassment of poor girls
of the village. Come along to the village square, I'll call the police by this evening!
Teeha, you will have to be the witness!'

Why witness, Thakore, I will be the plaintiff. I have faith in the British Raj, but
if his wish remains unfulfilled, let me honour it now in your presence!

clever -"Hold your tongue! Are you wagging your tongue simply because we let
you go as an outsider?' Megho Patel emerged from the crowd.

Don't then, if you can help it. Here I am!' You move aside Thakore, see if I don't
pull this one's tongue out!' Megho Patel pushed Dhoolsingh Thakore aside and came
forward. Teeho, without a shade of fear, moved a few steps towards them and said:

I am an outsider! Surely not these girls! If someone were to do this to your

women ...!

Just then a brick was hurled from somewhere and struck Teeha on the head,
knocking him out. For a few seconds, he passed out. However, when he picked up his
measuring rod the very next minute, the Thakore, worried that this might lead to a
fierce fight, raised his dhariya and shouted a warning. Afraid of a serious fight, people
began to disappear the troublemakers took this opportunity and also ran away. The
Thakore's roar had resounded through the entire village and brought a halt to the stone-
pelting. Ultimately only three people were left-Thakore, Teeho and Valji.”

There is another episode which poignantly portrays all the travails and drama of Dalit
lives

“The atmosphere had suddenly turned sombre. God knows what moved Moti's
wife, she fetched some vermilion and rice. There were tears in her eyes as she
applied them to Teeha's forehead. Teeho also lost his poise for a while and his
eyes grew moist:

Sister ....! Your blessings will guard me, don't worry

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 The wind seemed to have carried the news around, one by one people filled
Motis verandah. Methi was one of them. She had a lot N to say, it had all
happened because of her. This was an age-old misery Not only were pots
broken, wrists had been held publicly. Women were raped even on the eve of
their wedding day. This wretched caste had endured it all. What else could it
do? Teeho was born into the same caste, then why did it vex only him? Just
once, only once had they had a glimpse of each other in the main bazaar. Methi
was buying a saree and the shopkeeper had smiled in an obnoxious manner. She
was irked and Teeho, done with his auction, turned to the shopkeeper:

What is it, bhai? Is this your respectable earning at the shop? Don't sit in the
bazaar if you don't know how to behave yourself.'

The man froze. It was the town bazaar and Teeho was a force there. Later, while
buying a large handkerchief from Teeha, Methi herself lost something. What
could Methi say to Teeha at this moment? She prayed, 'Oh God, give me death.
But let no harm come to him.'

Teeho began walking. The crowd shifted back and Teeha's eyes met Methi's—it
was a lifetime's nourishment for Teeha. Methi's naked eyes communicated all
that she wanted to say. People followed him to a point where the lane turned.
Once Teeho turned into the next lane, they did not accompany him. The crowd
stood unmoved and spellbound. The moment Teeho was out of sight, the people
turned on their heels and went home. The only reluctant steps were those of
Methi's.”

(The Stepchild , P24,25)

Teeho shows real daring and spunk in the next episode when he punishes an upper
caste youth:

He tied the sword to his waist and climbed the hillock again with the two thorny
stumps in his hands When he reached the top of the hillock, he noticed that
along the road were eight watchful young men. That scoundrel was

one of them. With all his might Teeho whirled the stumps round and round in
the air and aimed at them. The stump struck three of them at a time. Before they

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 could figure out what had happened, Teeho let out a yell. The rest fled. Another
stump followed and brought two more to the ground. The scoundrel Nanio ran
for dear life. Teeho chased him and jumped on him. Upon seeing Death's own
messenger before him, sheer fright loosened the fellow's sphincter.

You motherfucker!' Teeho shouted.

Looking at the fellow trembling with fear, Teeho thought it was no fun hitting him
anymore. Instead he removed the louts clothes, poked his bare buttocks with the sword
and hissed menacingly:

'Look, if you even breathe a woman's name next time, I'll follow you to the depths of
hell to end your life.' Teeho struck his naked back four times with the flat of the sword
and sent the fellow flying.

At that moment if someone were to kill him, he would have had no regret and yet he
walked through the fields with great care. There was no obstacle now as far as he was
concerned. He was worried about Valji though. If Valji had reached before him he must
be worrying and if he had not, then Teeha would know no peace. (THE STEPCHILD,
P.28)

As the story of Teeha's defiance travelled through fields and fences, and got to the vas,
the very inquisitive looked up to Valji as the only source of information. Valji would
narrate Teeha's courage without any embellihment. However, he never missed bearing
witness to one thing

'Now I understand the truth of what Master says.

“For these uppercastes the dignity of our women is like a straw in the wind,
they can do what they want with them. They bed them when they like in
the corners of the fields. Whereas if one of their women passes by, we are
not even to lift our eyes. Arre, what kind of justice is this?”

(THE STEPCHILD, P.42)

The listeners would hang their heads low. Knowing the iron was hot, Valji
struck hard, instigating them:

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 'Why the hell do you turn your faces away now? Because you take it lying
down, don't you? This Ramla's wife is openly living at Dehlavala's, isn't she? Tell me,
does anybody have the guts to expose this? Parbha's daughter's pregnancy, how much
did it take to hush it up? Is there a single house left? Need I list them one at a time for
you?'

Toes twiddled and heads hung low, Dana was the only one who dared to open
his mouth:

'It's written on our foreheads and we have been watching it since birth. How can one get
away from this?'

'If only there were ten people like Teeha we'd do what we wish. My dear chap, as we
wind a cloth round our heads, we have to live now with the shroud on our shoulders ...’
(THE STEPCHILD, P.42)

The story is not any different from Koogai when it comes to molestation of Dalit
women.

“In which moment did you create us, my Lord

O Potter, on which wheel did you cast the pots?

His own couplet played on his lips. He often sang this in public and
explained it to his listeners,

'I am asking our Maker, what kind of time it was when he made us; why
doesn't our single effort find fulfillment? I am also asking what kind of
wheel the potter used that our lives turned out deformed and shapeless?”

(THE STEPCHILD, P.56)

The listeners would assume that the banter had universal application and would
laugh ho ho ho', little noticing the tears welling up in Bhavaankaka's eyes. If his own
villagers could not rise to the condescension of the caste, how was Bhavaankaka to
blame those from Shilapaar?

These lines aptly exemplify the travails of the oppressed communities. Many
atrocities are there owing to Brahminism and hereis a fitting reply by Macwan

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"Rehman, test the strength of your arms on this bull, will you? Let's see how
sturdy it is!

At Rehman's first blow, the middle one felt his ears sing in pain. With the next
blow, that youth became incontinent and with the third one, he cried 'Oh my
God!' and collapsed.

"How many sons does this motherfucker have?' The inspector's voice boomed.
Luckily, the youngest of all had gone somewhere, while the other panicked.
They perspired. The inspector bellowed again: Why is no one answering? How
many bastards does he have?'

Someone, bitten by Khushla, filled in the details. "Three more, Saheb!'

The inspector looked around and went to the crowd: 'Rehman, ce this old fellow
to the jeep! Let's drag him to death.'

Everybody was terror-struck. Rehman brought a rope and tied up Khushla's

hands. Another rope was tied around his waist as well. Khushla's other two sons
came forward, shaking.

"Rehman, give these men also a taste of it!

Rehman struck twice and the elder one came forward. With great difficulty, he
said:

'Saheb! How much will you take to let us go?' 'Go, bring all you have. Or I'll
have to search your house."

The eldest one ran for his life and promptly came back with a pot. He placed it
at the inspector's feet and turned it over. Out came Queen marked and Bombay-
marked coins, and some notes. Here were the fruits of Khushla's unethical ways.
Saheb's eye roved once to guage the amount.

"Rehman, tie it all up and keep the pot as material evidence!' At that moment
Phulji Patel was seen coming along with the mukhi.

There was also a ravalia with a pot of cold water and a kettle of hor tea in hand.

The inspector pretended not to notice the mukhi. He signalled to Rehman

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Without looking left or right, Rehman grabbed Phulji by the neck, 'Phuliva, you
sister ... it took you one hour to come', and gave him a couple of blows with the
cane. Phulji's turban fell off his head. The mukhi intervened:

'Arre! Arre! What on earth are you doing, jamadar? I have come with him! The
people of Khushla's mohalla had witnessed an uppercaste person being beaten
up before low-caste persons for the first time.

Mukhi, who asked you to come?' The inspector asked harshly.

You have visited our village, how can I not come then, Saheb!' The mukhi was
also a Patel, but he was a straightforward person. He beseeched in the softest
manner possible.

'Alya, give the Saheb some water, then bring tea.'

Mukhi, don't meddle! This man is also involved in the Shilapaar murder.
Rehman, handcuff him.'

Taking the lota from Ravalia's hands, the inspector drank water and said to
Rehman. Put on the handcuffs and then drink tea. Mukhi, you go. Make
arrangements for the two of us to eat at the chaura.'

Mukhi had no alternative but to go. The inspector was a Maratha and had a
reputation of being very tough. In a matter of murder, he was not the kind to
compromise with anybody or for anything. On his way out, the Mukhi
requested:

'If you let me, I can take Phulji with me. Let him meet his wife and see what
arrangements are to be made for the bail.'

The inspector understood the reason. 'All right, take him. If he runs away, I'll tie
you up and take you with me. Once the three of them had left, the inspector
turned to Methi: Tell me, what did these people do to you?' They forcibly
conducted my marriage, Saheb!' Whom to?'

Those standing before Chunthia moved away. Chunthia quivered like a leaf in
autumn. "Were you willing?

'No, Saheb!

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Then why did you not resist them?'

'This maharaj kept saying that what's written in your fate cannot be changed!'

Where is that bloody brahmin? Manchharam's dhoti came off. Saheb looked
away and ordered.

Rehman! It is written in this brahmin's fate to receive five blows of your stick,
seal that fate!

Rehman gave him two on the back, two on the shins, and one on the bottom.

Manchharam's Brahminhood was cured once and for all. Rehman pulled
him up by his arms from the floor and rummaged the pockets of his shirt.
There were five notes of five rupees each. Rehman pocketed them. (THE
STEPCHILD, on page.87,88)

Bhavaankaka … raising his voice slightly he began to speak:

'Now just forget about Ahilochan and Abhimanyu or Arjun and the Lord
Krishna.

Enough of all other-worldly and spiritual matters. What's the point of it

all?

Ever since I bathed in the Ganga last year and made pilgrimages, I feel
these other-world indulgences ... are all mere words.

We live here in this world, this is what should concern us now.

If we need to improve anything, it should be this world.

Whoever manages to improve this life, also improves the after-life.

If you let this one spoil, you can be sure the other one is spoilt too!

(THE STEPCHILD, page.97)

It is only at times of death that we tum towards spirituality. As the proverb goes,
'The crematorium made him think of renunciation.' It won't last. True
renunciation means removing maya completely from one's mind. But what does
our caste know of detachment and renunciation? What do you have to

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renounce? Miseries, that's all? I am smarting under the pain of Valji's death.
And yet I say I am not unhappy about his death. You people may think he died
in pursuit of wordly matters. In my opinion, he died in pursuit of a higher truth,
of true Paramarth. He did not privilege his life over his friend Teeha. He had
taken a mission upon himself and lost his life trying to carry it out. He had to
give up his life, but he did not look back. How many of us are like that? Not
one! Some, when they could not bear his rising star, called him an Angaliyat.
Let me ask you, how many of you are truly born of your fathers? A true son will
not say such things! Bijal also had to feed the community because of warped
minds in our caste. How many of you know about Bijal's courage? Valji was
truly Bijal's son, that is how he inherited Bijal's manliness, otherwise he too
would have clung to his own life like you and me.'

The lack of unity among Dalits is exposed by the author in the following words:

'So, send them a message, that they should not go through the village on the
way back.'

Why unnecessarily stir a hornet's nest?' What if they attack while we are
unprepared, what will you do then?

I am telling you, nothing of that sort will happen.

They are all roused and together right now, but they will not unite.

If they were united, it would have been difficult for us to live in this village.'

Are you sure?'

'Yes. I have years of experience.

It's a good-for-nothing caste.

Among themselves they display power; but never unite to think of their
own welfare.

We get away with what we do because of their failures! The day they
achieve self-recognition, the sun will set on us.'

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This is a wake up call to the Dalit communities. The following words ask Dalits
to fight back and not silently suffer:

“'Live life the way Valji did.

You have endured enough wrongs.

Now learn to fight back.

Your miseries will not disappear

if you hold your own lives very dear.

(The Stepchild, P.105)

Even to make an offer to a stream or a stepwell, people think twice and do so

only if they find a perfect human being with all thirty-two qualities. On the
other hand this entire caste has been made into an offering, casually. If we want
to avoid that, then we have to be ready to pay a certain price. Our generation
thought it right to grin and bear everything. I have now come to believe that you
should endure only if it is right; if it is wrong you must resist Go now, may you
live a hundred years and as inheritors of Valji's valour, in such a way that the
story of Valji's heroism never loses colour.” (THE STEPCHILD,P.105)

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 CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2
Joseph Macwan’s The Step Child (2004):
A Dalit Critique of the Idea of Nation

Introduction

Joseph Macwan‟s Angaliyat (The Step Child) foregrounds that the land of Gandhi is
deeply violent. It attempts to show that the relations between the caste Hindus and
Dalits are asymmetrical. The deeply embedded tension between these two communities
becomes visible when Dalits protest against the power of the caste Hindus and it is
followed by anti-Dalit violence. In The Step Child, it becomes evident when Teeha, a
Dalit hero, rescues Methi, a Dalit girl, from being harassed by the Patel boys. Teeha is
murdered for challenging the upper caste dominance. Teeha‟s voice of dissent is
perceived as a threat to their authority which has been bestowed upon them by the
casteist tradition. Historically, the suppressed conflict between the Patidars and the
Vankars in Gujarat became manifested during the anti-reservation riots of 1981 and
1985 when the Vankars challenged their marginalization.

By documenting the conditions of Dalits in the colonial and post-colonial periods,

the novel demonstrates that the colonial regime was better for Dalits than the Swaraj. The
novel expresses intense distrust about the Swaraj as it turns out to be the upper caste and
class rule for the caste subalterns. The novel portrays the structural violence of the Ram
Raj and the postcolonial disempowerment of Dalits. There is a juxtaposition of the
Gandhian politics with the Congress‟s opportunistic electoral politics. The political
success of an unscrupulous and venal politician like Ranchod Dehlavala, who plans and
executes murders of Valji and Teeha, spreads fear in the minds of Dalits. The novel
explodes the myth of the Indian village as an ideal republic; the rural India is a feudal
Brahmanical space. It delineates the success and failure of India as a nation; it expresses
the suffering and aspirations of Dalits, who ask: Do they have a homeland? It asks: Are
Dalits free in India? Dalits‟ main fear arises from the fact that caste Hindus hold social,
economic and political power in the post-colonial era. The unfurling of the national flag
by Dehlavala marks the replacement of the white masters with the brown sahebs.

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Sadly, in the post-independence era, the perpetration of violence on the Vankars

by the Patidars in The Step Child indicate that Dalits remain just the margins of the
nation. Ambedkar‟s apprehensions about the Indian Constitution turn out to be true in
the novel. He had announced that the Constitution would usher in equality in the
political realm but there would be inequality in the social and economic realms. The
Vankars become disillusioned with the idea of freedom. After the independence,
Dehlavala becomes a minister in the Congress government which gives him immense
power. He controls the entire State machinery and tries to save the murderers of Teeha
and Valji. The Vankars feel helpless in this situation. The Congress is also dominated
by caste Hindus.

Moreover, the novel reiterates Ambedkar‟s message that Dalits need to migrate
to cities in order to eschew the daily humiliation and discrimination in the village life.
We see that at the end most of the Vankar youths leave their village and move towards
cities. Actually, Dalits are treated as angaliyat (step children) by caste Hindus in India.
The novel, truly speaking, explores the idea of Dalit emancipation. It suggests education
as crucial too for Dalit empowerment. The donation of seven thousand and one by
Gokal in The Step Child for giving Teeha‟s name to the high school in the village hints
at the value accorded to education by Joseph Macwan for Dalit liberation.

Caste in the Gujarati Society

The persistence of caste in the modern Indian society raises fundamental questions
about the nature of democracy, nation and republic in India. It is reminiscent of the
apprehensions Ambedkar had expressed about the Indian constitution, that is, it
promises only political democracy but social and economic democracy is yet to be
achieved. Gujarat, unlike some other states, has not witnessed any social movements
that challenged its traditional social structure. Gandhi‟s location in Gujarat facilitated it
as a „home‟ for the nationalist movement, but that only functioned to preserve
traditional society. „Harijans‟, as Gandhi called them, were to remain on the margins,
and caste system preserved in his vision of a village-based economy. Under the Maratha
rule in Gujarat during the eighteenth century, the Rajputs (also known as Darbars) who
replaced the old zamindars and remained as symbols of a feudal past in the village

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republic. The landowning Patels, previously, Shudras, benefited immensely from the
land settlements under the British rule, and attained the status of landowners rather than
agriculturalists. They moved up in the caste hierarchy and this resulted in their Shudra
past being forgotten. The wealthiest of these are known as Patidars and command
immense power. It has been in the interests of both the Patels and the Darbars, not to
tolerate any resistance from the ex-untouchable because the latter get cheap labour
(sometimes free) labour under the Jajmani system. Caste hierarchy and caste violence
are clearly visible in the day- to-day life in the Gujarati society. Dalits constitute the
marginalized section of the Gujarati society whereas the upper castes comprise the
dominant groups who perpetrate all kinds of indignities, humiliation and atrocities on
Dalits. The social relations between the upper castes and the lower castes are deeply
asymmetrical as they are basically power relations. Any act of resistance by Dalits is
brutally retaliated by the caste Hindus. Joseph Macwan‟s Angaliyat (Gujarati, 1986, The
Step Child in English, 2004) vividly illustrates it by demonstrating that the land of
Gandhi is inherently violent.

The Journey So Far: Caste Question in Gujarati non-Dalit Novels

Like other modern Indian regional literatures, the modern Gujarati literature has
certainly tried to break free from the limitations and restrictions of the medieval
Gujarati literature by connecting literature to reality and by bringing social
consciousness to the fore in its various forms. The year 1866 is supposed to mark the
beginning of the Gujarati novel. Mansukhlal Jhaveri in his book History of Gujarati
Literature (1976) informs us that Sasu Vahu-ni-Ladai (1866) by Mahipatram Roopram
Nilkanth is the first social novel in Gujarati and Nandshankar Mehta‟s Karan Ghelo
(1866) is regarded as the first historical Gujarati novel. He argues that though Sasu
Vahu ni-Ladai is the first Gujarati novel because it was written earlier than Karan
Ghelo. But the latter being a better representative of the novelistic genre, despite all of
its limitations, is conventionally regarded as the first novel in Gujarati language. Giriraj
Kumar N. Rohit in his book Dalit Chetna Kendrit Hindi- Gujarati Upanyas maintains
that the Gujarati novels written during the Gandhian age were influenced by the
Gandhian ideology. These novels critiqued untouchability and social inequalities, but
the discourse of pity underpinned the representations of Dalits and their problems.

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Nonetheless the idea of „Arts for Arts Sake‟ was replaced by „Arts for Life Sake‟. He
further informs us that Raman Lal Desai in his novel Divyachakshu (1939) describes
the impact of the Civil Disobedience Movement on the people of Gujarat and at the
same time, getting inspired by Gandhi‟s anti-untouchability campaign, tries to assuage
the hatred and repulsion towards the Bhangi community. Raman Lal Desai‟s Gandhian
politics is clearly evident in the characterization of a Dalit figure namely Dhana Bhagat
who is spiritually so inclined that when he inadvertently touches a Brahmin and he is
thrashed, he does not resist. Rather he meekly requests Narsingh Lal to spare his
younger son. Another character in the novel called Ranjan sympathizes with Bhagat by
giving him two rupees. But Bhagat retorts by saying that they are not beggars. Raman
Lal Desai‟s other novel Gramlakshmi (Part 1to 4- 1932 to 1934) describes that a
character called Ashwin is educated but fails to get a job. His inability to get a job is
attributed to the fact that a less educated man from the lower caste community obtains a
job. Ashwin goes to commit suicide but after seeing Gramlakshmi, he abandons this
idea and returns to his village and takes the responsibility for welfare of the village.
This novel also reflects the impact of Gandhian ideology.

Ramchandra Patel‟s novel Bashpa (1979) attempts to depict the village life. It
focuses on the difficulties and ironies of Dalit lives like those of the Chamars and the
Vagharis. But the writer‟s Gandhian approach takes precedence over his humanist
vision in the way he lays emphasis on worship and Satyanarayan Katha. For instance,
Dhula Bhangi distributes the „prasad‟ of Satyanarayan Katha which is resisted by most
of the upper caste people. Similarly, Pinakin Dave‟s novel Pralamb Panth (1979) has
been written from reformist approach. The protagonist of the novel, Ravi, hails from a
lower caste community, who lives in city by hiding his identity among upper caste
people. He marries an upper caste girl but does not reveal his true identity to her. Later
when she gets to know his lower caste identity she commits suicide. After having these
horrendous experiences, he goes back to his village and starts working for the welfare
of Dalits.

Raghuveer Chaudhary‟s novel Ichchhavaar (1982) highlights the hypocrisies and

contradictions of the Hindu social order. The writer tries to show that if there are demonic
characters like Chatur Gosai (the temple priest) who sleeps with a Dalit woman, but

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practices untouchability in the public, at the same time, there are progressive upper caste
people like Mangal and Kamu who exhibit their humanistic approach in their interactions
with the lower caste people. On the other hand, Aanshubhino Ujaas (1984) by Dilip
Ranpura discusses the dilemma of Devraj Koli whose caste is seen as low even by the
upper castes. His ancestors were associated with thieving and robbery. The drawback of
the novel lies in the fact that it does not look at Dalit issues at all. Kishor Singh Solanki‟
novel Mashari (1986) does not characterize the Dalit protagonist, Godad Bhagat Chamar
as strong and powerful. Godad is a landless bonded labourer. His only dream is to have
two „beegha‟ land and he wants to educate his son.

Jayant Gadit‟s Badlati Kshitij (1986) is also not a radical intervention so far as
the representation of Dalit life is concerned. The novel focuses on the life of the
Vaghari community which was engaged in thieving, liquor selling, etc. Although the
protagonist, Jeeva, is shown to be contesting the legislative assembly elections, the
upper caste man, Shano Vaghela, tries to trap Jeeva‟s wife as he is portrayed as
impotent. Mani Lal Patel‟s Andharu (Darkness) (1990) deals with social problems but
does not contribute to raise Dalit consciousness. B.S. Nimavat in his book Gujarati
Dalit Literature: A Critical Study points out that Snehrashmi‟s Antarapat is a literary
reflection of Gandhian reformative agenda. Kalo Angrez by Chinu Modi is an important
reflection on the post-independence Indian society in the sense that the novel dwells
upon the persistence of caste in the post-colonial society. In Girishkumar. N. Rohit‟s
opinion, Chinu Modi asks a very significant question about the replacement of the white
rulers with the brown rulers. Modi seems to reiterate what Ngugi Wa Thiongo said in
his play The Trial of Dedan Kimathi. Modi hints at the prevalence of internal
colonialism for Dalits. What he implies is that the white British ruling has been replaced
by the brown ruling elites in the independent India where the poor and helpless Dalits
are brutalized and oppressed by their own brethren. Dalits continue to be treated as step
children by the upper castes in India.

History of Dalit Movement in Gujarat

Nitin Gurjar writes: “A hundred and fifty years ago the Dalits in Kheda had to go about
with a broom of twigs tied behind them”1. He also mentions that the caste Hindus of

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Ahmedabad protested against an English school with the help of Ahmedabad Merchant
Association due to the admission of a Dalit student in that school. The press, courts and
other socio-cultural apparatuses had Brahmanical approach. He quotes a report
published in Gujarat, Mitra 12 February 1871. It read as follows: “Though the merchant
class has repeatedly complained to the government, they still have to sit in railway
compartments beside low class people like Bhangis”2. Another report in a daily,
Ahmedabad Samachar, of 4 June 1873 read thus: “Dhed Bhangis were prohibited from
stepping onto the carpets spread out in the courts with a view to respecting the feeling
of the Hindus”3. Dalits were not even allowed to choose their way of dressing. They
had to face the hatred and ridicule of the caste Hindus. They must have felt like
launching a movement against the structure of caste, but must have felt helpless.
Nonetheless, one notices the emergence of dissenting voices with respect to a change in
name in the early part of the twentieth century in Surat.

It is worth mentioning that this was the first identitarian movement essential for
a dignified life. Malkanji Kuber Makwana raised a voice through his book Mayawat
Rajput Prakash in Surat against the use of derogatory caste names like „Dhed‟,
„Bhangi‟, „Khalpa‟ and „Garoda‟. This man argued for Vankars to be recognized as
„Mahyavanshi‟ and therefore submitted a memorandum to the government of Bombay
pertaining to the same issue. He visited many parts of Gujarat to generate Dalit opinion
against the use of these demeaning names. This culminated into such a strong agitation
that the Government of Bombay had to ban in 1939 the use of the title „Dhed‟ in official
records and replaced it with the word Mahyavanshi.

The other important Dalit agitation was related to conversion to Christianity.

Dalits in Gujarat were seriously in need of some alternative religious order which could
help them eschew the indignities and degrading life imposed by Hinduism. The lowers
castes in Gujarat embraced Christian faith in a large number at the end of the nineteenth
century. It was a movement inspired not by material needs but by the quest for a human
and respectful identity. Conversion has played a formidable role in the upliftment and
material progress of the former untouchables in Gujarat. Dalits used to be treated as
animals in Gujarat. They used to be seen as incarnation of the Goddess of Epidemics.

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That‟s why in times of famine or epidemics in Gujarat and astoundingly in Kathiawad,

informs Nitin Gurjar, innocent Dalit children were picked up and slaughtered to
appease the Goddesses. Conversely those who entered the Christian fold experienced
honour and sense of equality. However, the conversion movement met with stiff
resistance from the upper castes such as the Patels, the Thakardas and the Vaghris. For
instance, they threw kerosene into the wells of Dalit converts. Dalit converts now had
access to iron plough, weaving looms as well as other instruments of livelihood. It
means conversion to Christianity led to a positive change in the social status of Dalits.

The arrival of Ambedkar in Gujarat in 1931 created ripples in the environment

of Gujarat. It ignited the spark of a revolution in the fields invested with Gandhian
thoughts. Therefore, being galvanized by the Ambedkar ideology, Dalits of Gujarat
declared agitations like „Enter Temples‟, „Enter Hotels‟ and „Enter Buses‟ and thus
challenged not only the upper castes but Gandhian ideological hegemony as well.

Agitation for Entering Hotels in Gujarat

The Hotel Entry Law was passed by the Kher ministry in 1938 in Bombay. This law
enabled the collector of Ahmedabad, Mr. Dew, to make a declaration that the hotel
owners were not allowed to prohibit any Dalit from entering their hotel, and the
violation of this law would result in the cancellation of their licenses. Dalits got courage
to enter hotels in Gujarat. There was an intense reaction against this progressive law
from the upper caste sections of Gujarat. There was an uproar in the cities of Gujarat
about Dalits defiling the upper castes. The response of the Gandhian organizations like
Majoor Mahajan and Harijan Sevak Sangh was extremely shocking. These
organizations looked at the „Enter Hotel Agitation‟ of the Dalits as if it helped the
Ambedkar ideology take precedence over the Gandhian ideology. They started advising
Dalits not to resist discrimination at the hands of the hotel owners. This negative
attitude of the Gandhians annoyed Dalits. A large number of Dalits became
disillusioned with Gandhism, and this action reinforced Dalit consciousness.

There were other agitations like „Enter Bus Agitation‟, „Kalupur Swaminaryan
Mandir Entry Agitation‟, „Mill Strike Agitation‟ and „Agitation of Sanitary Workers‟.

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Mill Strike Agitation of 1895

Dalit Mill workers made a significant contribution to the Dalit movement in Gujarat.
The point is that Dalits constituted the majority of mill workers, so it was easy for them
to use strike as a weapon for achieving social justice. The „mill strike agitation‟ had
fueled the fire of the „Reservation agitations‟ of 1981 and 1985. At the end of the
nineteenth century there were no labour organizations or any trade unions. However,
3000 mill workers in Ahmedabad went on strike, emerging as a significant event in the
nation‟s history of labour unity. This mill strike can be described as a powerful Dalit
movement because when the strike was about to collapse due to pressure from the mill
owners, the Dalit workers gave strength to the strike by standing firm. The arrival of
Gandhi in 1915 in Ahmedabad shaped the labour power by the Gandhian ideology. The
strike of 1918 called by Gandhi for raising the wages of mill workers and a reduction in
the number of working hours was successful. This strike helped Gandhi earn many
permanent Dalit activists as followers.

Agitation of Sanitary Workers, 1911; 1946

The caste Hindus who had launched the anti-reservation agitation against 7 percent
reservation for tribals and 14 percent reservation for Dalits in government jobs and
educational institutions have never asked for their share in sanitary jobs where there is
100 percent reservation for the Valmiki community. It is very ironical that those who
sought total abolition of reservation from medical education at the PG level have not
fought for the same in sanitary jobs. It speaks volumes about the hypocrisy of the caste
Hindus. Sanitary workers in Ahmedabad had not received their salaries for the last two
months. In spite of continuous requests nobody paid attention to it. Finally, they were
forced to go on strike on 14 September, 1911. This brought the municipal authorities of
Ahmedabad to their knees. It was the first sanitary workers‟ successful strike of Gujarat.

Sanitary workers used to be treated badly in villages in 1945. This bad treatment
included reporting four times a day at the workplace, no proper clothes for winters and
monsoons and constant humiliation by the officials and very often being beaten up by
them. It was very easy for them to suspend the sanitary workers for no mistake of theirs.
The Municipal Kamdar Sangh mobilized the sanitary workers and submitted a

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memorandum of their demands to the municipal authorities and gave clarity about the
background of the strike. The municipal authorities ignored this memorandum. This
compelled the sanitary workers to go on strike on 12 June 1946. This strike reduced the
city to garbage in just a few hours. The strike continued for eighteen days before it was
called off.

Anti-Reservation Agitation as Counter-Revolution

The anti-reservation riots of 1981 and 1985 mark the beginning of Dalit
consciousness in Gujarat. On 31 December 1980, a representative body of BS
Medical College, Ahmedabad, submitted a memorandum to the ministry of health of
Gujarat government with the following demands: Immediate withdrawal of roster
system, abolition of carry forward system, reduction of the reserved seats at the post-
graduate level and increase in the number of unreserved seats at the PG level. After
two weeks, they were seeking abolition of all reservations. The most striking thing
about the whole process is the swiftness with which the demand was made and a
separate committee for abolition of all reservations was formed. The anti-reservation
agitation was supported by all those who thought that they had been disadvantaged by
reservations, that is, employees. The general intelligentsia also displayed solidarity
with the anti-reservationists believing that reservation violates the principle of
equality and merit. The most important allies of the anti-reservation agitators were the
landowning agricultural classes and castes who unleashed terror among the Scheduled
Castes by perpetrating atrocities on them in the rural as well as urban areas. Of
course, some Dalits resisted this violence. Political parties responded differently to
this event. For instance, CPM and CPI stood against the agitation and lent support to
reservation. BJP was in favour of reservations but attacked the government for shoddy
implementation of the policy. The Congress government employed force to end the
agitation. In the beginning, the police used repressive measures against the Scheduled
Castes, but later it used force against others also when a policeman was killed in a
higher caste locality. Here, one needs to note the silence of the Gandhian leaders on
the violence committed on Gandhi‟s Harijans. Some of the Saryodayist Gandhians
opposed the agitation and organized prayer meetings.

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I.P Desai in his article “Anti-Reservation Riots in Gujarat” argues that the
disturbing pattern visible in the whole agitation is that the only target of violence has
been the Dalit community both in urban and rural areas albeit three categories were
beneficiaries of reservation. As far as the castes are concerned, Brahmins, Banias,
Patidars and the intermediate castes protested against the SCs and the police. In the
rural areas, the agriculturalists or the landowning Kanbi Patidars in Kheda, Ahmedabad
and Mehsana district took the lead. It should be noted that these are also the districts
with concentration of Dalit community and of better educated among them, who have
become assertive. Though the agitation affected almost the entire Gujarat, it was the
most intense in three districts - Kheda, Ahmedabad and Mehsana in north Gujarat. The
fact of the matter is that the counter revolution in the form of anti-reservation agitation
in Gujarat foregrounded the deep-seated higher caste prejudice and hatred against Dalits
embedded in the Hindu social structure. Their gut feeling was: how can these „Dheds‟be
equal to us? But they wanted to appear modern and progressive. That‟s why they placed
the argument of „merit‟ above „caste‟. It needs to be underlined that competence and
merit under the present Brahmanical social structure leads to social Darwinism. It is
structurally advantageous for the upwardly mobile upper classes and, in the Indian
context, the higher castes.

Most importantly, the Patel community‟s movement in August 2015 for

reservation by means of inclusion in OBC category completes the circle. The same
community had opposed reservation for SCs and STs in 1981 and 1985 in educational
institutions and government jobs. It is very shocking that in India the dominant
communities perpetrate violence on Dalits (especially when the latter struggles for social
justice), flaunt their caste superiority and paradoxically claim backwardness seeking
reservation. Parimal Dhabi in his article “Why are the Patels Angry in Gujarat?” informs
that youths belonging to Gujarat‟s economically and politically influential Patidar or Patel
community have been shouting for OBC status. They have formed the Patidar Anmat
Andolan Samiti (PAAS) to mobilize the Patel community for this cause. The protests by
the Patels for reservation have been widespread across the State and considerably large in
many towns and cities. Ostensibly it looks like an urban phenomenon but rural areas are
not totally excluded. The Patel rallies have triggered other caste rallies as well and led to

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inter-caste tension and conflicts. Indira Hirway shares her opinion in her article
“Rethinking Reservations and Development”, though the leadership of the Patel agitation
seems to be flawed, it needs to be taken seriously because it is an indication of what is
going to happen in future not only in Gujarat but also other parts of the country. She
maintains that the agitation is a result of the accumulated frustration of the youth on two
major grounds. First, the current reservation policy that could not succeed to assimilate
the lower castes/tribes in the mainstream economy and society, and has caused a sense of
discontent and injustice among those who are excluded from the benefits of reservation.
And second, the much-hyped Gujarat model of development has failed terribly in
producing adequate jobs for the increasing labour force in the State. The educated youth
are worst affected by this lacuna who are not able to attain suitable jobs in spite of so
much accent on the rapid growth of the economy.

In his article “The Patidar Idea of Reservation” Satish Deshpande expounds that
the idea of reservation predation nation- it was introduced to jettison the religiously-
legitimated caste-based discrimination and oppression and to create the community of
formal equals which is a pre-condition for the idea of nation. In the constitutional view,
reservation is essentially meant to combat caste discrimination and inequality. By its
very definition, reservation is not supposed to promote the interests of the dominant
castes. Thus the Patidars do not qualify for reservation. Their view of reservation
appears to be that it is a welfare benefit that any caste can procure if it has the power to
bend the State to its will. So, the main qualification for getting reservation seems to be
an electorally significant population, competence to mobilize the community, manage
the media and mount a strong agitation to coerce the State. He asks why the Patidars
maintain deafening silence on the failure of the market model in which they had
reposed immense faith. The explanation for this silence is that the market ideology is so
deeply-entrenched that its critique is not seen as an option. Furthermore, the inability to
be rational about the market is a global problem today as reflected in the clearly
avoidable crashes and recessions of the recent past. Possibly, for faithful practitioners
like the Patels, the market is like a force of nature that one cannot go against. The issue
to worry about the market is that it plays a decisive role in determining caste conflicts in
India. According to Satish Deshpande, it is not entirely coincidental that liberalization

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and the OBC quota agitation happened simultaneously in 1990-91. He writes: “In
market-friendly India, the art of the possible has been seen as the balancing of the “gush
up” for big corporate with the “trickle down” for the electorally indispensable poor and
lower castes. Groups like the Patidars may upset the balance because, now they want to
drink from both streams”4.

By implication, real political acumen here lies in reconciling the interests of big
corporate and those of the economically and socially deprived masses. Therefore,
instead of addressing the structural causes behind glaring inequalities in the society, the
State simply hands out reservation to “under-represented” communities and on the other
hand, it offers huge tax exemptions to the big corporates. Deshpande observes that like
other upper castes, the Patidars used to look at general category as a quota for
themselves. They were rattled by the introduction of the quota for the OBCs and
spearheaded the anti-reservation protests of 1981 and 1985 which had demanded
abolition of reservation everywhere. The Patidars had shown solidarity with their upper
caste brethren as proud members of the general category who hated reservation. But
now the Patidars wish to abandon the superiority complex attached to merit and
renounce the holier-than-thou attitude of the general category for two reasons. The first
reason relates to the escalation of competition within the upper castes. The Patel were
ready to face in 1980s competence by virtue of what I.P Desai described as inbuilt
structural advantages. It means that they had the money, power and strong connections
to purchase expensive coaching, or to attain merit “directly” by doctoring with exam
results or buying donation seats. But today, in the Vypam era of charged merit-markets,
the Patidars belonging to the lower strata are being marginalized. The second reason is
the fact that reservation-eligible lower castes have begun to enter into the general
category. The objective of the republic is to democratize the general category by
including all citizens irrespective of caste. However due to the irrefutable presence and
continuing reproduction of caste inequalities and discrimination, the interests of the
lower castes must be safeguarded with quotas. The Gujarat agitation of 1985 broached
in the rhetoric of merit and anti-reservation logic that was employed by the anti-Mandal
stir in north India. Deshpande underlines that the Patidar agitation raises the subtle issue
of the role of caste pride in the context of real or perceived downward mobility.

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Indira Hirway argues that since creamy layer of the lowest castes and tribes
have been the main beneficiaries, the upper caste youths hailing from the same
economic background feel discriminated against. The primary complaint of the
agitators led by Hardik Patel is this unfair discrimination. A 21-year Hardik Patel has
emerged as their aggressive and formidable leader. He has threatened to combine this
agitation with the Gujjar protests in Rajasthan. They organized a mammoth rally on 25th
August, 2015 to reinforce their demand for OBC status. Hardik Patel threatened the
ruling BJP government with dire consequences if their demand is not met. This
agitation has sent Gujarat into throes of violence and chaos. Their grievance is that they
do not have support of any political party. They argue that a vulnerable section of their
community is feeling excluded due to reservation for other communities.

Indira Hirway in her article „Rethinking Reservations and Development‟

contends that the Patels are an economically and politically dominant upper caste. They
are successful farmers small as well as big industrialists, as traders as well as non-
resident Gujaratis, settled all over the world, they should be the last to demand
reservation. She argues that precisely their demand is the removal of caste-based
reservation, and its replacement with reservation based on economic criterion. Parimal
Dhabi in “Why are Patels Angry in Gujarat” informs us that Patels constitute 20 percent
of Gujarat‟s population. As a matter of fact, several dominant middle castes are
agitating for reservation all over the country like Patidar community in Gujarat, Gujjar
community in Rajasthan, Jaat community in Haryana. This development can be
understood by placing it in the larger social, political, cultural and economic context. In
the wake of globalization, international capital has diluted the State‟s welfarist role. The
State is offering full space to the market forces. The society is witnessing massive
privatization signaling the increasing stronghold of neo-liberalism. This has resulted in
rising rate of unemployment, insecurity and further subalternization of the
underprivileged sections. The so-called touchable communities are feeling culturally
threatened. Modernity is invading their „pure‟ and „superior‟ identities. And certainly,
the rise of and assertion by the lower castes has added to their anxiety and insecurity.
That‟s why in the post-Independent India, anti-Dalit violence has increased. The
following stanza from Praveen Gadhvi‟s poem “Farewell to Arms” puts forth the Dalit

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view on the opposition to reservation for SCs and STs in educational institutions and
government jobs:

Let us remove provisions for reservation from our

Constitution
Our sons: Magan- Chhagan will compete openly in examinations,
But will you admit them in your convent schools?
Let us put aside the arms, and till the fertile land of our nation
together
But will you give half the portion of the harvest to us?5

However, the State does not look at inequalities as structural problems. Ambedkar‟s
vision underlying reservation as a question of representation saw caste discrimination as
a systemic problem. Thus, the purpose of reservation is to build the nation by offering
equal representation to all castes in the mainstream society and economy.

Dalit Print Culture in Gujarat

It is worth describing that Dalits who live life worse than animals could bring out
journals during the colonial times. Nitin Gurjar informs us that Dalit journalism began
in April 1930. The first Gujarati Dalit monthly, Navyuvak was published in Ahmedabad
under the editorship of Lallubhai Makwana. It had subscribers in Africa as well. This
Dalit monthly was stopped in 1931 after the death of Lallubhai Makwana. The other
monthly published during this time was Vijay under the joint editorship of Kachrabhai
Bhagat and Madhavji Parmar. But right after two years this also came to an end.
Another powerful monthly Bherubandh came out in June 1939 and was edited by
Dhanjibhai Jogadiya. Its headlines reflected its Ambedkarite ideology: „Hindu doctors
do not treat untouchable patients‟6. Advocate Hirjibhai launched a journal called
Challenge in 1946 to disseminate the ideas of the Scheduled Caste Federation set up by
Ambedkar. But it came to a sad close a year after. The Dalit weekly Jai Bhim
articulating Ambedkarite ideology in every word was launched by Karsandas Leuva in
Ahmedabad in 1946. The weekly published news of Ambedkarite activities, Dalit
problems, Dalit agitations and Dalit organizations over entire Gujarat. V.T Parmar
started a Dalit monthly called Samanta in 1951. Importantly, in Nitin Gurjar‟s opinion,
this was the first official newsletter of the Gujarat Scheduled Caste Federation and

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Municipal Kamdar Sangh. One can know the history of the Valmiki community‟s
struggles from various issues of this monthly. A staunch Ambedkarite Sunderlal Patel
had launched Iquilab in Vadodara in 1953 to highlight Dalit assertion in Vadordara.
Jayanti Subodh started Tamanna in 1955 to articulate Dalit problems. The editor of
Tamanna did a commendable job by extensively reporting 1981 and 1985 Dalit
agitations. Jyoti launched under the editorship of L.G Parmar turned out to be the
longest surviving journal and came to an end after 21 years. There were other journals
like Mukti Sangram published by Karsandas Parmar in 1958, Garud published by
Dalpat Shrimali in 1970, Dalit started by Rameshchandra Parmar in 1975, Disha and
Samaj Mitra. Garud attained prominence due to its informative journalism. It attacked
Gandhi ashram as hub of corruption. Disha and Samaj Mitra were unique because they
published Dalit poetry as well. Two very important journals such as Panther started by
Rameshchandra Parmar in 1974 and Akrosh performed a significant role in continuing
the struggle for social justice. Akrosh published revolutionary Dalit literature which
galvanized Dalits in Gujarat. Thus, these Dalit journals marked the emergence of Dalit
print culture in Gujarat and help tremendously in shaping Dalit consciousness in the
State.

Caste and Communal Violence in Gujarat

Gujarat is described as the laboratory of Hindutva. It is the first State which has
witnessed Hindu consolidation in the entire country. Ornit Shani in her book
Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism observes that India has experienced a
resurgence of aggressive form of Hindu nationalism in its public life and in its political
institutions. She alerts us to the fact that the Hindu nationalism has identified itself in
opposition to Islam and Muslims. The proponents of Hindutva popularize that view that
the Muslim minority in India poses a threat to the Hindu majority and aim to fashion
India essentially as a Hindu nation (rashtra) which is predicated on an idea of Hindu
values, ethos and religion. Gujarat has emerged as the site of recurring communal
violence since the mid 1980s. The political wing of the Hindutva movement was
established as a reconstruction of the Jan Sangh. Ornit Shani contests the largely held
view that the growth of communalism in the latter part of the twentieth century took
place due to the Hindu-Muslim hostility alone. She proposes that the increasing appeal

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of Hindutva and its deep repulsion towards Muslims reflected growing tension among
Hindus which was a result of the destabilizing relations between castes and the changes
occurring in the caste regime as experienced by the various Hindu groups. She wonders
as to what made Hindu consolidation possible in Gujarat. The point is that the idea of
monolithic Hindu identity is implausible owing to the existence of caste hierarchy in
Hinduism. Moreover, the pauperization of the Muslims in India debunks the rhetoric
about their being a threat to the Hindus.

It is important to note that the caste conflicts in Gujarat in 1985 around

reservation for lower and backward castes in educational institution and governments
jobs turned into communal violence. Importantly, the Hindu caste groups that spread
Hindu nationalism were also instrumental in leading the caste agitations. The rhetoric of
Hindutva about the State appeasing the Muslims and their being a peril to the Hindus
attracted basically the upper-caste and urban middle-class Hindus. Muslims were
clubbed with the caste subalterns, though religion was dropped as a category while
examining the candidature for affirmative action. These caste conflicts engendered
communalism in the 1980s and 1990s. The intensification of communal hostility since
the 1980s was an expression of the increasing uncertainties within the Hindu moral
order of things. The growth of communalism and the construction of monolithic Hindu
identity since the 1980s can be described as ethno-Hinduism. These riots indicated a
shift in power from the Congress to the Hindu nationalist BJP in Gujarat as well as in
Indian national politics.

Emergence of Gujarati Dalit Literature

It can be said that Gujarat did not experience any formidable Dalit movement unlike
Maharashtra. But Dalit consciousness was of course present in the State. The
emergence of Dalit literature in Gujarat can be traced back to the 1970s when Dalit
writers like Dalpat Chauhan, Pravin Gadhvi, Nirav Patel, being influenced by the Dalit
Panther Movement of Maharashtra, began to articulate the issues of caste and class in
their writings. Indeed, the events of 1981 and 1985 had a formative impact on the
emergence of Dalit consciousness and identity in Gujarat. Dalits were subjected to
violence and communal frenzy during these anti-reservation agitations, which resulted

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in uniting Gujarati Dalits. This certainly intensified the creative urge for the expression
of Dalit pain and protest. To begin with, Gujarati Dalit literature emerged in the form of
poetry. However, the second phase witnessed diversification in terms of genres as well
as structural innovation and experimentation.

It cannot be denied that the emergence of Dalit print culture in the form of Dalit
journals and magazines in Gujarat paved way for the surfacing of Gujarati Dalit novel.
B.S Nimavat puts forth that Gujarati Dalit novel came into being during the last two
decades of the twentieth century. Gujarati Dalit novels are an expression of socio-
economic marginalization and psychological suffering of Dalits in Gujarat. The
Gujarati Dalit novel came up as a counter-hegemonic narrative to reinforce the
questions posed by Chinu Modi in his novel Kalo Angrez, but from a Dalit experiential
perspective. Joseph Macwan‟s Angaliyat (1986) The Step Child (2004) is regarded as
the first Gujarati Dalit novel. Raj Kumar in his essay “Dalits as the Others: Dalit
Discourse in Joseph Macwan‟s Angaliyat” argues that it is the first Dalit novel to be
penned down in any Indian language. He further puts forth that it is an intriguing tale of
love, bravery, struggle, humiliation, retaliation and violence. Other prominent Gujarati
Dalit novels are: Dalpat Chauhan‟s Malak (The Home Land), Harish Manglam‟s Tirad
(Crack) and Aganjal, Mohan Parmar‟s Neliyu (The Narrow Alley), B. Kesharshivam‟s
Shool (The Thorn) and Daksha Damodara‟s novels, Shosh and Savitri (she is probably
the only remarkable Gujarati Dalit woman novelist).

The Step Child as a Counter-Discourse

Joseph Macwan is considered as one of the prominent Gujarati Dalit writers. He was
born in 1936 in Kheda district. He passed away on 29th March, 2010. He had received
National Sahitya Award for Angaliyat (The Step Child) as the best novel in 1989. By
birth he was a Dalit but later he embraced Christianity. Angaliyat is a milestone in
Gujarati Dalit literature as well as in mainstream Gujarati literature. The novel heralded
a new age in the tradition of Gujarati novels. His other novels are Dariya (The Sea),
Amar Chandalo (The Immortal Mark of Bindi) (2000), Mari Parnetkar (My Wife)
(1998), Mavatar (Parents) (1996) Ajnama Aparadhi (Guilty Throughout Life) (1995),
Brij-Trij-Na Neh (Love Sprouted from the Second and Third Nights of the Moonlight

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Nights) (1995). He wrote many short stories and produced brilliant word sketches.
Joseph Macwan‟s novel Angaliyat (The Step Child) can be deemed as a signifier of
caste radicalism in the sense that it was a part of the wave of Dalit textuality that
emerged after Gujarat‟s anti- reservation riots of 1981 and 1985. When Angaliyat was
published, Gujarat was experiencing violent anti-reservation stirs, one in 1981 and the
second in 1985. It heightened the tension between the caste Hindus and Dalits. The fact
that Dalits became the main targets during these two agitations deeply humiliated and
alienated them. The more articulate among them went into self-reflexive mode and
started to search for their identity which propelled them to look into deeper excavation
of their collective past. This deep identity crisis resulted in a new Dalit discourse. It
encompassed Dalit history, Dalit sociology and above all, Dalit prose by Dalit writers.

B. Kesharshivam‟s Shool (Thorn) (1995) is also set against the background of

violent anti-reservation riots in Gujarat. The Step Child can be seen as a dialectic
between Brahmanical order of things and Dalit subversion. It attempts to undo the
discourse of Brahmanism about the Dalit culture, life and history. It functions as a
counter-discourse by providing alternative representations of the Vankar community.
In “Author‟s Note to The Step Child”, Macwan writes that Dalit community
continuously faces suffering, want, pain, exploitation, social injustice and yet it has its
own culture, a unique tradition of living its own adventures and tales of courage. The
mainstream Gujarati literature has not focused on these aspects. The Step Child is an
attempt to fill this gap. It is a tale of culture that is extinct and purposefully pushed
into oblivion. It received the National Sahitya Academi Award in 1988. It tries to
capture the repressed conflict between the dominant castes and the lower castes in the
Hindu social order which becomes manifest whenever the Dalits challenge their
subalternization as it happened during the anti-reservation riots in Gujarat and in the
novel when Teeha‟s act of challenging Nanio Patel subverts the relations of
domination and subordination between the Patidars and the Vankars. The novel also
highlights the violence of the RamRaj and the postcolonial subalternization of Dalits.
Joseph Macwan in the novel voices the aspirations and pain of the powerless caste
subalterns- where do they belong? He articulates a protest against the non-belonging
of the caste subalterns in „free‟ India.

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The Step Child‟s uniqueness as a Dalit novel lies in the fact that it familiarizes
us with „untouchable‟ world in its totality. It re-presents Dalit characters as brave,
vivacious, hard-working, intelligent and morally strong. The delineation of characters
like Teeha, Valji, Bhavaankaka, Master ji, Methi, Kanku, Dana and Moti is very
impressive. Teeha and Valji are Dalit heroes in the novel. Macwan conveys a very
important message by presenting their friendship as an ideal relationship. Their
relationship is based on equality and mutual respect towards each other. Macwan
narrates the whole history of courage of Valji‟s family. Valji‟s father Bijal was also a
brave man. Bijal had resisted oppression and violence inflicted by the Maratha Sardars.
The Master‟s character is crucial because he embodies Dalit political consciousness.
His aim is to unite and mobilize Dalits so that they can struggle for their liberation. He
awakens Dalits about their suffering and about the fact that caste system is behind their
disunity and oppression.

The character of Bhavaankaka occupies significant amount of space of the

novel. It is the first novel which introduces a Dalit as a spiritual guide as opposed to the
Brahmanical tradition in which only a Brahmin acts as a spiritual and moral guide for
all the castes. He enlightens and guides the entire Vankar community. Everybody in the
Vankar vas respects him. He talks to Heera Khanji for Teeha‟s marriage to Methi. He is
a beacon of hope for the Dalit community. He is a charismatic spiritual and moral
leader. Teeha‟s murder by the Patidars shocks him. It causes a paradigm shift in his
consciousness. He becomes this-worldly man. He embodies now Ambedkarite
consciousness. Ambedkar would say that saints cannot liberate Dalits in India.
Bhavankaka expresses:

I feel these other-worldly indulgences…are all mere words. We live here in this world, this is
what should concern us now. If we need to improve anything it should be this world. Whoever
manages to improve this life, also improves the after-life. If you let this one spoil, you can be
sure the other one is spoilt too! It is only at times of death that we turn towards spirituality. (97)

He begins to act like a political leader. He tries to awaken the Vankars by exhorting to
learn to fight back. He tells them that they have endured enough suffering and they
need to live like Valji. Every society needs this kind of leader who can show the right
path in the age of darkness and ignorance. We are able to get a peep into the little

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traditions which help the Dalits to survive. Teeha‟s passion for his work, that is,
weaving, is reflected in the way he enjoys his work. He sings while working:

“The warp of my breath

The weft of my soul
My Ram! How far can this shuttle go?
My Ram! How far can this shuttle go?” (1)

It shows that life of the Dalits is not full of despair and suffering only, Dalit life is full
of hope, joy, songs and music as well. These are their survival strategies. Their culture
is radically different from the mainstream Brahmanical culture. Dalit culture is
democratic and egalitarian. In this culture, one finds dignity of labour and individuals‟
worth is decided by virtue of their individual efforts. In the Brahmanical tradition, it is
denigrated as „low‟ culture. Macwan attacks superstitions engulfing the Dalit
community. Refusing to offer a feast to the villagers, Teeha says:

You will merely eat and forget. How will it benefit my poor dead parents? I don‟t see how your
eating and drinking can reach my wretched parents! The good deeds they earned are gone with
them, the rest is only display and I‟m not for it. You people may do what you like. (3)

For instance, by demonstrating Methi and Kanku as „pure‟ women, Macwan succeeds
in throwing to the winds the age-old perceptions of higher castes which belittle the
practice of naatru or remarriage among backward communities. Likewise, by
portraying Teeha and Valji as courageous Dalits who assert and resist at the cost of their
lives, Macwan accentuates the Dalit quest for identity and dignity.

The Plot and Setting of the Novel

The novel is situated in the Charotar region of Gujarat where a significant number of
people, hailing from the Vankar community, live. The novel insightfully lays bare the
caste tension underlying social relations between the Patidars and the Vankars of the
region. The protagonists in the novel are the Vankars who were also known as „Dheds‟
in the past. It is important to note that in the early 1980s Dalit students of a local college
in Ahmedabad protested vociferously against the use of the term „Dhed‟ in the title of
Umashankar Joshi‟s play Dhed na Dhed Bhangi (1932) (Untouchables of
Untouchables).

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The Step Child delineates the struggles and little traditions of the Vankar
community. It is an attempt to document the social history of the Vankars of Kheda
district. The writer in his “Note to the Novel” admits that most of the characters
belonging to the Vankar community were „real‟ as he had shared their trials and
tribulations during childhood. It seems difficult to decouple the self of the novelist from
the Self of the community. Raj Kumar writes about the novel: “At another level it is a
celebration of his land, his past and his community”7.

Brief History of Vankars and Patidars

Charotar and its Caste Composition: The Kheda district occupies the land existing
between two rivers Mahi and Sabarmati. Charotar comprises four of the ten talukas of
the Kheda district, viz., Anand, Petlad, Borsad, and Nadiad. It was once described as the
„garden of India‟ due to its fertile land, availability of canal water, diversity of food and
non-food crops, dairy farming, tobacco processing factories and other small scale
industries. The caste composition of the tract unveils which groups have monopolized
its riches and benefits of development. Its mains upper castes include Brahmins, Vanias
and Patidars; its main intermediate caste is Kshatriya, also known as, Koli, Thakor,
Baraiya, Pagi, Khant, Patanwadia and Chumvalia and the lower caste are primarily
untouchables, divided into numerous castes.

The Dominant Patidars: The Patidars constitute the second largest caste group in
Gujarat. They are also the dominant social group who comprise twenty percent of the
population. They are at the fourth position in the caste hierarchy. In the Hindu caste
framework, they are known as Shudras. Joseph Macwan remarks in The Step Child:
“Shilapaar was a large village. It had all the eighteen castes. The Patidars (Patels) ruled
the roost” (34). Until the nineteenth century they were regarded as a low caste. But
gradually the Patidars improved their socio-economic position and acquired upper caste
status. This mobility became possible because of the land policies adopted by the
British regime which transmogrified them from agricultural cultivators into a strong
land-owning group and made them dominant among the professional classes. Further,
the Patidars emerged as the politically dominant in Ahmedabad and well-established in
the Congress party under the leadership of Vallabhbhai Patel. The Patels are classified

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into two main groups, Leva Patel and Kadva Patel, the former being deemed higher in
the status hierarchy.

The social and political relations between various groups in Ahmedabad were
shaped by a particular history of land-ownership and land reforms in different regions
of Gujarat. The State of Gujarat came into being as a consequence of the division of the
Bombay presidency and the unification of British Gujarat and the region of the former
princely states of Saurashtra. Both the regions are marked by different social
hierarchies. In the British Gujarat, the Patels started attaining dominance after many of
them were employed as revenue collectors. Later, the British offered them land in the
supposedly backward areas.

The high status of the merchant communities, unique in India and unusual in
the larger context can be understood in the context of Gujarat‟s location on the trade
routes between the plains of northern India and the maritime routes of the Indian Ocean.
Tambs-Lyche in his article “Reflections on Caste in Gujarat” mentions that the contrast
between the central plains and the coastal south Gujarat, on the one hand, and the
various peripheries, on the other, created a sharp centre-periphery aspect. For instance,
the importance of trade, to a great extent, accounts for the privileged status the merchant
castes enjoyed in the centre whereas the Kshatriya communities had dominance in the
periphery at least until 1947 or may be, even until 1952, when the princely states of
Kathiawar were merged in to the new state of Saurashtra. He alludes to Hardiman‟s
study that peasants developed good connection with the urban economy of the region
from an early date. The cities required agricultural produce, and merchant castes appear
to have combined trade in grain with the collection of revenue at least from Gupta
times. Moreover, from the eleventh century onwards, step wells played an important
role in strengthening the difference between the centre and periphery because the areas
where these wells were available indicated the signs of civilization from an early stage,
and it meant advanced and intensive agriculture as well as State control. These wells
were not located too far from the centre of power. These technological applications
produced different social orders, and their effects are still visible in Gujarat today. It
seems that Kanbis seem to be the descendants of the peasants of the central areas.

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Besides, Tambs-Lyche claims that Patidars‟ form of vertical integration through

hypergamous linkages has been instrumental in the formation of a „block‟ of
agriculturalists, united across class difference which did not allow the splinter into a
dominant agricultural caste and a dominated tenant-labourer caste, found in Punjab and
Gangetic plain. His primary thesis is that in Gujarat, this integration resulted in
marginalizing the Dalits because they did not form large concentrated groups, unlike,
the Chamars of north India. More importantly, with the advent of democracy, the
strength of the Kanbi-Patidar block has established their dominance in central Gujarat
and marginalized the minority sections. In fact, the idea of an imagined Gujarati
Community has been constructed from this centre, and its epicenter Bombay, with
eminent figures like K.M Munshi positing the image of an „eternal‟ Gujarat to be
reconstructed after centuries of Muslim dominance. This reinvented identity of Gujarat
was Hindu and glossed over the issue that the Muslim rule had also contributed to the
development of the region.

In the article “The Politics of Land in Post-colonial Gujarat” Nikita Sud

underlines Hardiman‟s observation on the Kheda satyagraha of 1918 against land
revenue increases. Sud finds that Hardiman has linked this movement with the career of
nationalist leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel and Mohanlal Pandya as well as with the rise
of the Patidar middle peasant nationalist class. Sud futher notices that a similar
movement called the Bardoli satyagraha, with the efforts of landed merchants (Banias,
Patidars and Desais) and Brahmins, took place having full support from the Congress.
Though both the movements succeeded in reversing the tax increases and nationalizing
the peasant cause, they have been interpreted as having excluded the interests and
participation of landless agricultural labourers. Furthermore, Sujata Patel in the
“Introduction: The Ethnography of the Poor” of the book The Jan Breman Omnibus
discusses Jan Breman‟s argument that capitalism has facilitated the original bonded
group, Dublas, to be further exploited and the extensive expansion of capitalist
production process has not brooked a change in social relations of production. In fact,
capitalism has promoted caste identity. For instance, according to Sujata Patel, Jan
Breman looks at the upward mobility of the Kanbi (small peasant) caste into Patidar
(peasant farmers) and argues that it is the proprietorship that has created this possibility.

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He demonstrates how the economic growth of the Kanbis was simultaneous with the
expansion of large-scale cotton cultivation in the black soil, an area dominated by them.
This helped them rise as respectable caste of gentlemen farmers in the mid-twentieth
century. Moreover, other administrative features, other cultural aspects (such as
restrictions in practicing agricultural labour), and political movements assisted the
Kanbis consolidate themselves as an upper caste and class. Although they are just 7 per
cent of the total population in Bardoli taluka, Patidars hold the dominant position in the
social hierarchy. They are known as bhumi-putra or „sons of the soil‟; these rural elites
enjoy a lavish life style and control the institutional infrastructure and political life at
the district level. But the same process of identity formation could not empower the
Dublas, a Dalit community in Gujarat.

This demonstrates that caste hierarchy in Gujarat has evolved historically and it
has a material basis along with it deriving philosophical and religious sanction and
legitimacy from the Brahmanical religion.

Patidar is the name of a numerically large, powerful and influential caste in

central Gujarat. David Pocock in his book Kanbi and Patidar: Study of the Patidar
Community of Gujarat notes that the members of this community were called Kanbi
until 1931. He observes that the change of name was an indication of improved status
but it did not signal the end of the road. Patidar, according to him, indicates both a name
and an ideal. As a name it certainly refers to a caste, but the term also implies a state of
affairs to be attained. It is crucial to note that Patidar society is deeply hierarchical and
competitive. Patidars also follow caste endogamy because they marry with Patidars.
Pocock argues that the Patidars are the dominant caste of the Kaira district. It is true at a
general and descriptive level. But a closer examination of the caste composition of
Kaira district reveals a different reality. It is found that as supposed to be typical of a
dominant social group, Patidars do not control the sources of political and economic
power and also do not occupy the highest status in the local caste hierarchy. Moreover,
our assumption that they are landowners who control and keep up the hierarchical
order, mediating in the disputes of their inferiors, does not hold good. In fact, in some
villages of the Charotar region, they constitute a minority as compared with Muslims,
Rajput, or even Bareia landlords who are dominant in those villages.

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Nancy Lobo in her article “Angaliat: A Gujarati Dalit Novel” also maintains:
“Charotar is dominated by the Leva Patidars. They constitute the dominant group of the
region. Sardar Patel also belonged to their caste. It is stressed that though Kshatriyas
have numerical strength and work on land, the Patidars own most of the land. However,
since 1970s the Patidars have lost their dominance in the political domain due to the
ascendancy of the Kshatriyas. This can partly be ascribed to the latter‟s numerical
majority.

The Marginalized Vankars: Ornit Shani in Communalism, Caste and Hindu

Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat writes that the Scheduled Castes constitute
thirteen percent of Ahmedabad‟s population. There are inter-caste divisions among
Dalits which form status hierarchy among them. Among the Dalits in Ahmedabad, the
Vankars and the Chamars are socially and politically prominent social groups due to
their early association with growing textile industry. They enjoy a little higher status
among Dalits. They came to city at the turn of the twentieth century and entrenched
themselves before other Dalits in the textile industry. The main Dalit communities of
Charotar are Vankars, Garodas, Turis, Chamars, Senwas and Bhangis. The Garodas are
the priests of Vankars. Vankars stand next only to the Garodas in the hierarchy of
Dalits. The main protagonists in Angaliyat hail from the Vankar community, also
known as Dheds. As this title is derogatory, Vankars resist being referred to as Dheds.
The appellation Vankar means weaver. Nancy Lobo opines that when they chose to be
defined as Vankars is not known. She informs us that the word‟ Vankar‟ has been
invested with negative meaning only recently. Some upper castes also did weaving
only the Vankars were interpellated as untouchables. Vankars wove coarse cotton cloth
and sold it within and outside the village. She points out that in the hoary past a
substance (rennet) extracted from the stomach of the calves was used for curing of
coarse cotton yarn. The extraction of rennet involved slaughtering of calves. This seems
to have led to their being stigmatized as polluting and untouchable.

Furthermore, many Vankars were associated with scavenging as well. Actually,

in the absence of a Bhangi scavenger in the village the Vankars had to take up
scavenging as well. A Vakar takes a dead animal out of the village and informs the
Chamar to skin it. It is true that in Hindu society the idea of death and flesh cause

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impurity and pollution. As Lancy Lobo points out that Vankars generally did not do
scavenging and therefore they were given higher social and economic status. The
Vankars, as incumbent upon them in the Hindu Jajmani system (term used by W.H
Wiser in his book The Hindu Jajmani System), serve the village in several other ways
like providing festoons and strings for ceremonial occasions such as wedding. They are
looked down upon as „vasvavas‟ (village servant). The impact of modernization on the
Vankar community was debilitating. The establishment of textile mills in the nineteenth
century rendered the majority of the Vankars jobless and led to their migration and
pauperization in their own villages. Many of them carried on weaving cloth out of mill-
made yarn till 1960s. A few Vankars got employment in textile mills (mostly in the
spinning department) in large cities such as Ahmedabad, but not in villages and towns.
In rural areas they are landless labourers and marginal farmers. Nancy Lobo refers to a
research conducted on Kaira District by A.D Patel in 1936. Patel comments: “the Dheds
worked in the fields for about six months. In summer they and their families migrated to
bigger villages and towns like Petlad, Anand, Baroda and Ahmedabad in need of odd
jobs”8. They got work in factories, spinning and weaving mills and in brick making
factories. They were hard working and were often available as unpaid, forced labour for
upper castes due to the fear of severe punishment. They were humiliated at every step.
The public spaces like well, tanks, schools, libraries, temples and dharamshalas were
not accessible to them. Lobo stresses that recently about 43% of them embraced
Christianity under the spell of Irish mission at Borsad.

The Vankars were traditionally engaged in weaving. They used to weave coarse
cotton clothes for their living. It is intriguing to know as to why the caste Hindus in
Gujarat kept distance from the Vankars as untouchables because weaving as a
profession is treated as a „clean‟ job. There are several explanations for the association
of untouchability with the Vankars. Lancy Lobo in her essay “Angaliat: A Gujarati
Dalit Novel” points out that in the past a substance (rennet) extracted from the stomach
of the calves was used for curing of coarse cotton yarn. The extraction of rennet
involved slaughtering of calves. Furthermore, many Vankars were associated with
scavenging as well. Actually, in the absence of a Bhangi scavenger in the village the
Vankars had to take up scavenging as well. A Vankar took a dead animal out of the

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village and informed a Chamar to skin it. It is true that in Hindu society the idea of
death and flesh causes impurity and pollution. This seems to have led to the Vankars
being stigmatized as polluting and untouchable. Today, there are forty Dalit
communities in Gujarat comprising about 7.5 percent of the total population of the
State. Importantly, the Vankars constitute the strongest Dalit community economically
as well as numerically. Rita Kothari, the translator of Angaliyat, argues that a
combination of urbanization and industrialization with huge presence of textile mills in
the twentieth century and opportunities offered by education have facilitated the rise of
the Vankars. Moreover, the Vankars converted to Christianity in a large number which
also uplifted their social and economic status. The following lines from The Step Child
indicate that the Vankars‟ dependence upon the Patidars has structural basis: “After the
way the fields were damaged, there was still the monsoon. The seeds for bajri and
pulses had to be got from the Patels. The Patels used to employ the low-castes for the
odd seasonal jobs and money thus earned came in handy; this too stopped after Teeha‟s
adventure”. (37)

It hints at the political economy of the caste Hindu domination and Dalit
subordination in the entire society. This helps us understand as to why Dalits are unable
to stand up against caste oppression. The caste system has marginalized to such an
extent that they cannot go against their „benefactors‟. Economically, politically and
socially they are so weak that they are ready to put with any kind of humiliation for
survival. This becomes a question of survival. For instance, nobody from among the
Vankars appreciates Teeha‟s courageous act of saving Methi. Rather they blame him
for endangering the fate of the entire village. People express their anger saying that
there was no need to help a Dalit girl from other village. The Patidars treat the Vankars
as less than cats and dogs. In fact, the Patidars initially wanted to rape Methi to teach
the Vankars a lesson. But later they decide to sabotage the prospects of Teeha‟s
marriage to Methi. The fact that they are able to take revenge upon Teeha, Valji and
Methi demonstrate that Dalits are extremely vulnerable in Gandhi‟s village republic. As
the novel tells us Vankars migrate to cities in order to escape caste violence and look for
work in the textile mills. Migration has been a common means of finding greener
pastures. With increased industrialization, especially in the textile sector, many families

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deserted village life to settle in Ahmedabad, Nadiad, Petlad, Bharuch and even
Mumbai. Industrialization was supposed to create markets in which labour could move
freely, leading to a modern sense of membership in a democratic industrial society. But
this has not happened in India because here employment is also determined by caste.
The fact is that jobs are usually attained through kinship connections. So, the grammar
of caste does not vanish in urban landscape. In fact, caste assumes new forms in the
urban space because in our society economic logic has been sanctioned by religion.

Caste, Power and Violence

The novel zeroes in upon the suffering of the Dalits and atrocities perpetrated on them
by the dominant Patels in the Kheda district. It covers the time span beginning before
independence and extending over for a few years after India‟s independence. The novel
endeavours to examine caste system as a specific form of ascriptive hierarchy and
unequal distribution of power which is legitimized by generalized cultural and religious
concepts. Macwan writes in the novel:

The Patels owned most of the lands, despite the fact that there were only twenty-five Patel
families in the village. The Thakores were their tenants and tilled the lands that belonged to the
Patels. In economic terms, the Thakores were completely dependent upon the Patels and the
Patels made full use of that fact. The Patels were also the ones providing funds for nationalist
activities undertaken by the Congress and the Patel mukhi had joined in the movement for
violating the Salt Law… The Patels argued that if a low-caste and an outsider at that, had
publicly beaten up a Patel‟s son, he must be taught a lesson for life. (26)

While reading caste as power structure the novel deconstructs power as an expression
of the aspirations and arrogance of the dominant social group, that is, the Patidars. The
resistance by Teeha and Valji against the domination of the Patels entails contestation
of that power which invites their wrath. Angaliyat demonstrates how the suppressed
conflict between the caste Hindus and Dalits erupts in case of assertion by Dalits. For
instance, the event that triggers the story takes place at Shilapaar. The protagonists
Teeha and Valji have come to this place to sell their cloth. In the course of the auction,
Teeha notices that an upper caste man, Nanio Patel tries to molest Methi, a Dalit girl.
Teeha comes to her rescue and thrashes him, who in return threatens him with dire
consequences for challenging him. This is how the story proceeds through many

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complex events and finally both Teeha and Valji are killed by the Patidars. Macwan
stresses the power of the Patidars thus:

If anyone offered shelter to Teeha after his fight with the upper castes, they would set the entire
mohalla on fire. Afraid of this, no one dared even to greet Teeha although he had rescued a
young girl of the community from disgrace. No one even had the courage to say, „Teehabhai,
you have saved us from disrepute.‟ No one wanted to be on the wrong side of the Patidars. (18)

It should be underlined here that contestation is between the two groups unequally
positioned. Thus, it can be said that to resist is as much an expression of power as to
dominate.

The Nation in Question

The novel draws our attention to pertinent issues like nationalism, nation and
interrogates the idea of Indian nation as a majoritarian construct. The following stanza
from Praveen Gadhvi‟s poem “Farewell to Arms” foregrounds the Dalit perspective on
the idea of nation in India:

“Let us put aside the arms and hold a round table conference.
We have no nation, to be proud of.
We have no farm to till, no house for shelter.
You did not leave even a blade of grass for us since times of Aryavart”9.

Benedict Anderson in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of

Nationalism postulates that nationality or nationalism or nation-ness is a cultural
artefact. The creation of these artefacts became possible due to certain historical
processes like print capitalism. These artefacts came into existence towards the end of
the eighteenth century. The point is that capitalists printed their books and produced
other cultural texts in vernaculars rather than in exclusive script languages, such as
Latin so as to ensure maximum circulation. Consequently, people speaking various
local dialects became able to understand each other, and a common discourse took
shape. Importantly, the possibility of imagining nation arose historically because certain
transcendental truths lost their hold on human mind. For instance, the idea that a
particular script language provided privileged access to ontological truth. Second was
the perception that society was structured around high centres like the belief that kings

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are the deputies of God. Third was an idea of temporality wherein cosmology and
history were inseparable. But some historical forces like the emergence of print
capitalism and industrial revolution led to the decline of these interwoven certainties. It
started a search for a new way of connecting fraternity, power and time meaningfully
together. Print capitalism precipitated this search and made it more fruitful. It enabled
people to think about themselves and relate themselves to others in radically new ways.
Anderson holds the view that the first European nation-states were thus formed around
their national print-languages. Therefore, according to him, the primary factors which
enabled the emergence of nationalism are the dwindling importance of privileged
access to particular script languages (like Latin) because of mass vernacular literacy; the
movement to dismantle the system of rule by divine right and hereditary monarchy and
the emergence of print capitalism (the coming together of capitalism and print
technology, standardization of national calendars, clocks and language). Thus, he
asserts that beneath the decline of sacred communities, languages and lineages, a very
crucial change was occurring in modes of apprehending the world which helped to
„think‟ the nation.

Anderson defines nations as an imagined political community. It is imagined as

both intrinsically limited and sovereign. He argues that nation is imagined because the
members of even the smallest nation will never be able to know or interact with most of
their fellow members or even hear of them. However there exists in their mind an image
of their being a community. The nation is imagined as limited because even the largest
of people has finite boundaries beyond which exist other nations. No nation imagines
itself encompassing the entire humanity. Moreover, the nation is imagined as sovereign.
The reason lies in the fact that the concept arose in an age in which Enlightenment and
Revolution were decimating the legitimate basis of the divinely-planned hierarchical
dynastic structure. Most importantly, the nation, according to Anderson, is imagined as
a community because irrespective of the actual inequalities and oppressive structures
that may exist in each society, nation is always envisioned as a deep, horizontal
comradeship. Actually it is this imagined fraternity which propels so many people to
willingly die for such limited imaginings.

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He sees the new conception of simultaneity (which is linked with the

development of the secular sciences) as crucial for the birth of the imagined community
of nation considering the basic structure of two forms of imaginings which first thrived
in Europe in the eighteenth century, that is, the novel and the newspaper. These two
cultural forms supplied the technical moulds for re-presenting the kind of imagined
community that is the nation. The novel portrays the idea of nation as a “sociological
organism moving calendrically through homogeneous, empty time, which is also a
conceived as a solid community moving steadily down (or up) history”10.

Newspaper is a kind of book sold on large scale. Newspaper reading is a mass

ceremony performed by a large number of people. Every newspaper reader knows that
the ceremony he performs is being replicated simultaneously by a huge number of
people whose existence he is sure of, yet of whose identity he has no idea. This
produces a figure of the secular, historically clocked imagined community. On the
contrary, Homi. K Bhabha emphasizes the ambivalence that surrounds the idea of the
nation, the language of those who script it and the lives of those who live it. He alludes
to Hannah Arendt‟s view of nation. In her opinion, “the society of the nation in the
modern world is that curiously hybrid realm where private interests assume public
significance and the two realms flow unceasingly and uncertainly into each other like
waves in the never ending-stream of the life-process itself”11.

Tom Nairn in his book The Break of Britain describes nation as Janus-faced. In
other words, the uneven development of capitalism inserts both progression and
regression, political rationality and irrationality in the genetic code of the nation itself.
Similarly, Ernest Renan in his essay “What is a Nation?” puts forth the view that a
nation is a soul, a spiritual idea. The nation emanates from an array of collective
endeavours, sacrifice and commitment. To make a nation, we should have common
glories in the past, common will in the present and to have performed great deeds
together. But Indian society does not have these conditions for being a people. India is
not a large-scale solidarity, to use Ernest Renan‟s words. Indian society is a terribly
divided society. Dalits do not share any glorious past with the caste Hindus. Timothy
Brennan in his essay “The National Longing for Form” reasons that the nation is
exactly what Foucault has described as a discursive formation. Brennan alludes to

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Salman Rushdie‟s critique of Indian nationalism. In his view, Rushdie derides the
heroism of nationalism in India because it degenerates into “nationalist demagogy of a
caste of domestic sellouts and powerbrokers”12.

Partha Chatterjee in his book Nation and its Fragments critiques Benedict
Anderson. He argues that if the ex-colonies had to choose from the modular forms of
nationalisms then what they were supposed to imagine. This would indicate that we in the
postcolonial world are only the consumers of modernity. Europe and America are the
only subjects of history and they have thought out everything on our behalf including the
script of colonial enlightenment and exploitation and that of anti-colonial resistance and
postcolonial crisis. Where is the free imagination to think of an imagined community?
Partha Chatterjee tries to answer as to why Indian nationalist movements could not
annihilate caste. According to him, anti-colonial nationalisms carve out its own domain of
sovereignty within the colonial society quite well before it wages its political battle
against the imperial power. It achieves this by dividing the realm of social institutions
and practices into two domains: the material and the spiritual. The material is the realm of
the “outside”, of the economy and of politics and of science and technology where the
West had established its superiority and the East had conceded it. On the other, the
spiritual domain is an “inner” domain having the “essential” signs of cultural identity
where caste is a structural category. The colonial state was not permitted to intervene in
this domain. The fundamental contradiction lies in the fact that the stupendous success in
aping the West in the material domain is accompanied by the more urgent need to
preserve one‟s spiritual culture. Importantly, the nationalists launch their most ambitious
project to fashion a more modern national culture that is nonetheless un-Western.
Chatterjee remarks if the nation is really an imagined community, this is the space where
it comes into existence.

He further informs us that the dominant elements of self-definitions in the

postcolonial India were derived from the ideology of modern liberal democratic state.
The liberal ideology clearly demarcates between the public and the private domain. It
was the duty of the State to protect the inviolability of the private self in relation to
other private selves. The state acquired its legitimacy in performing this function from
its indifference to concrete differences (of like race, language, religion, class, caste,

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etc.,) between private selves. Nationalists attempted to achieve cultural “normalization”

in the domain of spiritual like bourgeois hegemonic projects in rest of the world. But
they ensured their site of autonomy from a position of subordination to a colonial power
that had the strength of universalist paradigm generated by post-Enlightenment thought.
Chatterjee stresses that the root cause of postcolonial misery lies in our succumbing to
the old forms of the modern state.

A subaltern Indian thinker Jotiba Phule maintains that the idea of nation is
predicated on democratic social order. The formation of nation entails the growth of
civil society, the celebration of citizenship, and the empowerment of the subaltern
sections. G. Aloysius in Nationalism without a Nation stresses that Phule‟s concept of
nation hinges on the idea of change from a stratified and hierarchical society to an
egalitarian type of society. He emphasizes:

There cannot be a „nation‟ worth the name until and unless all the people of the land of King
Bali- such as Shudras and Ati-shudras, Bhils (tribals) and fishermen etc., become truly educated,
and are able to think independently for themselves and are uniformly unified and emotionally
integrated13.

Jotiba Phule argues that restrictions on inter-dining and inter-caste marriage obstruct the
emergence of the sense of nationality among the masses. Therefore, in his opinion,
social equality and democratization of education are indispensable for nation building.
The caste elites who harp on nation building without addressing the fundamental
question of democratization of society are power-mongers and not nationalists. Mani
reasons that nationalism from below had a wider agenda. It was more substantial in the
sense that it sought equality and justice for all, not for a privileged few. Importantly, it
included people‟s struggle for education, employment, social mobility and basic human
rights. This form of nationalism was deeply rooted in anti-caste and mass movements
which took part in various parts of the country during the colonial regime. Importantly,
E.V. Ramasamy Periyar hammered the point home that the existence of a nation
required the annihilation of varnashrama-dharma and its discrimination based on birth.
The Step Child accentuates what Ambedkar says about the Hindu society. He argues
that the Hindu society is a myth. It is a just a collection of castes. Each caste is highly
conscious of its own existence. Castes even cannot constitute federation. Hindus lack a

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consciousness of kind which is required to form a nation. “And there is no Hindu

consciousness of kind. In every Hindu the consciousness that exists is the consciousness
of caste.”14

G. Aloysius remarks in his book Nationalism without a Nation in India that the
colonial government did not dismantle the existing order of domination and
subordination, it simply functioned as a freezer on the social structure by sharing the
new legal and moral authority with the native dominant groups. Undoubtedly, these
dominant communities were largely the upper castes. Aloysius writes: “Whatever be
their local nomenclature, they had a stake in the existing social hierarchy and the
Brahmanic ideology of legitimation”15. He informs us that the change the British power
brought about on the social structure was the acquisition of absolute property rights by
the upper castes that had earlier only the right to surplus produce of the land. The
British rule empowered and elevated and even nationalized the upper castes. On the
other hand, the lower castes lost their security and complacency of the old order though
they gained some consciousness of their low status and the scope to change it. The Step
Child illustrates clearly that Patels wield immense social and political power. They
cannot stomach assertion by courageous Teeha. That‟s why all the upper caste groups
gang up against him and leave no stone unturned to prevent Teeha‟s marriage to Methi
and get him killed.

The novel reveals the fissures contained within the structural unification
achieved by the British. The Dalits of Ratnapaar and Shilapaar are not able to relate to
the idea of Gandhian-nationalist movement taking shape in the twentieth century
because they are never treated as equal human beings and experience caste violence in
their day-today life. The following textual instance makes the point clear: “If anyone
offered shelter to Teeha after his fight with the upper castes, they would set the entire
mohalla on fire. Afraid of this, no one dared even to greet Teeha although he had
rescued a young girl of the community from disgrace” (18). Actually, in the Indian
struggle to construct the idea of nation, the margins were politically appropriated by a
bourgeoisie aspiring for hegemony. The Step Child shows that Gandhian nationalism is
the story of manoeuvre, co-option, appropriation and domination by the alliance of the
rural and urban bourgeoisie. It problematizes the anti-colonial nationalism in India

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because there are the unequal relations between the colonized caste Hindus and caste
subalterns. For instance, in The Step Child, a Congress leader of Ratnapaar passes a
resolution against the police for imprisoning some Patidars like Meghji, Manji and his
accomplices. It would be relevant here to discuss Partha Chatterjee‟s argument from
his book Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse that the
Gramscian concept of „passive revolution‟ explains the general form of the transition
from colonial to post-colonial states in the twentieth century. He further points out that
the Indian nationalist movement was marked by contradictory nature because it
borrowed modular Western form while attempting to establish a unique oppositional
essence. It signified a non-Western nationalism deploying passive revolution as the
historical trajectory by which a national development of capital can take place without
addressing and resolving the internal contradictions. Accordingly, dominant nationalism
(in this case Gandhism) endeavours to achieve a „molecular transformation‟ of the State
by neutralizing centrifugal and opposing forces. It converts sections of the former ruling
classes into allies, undertaking economic reforms on a limited scale in order to
appropriate the support of the popular masses but keeping them out of any form of
direct participation in the processes of governance.

The Step Child interrogates the very idea of nation in India. For instance,
Ranchhod Dehlavala, a member of the so-called nationalist Congress, who belongs to the
Patidar community, is the chief manipulator in the murder of Teeha and Valji. He later
becomes a minister and uses his power to turn the things in favour of the Patidars. The
Congress government of that time largely comprised of the upper caste leaders. With the
existing power relations between the upper castes and the lower castes, the idea of nation
cannot be imagined. One can mention Homi K Bhabha here who argues that the nation
remains a site of heterogeneity and difference. He maintains in essay “DissemiNation:
Time, Narrative and the Margins of the Modern Nation” that the aim of nationalist
discourse is to construct community out of difference, to convert the „many‟ into „one‟.
The fact is that it engages with contradictory modes of representation which he refers to
as pedagogic and performative. However, the nation is split by what he calls the
„conceptual ambivalence‟. The nation is pulled between two incompatible binaries: the
nation as a fixed, originary essence and the nation as socially constructed and devoid of a

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fixed origin. So, it is through the performative aspects of nationalist discourse that
differences emerge from within to challenge the homogeneous nation with its unified
people and myths of origin, as the marginalized people are given an opportunity to
intervene in the construction of the nation‟s representation of itself to itself. For instance,
the Vankars in the novel intervene in the signifying process and question the dominant
representations with narratives of their own. Their narrative is marked by experience of
humiliation, exclusion, marginalization and violence. Bhabha asserts that a common
narrative can never capture a nation and its people. To employ Benedict Anderson‟
concept, the idea of nation in India lacks a „deep horizontal comradeship‟ because Dalits
remain just margins of the nation. Ambedkar puts it more succinctly: “The governing
class in India has no such intention of making any sacrifice on the altar of Indian freedom.
Instead of surrendering its privileges in the name of nationalism, the governing class in
India is using or misusing the slogan of nationalism to maintain its privileges…Far from
sacrificing its privileges for nationalism, it is exploiting nationalism to preserve them”16.
He exposes the nationalism of Congress as meta-narrative to establish the hegemony of
the upper castes. This is borne out in the novel as Ranchhod Dehlavala becomes more
powerful after becoming a minister in the post-Independent India. He does not use this
power to empower and uplift Dalits rather he sides with his Patidar brethren to save
Nanio. He tries to influence the district administration so that no case would be registered
against the Patels on behalf of Vankars, especially in his own village.

V.T Rajshekar in his book Caste: A Nation within the Nation informs us that the
Constitution of India does not mention India as a nation. He mentions that India is
„union of States‟. He says that it was during the Emergency that Indira Gandhi
introduced the term „nation‟ in a constitutional amendment act in 1977. If the Vankars
are treated as angaliyat (the step children) both by the government and the non-Dalits,
especially Patidars, how can it inculcate a feeling of national consciousness among
Dalits? Ambedkar makes a pertinent point in this regard:

“This national feeling is a double-edged feeling. It is at once a feeling of fellowship for one‟s
kith and kin…Nationality means consciousness of kind, awareness of the existence of the tie of
kinship. Nationalism means the desire for a separate national existence for those who are bound
by this tie kinship”17.

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What Ambedkar meant was that jealousy, antipathy and arrogance between
upper castes and lower castes would harm nation-building. For instance, the idea of
majoritarian democracy and Hindu nation, promised by the Congress, cannot make the
Vankars feel secure, when Valji and Tiho are murdered for protesting against the
oppression, intimidation and domination indulged in by the Patels. The spiritual and
wise Bhavankaka says: “Don‟t blame the Swaraj, Master, blame the human heart. Till
Ram inhabits the human heart, Ramrajya will be distant dream. And I feel the death of a
single Valji or a single Teeha cannot bring that rajya. Many more Tihos and Valjis need
to die like this”. (229)

Ambedkar emphasizes that a nation is not a country in the physical sense of the
term though it might have geographical unity. Even a common culture derived from
common religion or race does not synthesize a country as a nation without a sense of
belonging. In his meeting with Gandhi on 14th August, 1931 at Manibhuvan, Ambedkar
demystified Gandhi‟s aura as a mahatma by saying that mahatmas are like “fleeting
phantoms, raise dust, but raise no level”18. Ambedkar rebutted the Congress‟s allegation
that he was a traitor. He grew angry and expressed: “Gandhiji, I have no homeland”19.
Gandhi tried to get around him to his point and said that he has got a homeland and he
is patriot of immense worth. Replying to this Ambedkar said:

How can I call this land my own homeland and this religion my own wherein we are treated
worse than cats and dogs, wherein we cannot get water to drink? No self-respecting Untouchable
worth the name will be proud of this land? The injustice and sufferings inflicted upon us by this
land are so enormous that if knowingly or unknowingly we fall prey to disloyalty to this country,
the responsibility for that act would be solely hers20.

Ambedkar argues that India is not a nation. To rebuild India as a nation, Indian society
must be built on the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. In the current scenario,
with the prevalent hierarchies, it is impossible to imagine India as a nation.

The novel articulates the fear of Dalits about Ramraj and Swaraj, promised by
Gandhi and the Congress. Teeha is summoned by the dominant Patidars for thrashing
Nanio Patel. He has dared to violate the caste law. How can a low-caste man publically
humiliate an upper caste man? Teeha rightly critiques the idea of independence. He
retorts: “Hell with living Thakore! Who is to lament my death? People talk of

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Independence, but look at what‟s happening to our womenfolk. Doesn‟t that matter to
anyone?” (17). Aloysius holds that Gandhian leadership devised new tools to neutralize
the appeal of the popular militancy and to diffuse the mass struggle against the old
Brahmanic social order. This new national-secular ideology was neither a substitute for
nor opposed to the old Brahmanic ideology of ascriptive superiority, but contrarily, a
combination with it and in fact a transformed version of the latter.

In the novel, Dehlavala‟s becoming a minister does not augur well for the
Vankars. The master expresses his anxiety thus: “Dehlavala is now the member of the
regional assembly. These are all signs of the so-called Swaraj for us. Look at it. Even I
don‟t want foreign rule to last, for us it will be like thugs have gone, and left the robbers
behind” (199). For Dalits, it is a choice between the devil and deep-blue sea as far as the
transfer of power from the white masters to the brown masters is concerned. Aloysius
thinks that the break with the past has been more formal than substantial.

Aijaz Ahmed in his essay “Nationalism and Peculiarities of the Indian” remarks
that the kind of nationalism we have inherited attempted not only to mobilize women
and the marginalized sections against colonialism but also to curb the movements for
their own liberation, in the garb of fictive unity which in praxis tended to strengthen
upper class and upper caste hegemony. He emphasizes that nationalism is more of a
contested site where there takes place a power struggle for hegemony. The pathetic and
helpless conditions of the Vankars in The Step Child vindicate Aijaz Ahmed‟s critique
of nationalism in India. He underlines that nationalism can be anti-colonial and anti-
imperial but also can be the ideology of fictive unity in which the oppressor and the
oppressed can be portrayed as equal citizens of a polity broadly what Benedict
Anderson implied by his misconstrued definition of nation as an imagined “community
of horizontal comradeship”21 As a matter of fact, in reality, the members of a nation are
greatly unequal, and they do not share any camaraderie when it comes to distribution of
power, privilege and other material resources.

He rightly points out that nation is not merely a cultural artifact constructed by
signifying practices like museumisation and narration. It is whole complex of “material
relations and practices which rest on classes, caste structures, gendered systems of

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production and reproduction, armies, laws, territories and yes signifying practices as
well”22. He expounds that a caste-ridden society does not qualify to be called a nation.
Nation is not a fixed and static entity. It is a process of formation which is contested by
various power groups with absolutely different interpretations of history and different
ideas for what the nation is to be become in future. Thus there is no singular idea of
nationalism. But there are nationalisms. There is secular nationalism which is enshrined
in the Constitution of India. On the contrary, there is the competing RSS kind of
nationalism with its own version of two-nation theory, that is, Hindus exclusively
should have privileged citizenship in India which is inaccessible to others. The pre-1947
and the post-1947 India differ radically. The former was a colonial society with a
fractured form of nationhood. But it was an inclusivist secular nation. For instance, in
The Step Child when the Patidars threaten the Vankars, the colonial government
intervenes to help the latter. On the contrary, in the post-colonial society, there take
place organized attacks on Dalits but the governments do not make effective
interventions. Alarmingly, in the post-1947 era, Aijaz Ahmed maintains that efforts are
being made to reboot India into an exclusivist Hindu India. A majoritarianism set
against minorities within the already existing citizenship-based nation cannot be
regarded as nationalism. As a matter of fact, in Partha Chatterjee‟s opinion, the
postcolonial state in India has not substantially transformed the colonial order of things;
it has only expanded the colonial order. That‟s why Ambedkar in Annihilation of Caste
questions the moral right of the caste Hindus to have political power when they
brutalize their own brethren.

Contesting the Idea of Swaraj

The novel deconstructs the idea of Swaraj. It demonstrates that there is a world of
difference between Swaraj in Gandhian theory and in praxis. Master‟s interrogation of
Swaraj in The Step Child speaks volumes about what Swaraj is in reality. Master says:
“Dehlavala is now the member of the regional assembly. These are all signs of the so-
called swaraj for us. Look at it. Even I don‟t want foreign rule to last, for us it will be
like the thugs have gone, and left the robbers behind” (199). Master‟s apprehensions
come true. Dehlavala gets Jeevan, Teeha and Dano implicated in the attempt to murder
of Ramlo.

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In Village Swaraj, Gandhi describes Swaraj as a sacred and Vedic word. For
him Swaraj stands for self-rule and self-restraint. It does not mean freedom from all
restraints unlike independence. He defines Swaraj as the government of India formed
on the basis of people‟s consent. Real Swaraj will not come from the acquisition of
authority by a few people, but by attaining the strength to resist authority when it is
most abused. He states that our model of self-government should not be an imitation of
the Western model. Rather it should be suited to our own needs. In his terms, it is called
“Ramraj, i.e., sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority”23. He elaborates
that self-government hinges totally on inner strength and ability to deal with any kinds
of challenges. Self-government implies consistent effort to be independent of
government control be it foreign government or national government. Swaraj, he points
out, maintained only when majority of the people are loyal and committed to the nation.
For whom national interests are above personal considerations. Swaraj represents
government by many. If the majority of the people are selfish and immoral, their
government will wreck havoc in the country. In Gandhi‟s words, Swaraj does not
believe in any religious or racial differences. It is neither the monopoly of lettered or
rich people. Swaraj embraces all including peasants, though most importantly, the
weak, handicapped and innumerable starving people. He argues that real Swaraj cannot
be the rule of the majority community, i.e. the Hindus. Hind Swaraj is the rule of the
people; it is the rule of justice. He banishes corrupt, selfish and violent people from this
republic. He says: “The Swaraj of my dream is the poor man‟s Swaraj”24. He believes
that every poor man should have basic amenities. His concept of Swaraj is not an
ordinary idea of independence. It is healthy and dignified independence. On the one
hand, it signifies political independence, on the other hand it has social and moral basis.
Truth and Ahimsa (non-violence) are its foundational underpinnings. In Swaraj,
Gandhi, visualizes a picture of an ideal society which is a castles and classless society
having no vertical divisions but only horizontal ones.

Gandhi‟s idea of Swaraj, according to Rudolph C Heredia, is an idealized

version of Indian culture which is an anti-thesis to the modern west. Swaraj for Gandhi
means self-rule and self-government. For Gandhi, “freedom has to be for all, for the
toiling masses and the privileged classes and most importantly for the least and last
Indian”25. But the harrowing experiences of the Vankars in The Step Child tell us a

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different story. The Vankars run from pillar to post for justice but in the newly
independent India the district administration is not ready to go against the dominant
Patidars. Dana tells the master to take Teeha to Kheda. But the master replies: “It will
make no difference, Daanabhai. Dehlavala is the minister. Gandhism disappeared with
Gandhiji. Even the D.S.P. will not co-operate, nevertheless let‟s try” (227). It reminds
us of Ambedkar‟s view of Gandhism. He remarks:

What hope can Gandhism offer to the Untouchables? To the Untouchables Hinduism is a
veritable chamber of horrors… These very instruments which have mutilated, blasted and
blighted the life of the Untouchables are to be found intact and untarnished in the bosom of
Gandhism. How can Untouchables say that Gandhism is a heaven and not a chamber of horrors
as Hinduism has been? The only reaction and a very natural reaction of the Untouchables would
be to run away from Gandhism26.

To understand the Dalit perspective on the idea of Swaraj (which is contained in the
Dalit Panther‟s manifesto), one can look at the following statement from the Dalit
Panther‟s manifesto: “We don‟t a little place in Brahman alley; we want the rule of
the whole country” 27. Ambedkar debunks the myth of freedom and Swaraj in his
famous statement: “It is foolish to take solace in the fact that because the Congress
is fighting for the freedom of India, it is therefore, fighting for the freedom of the
people of India and of the lowest of the low”28. It is a devastating attack on the
nationalist leadership. In the novel The Step Child, the master‟s fear about „Swaraj‟
comes true with an oppressor and megalomaniac figure like Dehlavala coming to
power. While underscoring the need of Swaraj and the danger from within
Ambedkar expressed:

We feel that nobody can remove our grievances as well we can, and we cannot remove them
unless we get political power in our hands. No share of this political power can evidently come
to us so long as the British government remains as it is. It is only in a Swaraj constitution that we
stand any chance of getting the political power in our hands, without which we cannot bring
salvation to our people… We know that political power is passing from the British into the
hands of those who wield such tremendous economic, social and religious sway over our
existence. We are willing that it may happen, though the idea of Swaraj recalls to the mind of
many the tyrannies, oppression and injustices practiced upon us in the past29.

Having appealed to the High court, Dehlavala managed to get acquitted on the grounds
of the benefit of doubt. In the process of fighting the case and investing some money in

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the country‟s struggle for independence, he had established contacts with very senior
Congress leaders. Like a true Machiavellian figure, he transformed himself in keeping
with the times. He started wearing khadi which legitimized his patriotism. It was the
time of „Quit India Movement‟. To curb it the colonial government had imprisoned all
the leaders. Grabbing this opportunity, Dehlavala put up conscious „British Quit India‟
in and around fifty leading villages. In the acknowledgement of his contribution, the
Congress appointed him as their representative on the District Local Board. In the
changing times he had become a senior politician. In his office there were photographs
of Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi.
Exploiting the Gandhian idea of Harijan upliftment, he had trained Jamni‟s husband
Ramla and made him a smart and efficient driver. He proudly announces: “I follow the
foot steps of Bapu. My driver is a Harijan!” (139). Later when the Patels attack the
Vankars, he declares a five-day fast as purification and penitence for the attack on the
Vankarvas. On the day of independence, Dehlavala gave a speech: “Now finally
Ramrajya has come to our country. The foreigners have left. Honourable Bapu has
made our country free. We must work together to make it prosperous. Bapu has ordered
that untouchability should be abolished. We are all brothers, we must make our village
an idea one!” (203)

He sat next to the Bhangi brethren. People felt thrilled and exclaimed “Wah!
Wah!” (203). This is a travesty of Gandhian values, philosophy and politics. In the post-
independent India, most of the Congress politician and leaders have turned out to be
self-seeking, corrupt and hypocritical like Dehlavala. Their politics is centred around
caste and religion. Their sole aim is acquiring power rather than empowering the
marginalized sections and building the nation.

Aijaz Ahmed argues that one can look progressive in one‟s anti-colonial position
and yet retrogressive on issues of caste, class or gender. In his view, Gandhi exemplifies
these contradictions, for instance, Gandhi‟s strong opposition to colonialism and the
social conservatism underlying Hind Swaraj. That‟s why Ambedkar and Periyar were
disillusioned with the Gandhian ideology. Ambedkar expounds in Volume 8 that Swaraj
is predicated on the inner strength of a country. To have inner strength Hindu society
must first become casteless because without this Swaraj will be another form of slavery.
In “Annihilation of Caste”, Ambedkar underscores that an ideal society allows interaction

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between different groups. The interests shared by the people are varied and multiple.
There is free association. In an ideal society, the unifying forces outnumber the divisive
ones. It is predicated on liberty, equality and fraternity. It provides space for mobility for
all the sections of the society. There should be “social endosmosis”30 (fraternity). The
Step Child explodes the myth of Swaraj. In fact, the word „Swaraj‟ is horrifying. How can
the Dalits repose faith in the idea of Swaraj when they are attacked by the caste Hindus?
The Patels launch an organized attack on the Vankars in the novel. Ramlo collude in this
atrocity. The police in the post-independent India work against the interests of Vankars.
For instance, Jeevan, Dana and Teeha are framed in the murder of Ramlo. The police do
not want to pay heed to the Vankars‟ story. They act according to the dictates of the
powerful Patidars.

The Gandhi-Ambedkar Debate

Interestingly, the conversation between Master and Bhagatkaka revives the memory of
Gandhi-Ambedkar debate on caste and untouchability. The Gandhi-Ambedkar debate is
centered around the questions of caste, untouchability and Hinduism. According to
Ambedkar, caste, untouchability and Hinduism are inextricably intertwined.
Untouchability is caste in practice. Hinduism is the basis of caste. It has accorded
religious, moral and social sanction to caste. That‟s why Ambedkar calls it “veritable
chamber of horrors”31. He castigates Hinduism as the gospel of darkness. Hinduism is
another name for inequality. It is superman‟s heaven and common man‟s hell. He
remarks: “Hinduism produces an ascending scale of hatred and descending scale of
contempt”32 On the other hand, Gandhi describes Hinduism as the most tolerant of all
religions. According to him, it is an inclusive religion based on non-violence.
Varnashrama is the most salient feature of Hinduism. Ironically, he proudly asserts that
he is a Sanatani Hindu:

I call myself a Sanatani Hindu, because I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and
all that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures and therefore in avataras and rebirth. I believe in
varnashrama dharma in a sense, in my opinion, strictly, Vedic but not in its present popular and
crude sense. I believe in the protection of cow in its much larger sense than the popular; I do not
disbelieve in idol-worship33.

He agrees that Hinduism has committed a sin by justifying and legitimizing

untouchability. It has degraded and dehumanized us. However, he launches a campaign

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against untouchability but not against caste system which is the basis of untouchability.
In his reply to Ambedkar‟s Annihilation of Gandhi, Gandhi declares that Ambedkar is a
challenge to Hinduism. He argues that caste shares no relationship with Hindu religion.
He fully supports Varnashrama dharma. In his view, Varnashrama dharma enjoins upon
us to earn our living by following our ancestral calling. He affirms that the law of Varna
defines not our rights but our duties. Ambedkar provides a befitting reply to Gandhi by
clarifying that all the texts quoted by him to bolster his arguments have been taken from
the writings of late Mr. Tilak who was an authority on the Sanskrit language and on the
Hindu Shastras. Ambedkar‟s argument is that to believe in the Hindu scriptures and to
simultaneously regard oneself as liberal or democratic is a contradiction in terms. Thus,
Gandhi-Ambedkar debate can be understood in the context of the problematization of
tradition and modernity. Gandhi derives the armoury of his arguments from tradition
whereas Ambedkar speaks from modern-liberal plank. It can be argued that Gandhi
admires Varna system because he is a caste Hindu, who is positioned in the caste
hierarchy with all the privileges, entitled to an upper caste man. Anyways, the top of
caste hierarchy is seen as pure and has numerous entitlements. The bottom is regarded
as polluted and has no entitlements but plenty of duties. Gandhi is situated at the top
and Ambedkar is situated at the bottom of the caste pyramid. These two positions are
diametrically opposite, how can they have similar views on caste?

Conversely, Ambedkar has undergone all kinds of suffering and humiliation due
to his lower caste identity. He cannot advocate the tradition which is based on
exploitative structures like caste and patriarchy. Of course, Gandhi justifies caste
because his main political constituency comprised caste Hindus. No doubt, he is a
politician at the core. It was not just a theoretical debate between two men held different
perspectives. Arundhati Roy in her Introduction to Ambedkar‟s Annihilation of Caste
observes that each stood for separate interest groups, and their battle unveiled itself in
the heart of the national movement. What they stated and did still has impact on
contemporary politics. Their differences were and continue to remain irreconcilable.
According to Arundhati Roy, Ambedkar emerged as Gandhi‟s most formidable
adversary. So, both must be discussed together. The Step Child launches a scathing
attack on the tradition which Gandhi defends so gallantly. How can the tradition of

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caste be good to Methi who is molested by Nanio Patel. This tradition gives immense
power to the caste Hindu males like Nanio Patel and Ranchchod Dehlavala who inflict
violence on Vankars. In the name of same tradition, Dehlavala arrogates to himself the
arrogance to kill Valji and Teeha who venture to defy the tradition of caste which
dictates that Dalits are not supposed to challenge power of the caste Hindus. The same
tradition had given the upper caste men unquestionable rights over the bodies of Dalit
women. In words of Arundhati Roy, it makes love polluting and rape pure so far as the
relations between the upper caste men and Dalit women are concerned. She further
argues that in the Indian tradition, apart from varnashrama dharma, there also exists the
burden of karma. Those who are born into lower castes are supposedly suffering for the
sins they committed in their past lives. In effect, they seem to be serving a prison
sentence. Any act of insubordination could result in an increased sentence which would
imply another cycle of rebirth as an Untouchable. So it is best to comply with the caste
rules. Teeha and Valji challenge this casteist tradition which boils down to an act of
insubordination. Therefore, the custodians of this tradition punish both the Dalit
protagonists.

The traditional intellectuals who support the hegemonic nationalist discourse

present Ambedkar as a British loyalist and reactionary for his politicization of caste and
assertion that Dalits constitute a separate social category. The detractors of Ambedkar
call him „opportunist‟ (because he became a Labour member of the British Viceroy‟s
Executive Council, 1942-46), British „Stooge‟ (because he accepted an invitation from
the British government to the First Round Table Conference in 1930 when
Congressmen were being put behind bars for violating the salt laws), „Anti-national‟
(because he advocated the Muslim League‟s case for Pakistan, and because he advised
that Jammu and Kashmir be trifurcated34. Arundhati Roy writes that history has been
kind to Gandhi. Everybody loves him, though he is the “Saint of the Status Quo”35. As a
matter of fact, Ambedkar was a great nationalist. He indicted the British government for
not empowering Dalits and for maintaining the status quo. He exposed the colonial
power by saying that the British were not interested in freeing the farm and industrial
labour from the clutches of landlords and capitalists. He always insisted on dignity,
equality and justice for the caste subaltern in opposition to Gandhi‟s offer of pity and

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paternalistic help. He always questioned and opposed Gandhi‟s initiative of purging

Hinduism of untouchability. He countered Gandhi‟s position on caste. Gandhi
underlines that one is born with one‟s caste identity and one should follow one‟s caste
duty. Ambedkar demonstrates that Congress and Gandhi‟s politics of caste was
governed by the demographic requirement of Hindu nationalism. It was politically
essential to bring the untouchables into the Hindu fold in order to constitute a Hindu
majority. It is clearly visible in Gandhi‟s anxious and frantic attempt to posit the
problem of untouchability as an exclusively Hindu affair.

Gandhi is an admirer of caste system but he advocates equality between castes.

It can be said that Gandhi argues for considering all castes as equal and that the avarna
castes should be brought into the varna system. In his reply to Ambedkar‟s Annihilation
of Caste, Gandhi rebuts: “Caste has nothing to do with religion… Varna and Ashrama
are institutions which have nothing to do with castes. It defines not our rights but our
duties. It necessarily has reference to callings that are conducive to the welfare of
humanity and to no other”36. Arundhati Roy alludes to Ambedkar‟s argument that the
outcaste is a byproduct of the caste system. She poses questions like: Did Gandhi speak
Truth to Power? Did he really work for the poorest of the poor and of the lowest of the
low? Ambedkar remarked: “The question whether the Congress is fighting for freedom
has little importance as compared to the questions for whose freedom is the Congress
fighting?”37. She puts forth that Gandhi‟s scathing critique of Western modernity
stemmed from his nostalgic evocation of glorious Indian past. Ambedkar critiqued this
nostalgia from his Western liberal discourse of progress and happiness. Gandhi
dismissed the modern cities as excrescence that drained blood of the villages.
Ambedkar rubbished Gandhi‟s ideal village as a “sink of localism, a den of ignorance,
narrow mindedness and communalism”38.

Partha Chatterjee lambasts Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Gandhi

stressed that the empirical reality of caste discrimination and its justification in the
religious scriptures did not have any association with religion. For Gandhi, the varna
system was a non-competitive division of labour and did not mean a hierarchy of
privilege. This idealism got a metaphysical reflection in Radhakrishnan, who opined
that varna framework was a universal form of the organic solidarity of the individual

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and the social order. While participating in the Vaikkom temple agitation, Gandhi had
announced that the Vaikkom movement was a Hindu affair and only Hindus should do
the work. He said so because Dalit-bahujans and social activists including some local
Syrian Christians were also agitating for the untouchables‟ right to enter temples.
Conversely, Ambedkar portrayed it as a social, cultural and economic problem, and in
fact a national problem. For him, the formation of Indian nation was not possible
without liberty, equality and fraternity. Therefore, annihilation of caste became the
central focus of his politics. He believed in the idea of State intervention. He stressed on
constitutional and legal measures for the protection of Dalits. Therefore, he enshrined
Article 17 in the Constitution to remove untouchability. He was fully aware of the
violence embedded in the Brahmanic social structure and the subalternization of Dalits
in the caste society. On the contrary, according to Rudolf C Heredia, Gandhi endorses
minimal role for the State because he views state essentially as an instrument of
violence.

The novel alerts us to the fact that Dalits remain weak and vulnerable due to
their internal differentiation and divisions. The upper castes exploit these contradictions
to serve their ends. In The Step Child, Master ventures to unite and mobilize Dalits but
all in vain. The presence of a complicit Dalit subject, Ramlo, among the Vankars, turns
the tide against them. He plays in the hands of the oppressive Patidars in the caste
conflict between them and the Vankars. Ranchchod Dehlavala‟s strength basically
comes from Dalits‟ lack of unity and consciousness. For him, the very idea of Dalit
unity is threatening. He shares this with his nephew, Meghji Patel as to why the
Vankars can never collectively fight against their oppressors. He says, “It‟s a good for
nothing caste. Among themselves they display power, but never unite to think of their
welfare. We get away with what we do because of their failures! The day they achieve
self-recognition, the sun will set on us”. (100)

Aijaz Ahmed argues that Indian reformists and nationalists were discomfited by
the question of caste. The point is that caste question has been the biggest unresolved
question. It is also the irrepressible question in Indian history. The persistence of caste
despite constant struggle against it proves the power of Brahmanical order. The
nationalists could not evade this question. He remarks that the paradoxical aspect of the

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State that emanated from the crucible of freedom struggle consists in the fact that the
State itself was a product of class compromise. It is important note that Indian
nationalists, contrary to the official description, did not endeavour to construct a
casteless egalitarian society. Rather, these Brahmanical intellectuals sang encomium to
caste culture and tradition of ancient India in the name of nationalism.

From Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayanand Saraswati and Vivekananda to

Balgangadhar Tilak and V.D Savarkar, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, they
all depicted nation and nationalism in hegemonic Brahmanical cultural terms. In Mani‟s
opinion, Raja Ram Mohan Roy presented himself as the most obedient servant of the
British and described colonial rules as „benevolent‟ and the „providence of God‟. This
indicates that the interaction between the British and local elites led to the formation of
the English –educated middle class- Indian in colour and blood, and British in taste, in
attitudes, in intellect‟, to use Macaulay‟s phrase. While valorizing the sacerdotal
literature in the name of patriotism, Hindu elites overlooked the problematic social
contents and sinister implications for the caste subalterns. Swami Dayanand‟s idea of
reform from within was ridden with contradictions. The fact that he declared the Vedas
as infallible and eternal source of knowledge paved the ground for revivalist politics.
He asserted that by interpreting the Vedas correctly, one can find all the modern science
in the Hindu sacred books. Vivekanand also said that the fundamental principles of all
the sciences can be discovered in the Vedas. He even remarked “Caste has kept us alive
as a nation, and while it has many defects, it has many more advantages”39. This
obscurantist line is echoed by the RSS today. The newly-appointed chairman of Indian
Council of Historical Research (ICHR) Yellapragad Sudershan Rao clearly justifies
caste system. He said that caste system functioned quite well in ancient India; there was
no objection from any direction. But today it is misconstrued as an oppressive order40.

G. Aloysius in his book Nationalism without a Nation in India has shown that
the idealization of Varna ideology became the yardstick by which one‟s patriotic
credentials were to be judged. He puts forth that even Nehru was so impressed by caste
that he projected caste as a solution to the problem of organizing the co-existence of
different races. Nehru expresses his fear about the abolition of caste thus: “its abolition
may well lead to a complete disruption of social life, resulting in the absence of

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cohesion, mass suffering and the development on a vast scale of abnormalities in

individual behavior…”41. Though Gandhi used vague religious idiom and Nehru
employed socialist and secular rhetoric, both of them eulogized the caste system. The
upper caste nationalist trajectory on caste was crystal clear, that is, caste helped us
survive as a nation. These destroyers of Indian unity are hailed as makers of modern
India who equate caste ideology with cultural nationalism. In fact, the Brahmanic basis
of the concept of nationalism resulted in the Partition in 1947, after having forfeited the
possibility of a united democratic nation and egalitarian order. Braj Ranjan Mani
articulated in Debrahmanising History: Dominance and Resistance in Indian Society
that the patriotic pedagogy in India was largely derived from colonial historiography,
particularly its construction of the Aryan origins of Indian civilization and culture.

Jotiba Phule was critical of the elite-based socio-cultural movement led by the
so-called nationalists because they were constructing a neo-Brahmanism under the
cloak of nationalism. Their valorization of caste in the name of tradition meant to Phule
an outright treachery to the nation and the toiling masses. Their main postulate was that
domination by the Muslims and more recent invasion by the British stemmed from the
weakness caused by the degeneration of the classical caste system and the original
religion of the Aryans. All the castes needed to unite so as to deal with this degeneration
by conforming to their respective caste duties. This unity would strengthen the Hindu
society and throw away the foreigners and establish Swaraj. Phule lambasted this brand
of patriotism, viewing it as an effort by the caste elites to preserve traditional socio-
religious hierarchies from the reforming and radical changes that took place in the wake
of the establishment of the British rule. In his Shetkaryacha Asud (Cultivator’s
Whipcord) Phule writes:

If the brahmans really wish to unite the people of this country and take the nation ahead, then they
must down their cruel religion, which is customary amongst both the victors (Brahmans) and the
vanquished (shudras), and they, publically and clearly, must cease using any artifice in their
relationship with the shudras, who have been demeaned by that religion, and trample on inequality
and Vedanta opinion, and till a true unity is established, there will be no progress in this country.42

Phule was able to see through the conniving nature of Brahmanical (internal) colonialism
and British imperialism, so, he rejected the Congress brand of elitist nationalism. Mani

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points out that Phule attempted to analyze how feudalism and capitalism (of course, he
did not use this vocabulary because it was not in vogue in that period) coalesced into
caste/class model of Brahmanism. He explained that Brahmanism and colonialism
strengthened each other, so without countering Brahmanism, the nationalist struggle
would only add strength to the oppressive and anti-modern forces in the society. The
orientation of nationalism was entrenched in the Brahmanical tradition. Therefore, the
toiling castes and oppressed communities hardly occupied any space in caste elites‟
nationalist discourse. Phule exposed the Brahmanical outlook of the emerging
nationalism. He pointed out that its politics was hegemonic and thus a rejection of a just
and egalitarian society. In his opinion, the casteist and selfish world view of the caste
patriots was clearly visible in the newly-formed Indian National Congress. It did not
represent the interests of the oppressed sections. The prominent leaders like Dadabhai
Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee and Tilak opposed the mixing of social issues with the
political issues as it would, according to them, decide society and weaken the Congress.
Mani mentions that addressing a conference in 1918, Tilak spoke on why untouchability
must be abolished. But he declined to accept an appeal addressed to him by Bombay‟s
untouchables for support in their temple-entry agitation. In the same year, he objected to
the bill justifying inter-caste marriage on the ground that it was anti-Hindu, particularly
anti-Brahman. Unsurprisingly, this Brahmanical nationalism was a smokescreen to
conceal unsavoury social reality.

The early colonial rulers and British discoverers of Hinduism in connivance

with the native elites comprising the upper castes revived and posited Manu as the
„parent of Hindu jurisprudence. Braj Ranjan Mani informs us that an attempt was made
to establish the notion of a common Indo-European homeland. The upper caste Aryans
began to be seen as the lost brothers of the white Europeans. The idea of two races, the
high caste Aryans and their subjects- lower caste non-Aryans and Dravidians, came into
being. Mani further says that when Gandhi was working as a lawyer, he wrote a letter to
the members of the legislature speaking against the ill-treatment of the Indians and
pleading equality on the basis of race. Robert Eric Frykenberg in his article “The
Emergence of Modern Hinduism” emphatically argues that new Hinduism thrived
under the colonial regime because the British Raj, was indeed, a de facto „Hindu Raj‟:

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The Raj, as an imperial system of rule, was genuinely indigenous rather than simply a foreign (or
colonial) construct; that, hence, it was more Indian than British in inner logic, regardless of
external interferences and violations of that logic by Britain (especially during the Crown period
of this Raj); that, in terms of religious institutions, indigenous elites and local forces of all kinds
were able to receive recognition and protection, as well as special concessions, from the State;
and moreover, that they had been to do this in direct proportion to their ability-whether by power
of information control, numbers, noise, skill or wealth- to influence local governments.43

Initially, Periyar was an admirer of Gandhi‟s advocacy of constructive programmes.

But soon he understood Gandhi‟s double standards pertaining to caste and nationalism.
This changed his whole attitude towards Gandhi from reverence to bitterness. In 1924,
he had taken part in the Vaikom temple agitation, and entered into a heated debate with
Gandhi interrogating the latter‟s ambiguous approach relating to socio-religious
oppression against the caste subalterns. In the 1920s, Periyar, notwithstanding his
confession about atheism, launched an agitation for the right of entry for the Dalits with
the view that temple was a civil sphere as well as a religious one. However, Gandhi and
Congress jumped into the fray of social reforms after the face off with Ambedkar on the
issue of separate electorate for the depressed classes (Periyar had supported Ambedkar
on this question)-with the purpose of massacring Dalits with kindness. Periyar
denounced Gandhi thus:

Though the public believes that Mahatma Gandhi wishes to abolish untouchability and reform
religion and society, the Mahatma‟s utterances and thoughts reveal him to hold exactly the
opposite views on this matter… if we are to follow the Mahatma‟s untouchability creed we will
slip into the abyss of that untouchability we are attempting to abolish. We have been patient,
very patient, and tight-lipped but today in the interests of abolition and self-respect we are, sadly
enough, forced to confront and oppose the Mahatma.44

Even the Adi-Dharmis had questioned the Brahmanic character of the Congress and
Gandhi. They were not ready to accept the independence which meant the government
by the caste Hindus.

The novel also focuses on the contradiction between the Gandhian vision and
the emerging Congress-led caste-based electoral politics. This contradiction is shown
through the dichotomy between the two characters, Master and Ranchchod Dehlavala.
Raj Kumar in his essay “Dalits as Others: Reading Dalit Discourse in Joseph Macwan‟s

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Angaliyat” maintains that Master, who genuinely helps Dalits, embodies the Gandhian
approach. Dehlavala stands for the unholy alliance between the dominant social group
and power-mongering Congress politics in the post-independence era. The novel also
hints at the fact that even before independence, the members of the Patidar community
appropriated Gandhi and took part in the nationalist movement in order to maintain
their hegemony. For instance, Kheda Satyagrah (1918) and the Bardoli Satyagrah had
huge participation of the Patidars. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was also a formidable
leader from the Patidar community. Furthermore, in the novel, Master himself
represents a tension between Gandhian approach and Ambedkar‟s legal measures. The
conversation between Valji and Danaji exemplifies this conflict:

So you too Valabhai are influenced by master? Dana couldn‟t help commenting.
„I couldn‟t make much of what he said about Gandhiji and Babusaheb Hendyakar. The rest is
absolutely right, one hundred and one percent right. I must say that‟s bloody education for you!
Ho…ho…ho laughed Dano: You blundered. It‟s not babu or Hendyakar. It‟s Babashaheb
Ambedkar!
„Now who‟s that?‟
You remember that photo on Master‟s table, with the clothes of a „gentliman‟- that coat and
patloon, and a noose around the neck- that is Ambedkar!‟
„Is he a gora saheb?‟
„No bhai. Master says he is one of us. Of our caste! He went against Gandhii for us!‟
„Now why did he have to go against Gandhiji? Gandhiji is supposed to be for the poor?
„Supposed to be. Whether he is one, Master will be able to explain it. Anyway, Swaraj doesn‟t
appear to be of use to us‟. (43)

Here one can discern the hegemony of the Gandhian discourse in the Indian society.
The general conceptualization about Gandhi is that he is a messiah of the poor. But
Arundhati Roy dismantles this myth that he was for the poor and he lived in poverty.

The novel deconstructs and criticizes the status-quoist and power-mongering

approach of the Congress both in the colonial and post-colonial eras. In the colonial
period, the Congress constructed the grand narrative of anti-colonial nationalism to
overthrow the British power. They deliberately glossed over the social tension prevalent
due to caste hierarchy in the society. They were very particular about not mixing the
political and the social. Sadly, in the post-colonial era as well, the Congress exploited
caste identities to remain in power. In their electoral calculations, caste figured merely

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as a capital to maximize their chances of winning elections. The novel informs us that
in the colonial times the Congress does not take any step to protect the Vankars from
the Patidars. In the post-independent India, the Patidars become more powerful. Now
the entire state machinery is at Dehlvala‟s disposal to do anything. The fact of the
matter is the Congress turns out to be a party of capitalists, landlords, bourgeoisie and
elites. The subalterns occupy no space in the social Darwinistic world of the Congress.
How can the Vankars of Ratnapar survive in this brutal world? What are their strategies
of survival except courage, assertion and mutual camaraderie? To our utter dismay, we
can see that the Congress in Gujarat has promised to offer reservation to the Patidars
under the OBC category; this move is driven by sheer opportunism and electoral
calculations as assembly elections in Gujarat are to be held in December, 2017.

In Vol.9 of his writings, Ambedkar contends that the governing class does not
vanish with the advent of Swaraj. In fact, in the state of Swaraj, the ruling elites would
become more powerful as it happens in every ex-colony to serve its own interests. For
instance, as it happens in the novel, in the wake of freedom from the British imperialism,
the Patels gain more strength and power. Dehlavala struts around wielding his power. He is
able to directly influence the district administration so that the killers of Valji are not
brought to book. The fact that Ambedkar had apprehensions about this kind of Swaraj and
democracy had compelled him to demand separate electorate for Dalits. Rebutting the
Congress‟s contention that separate electorate for Dalits would divide the nation, he argued
that if separate electorate for Muslims and Sikhs would not disunite the nation, there was no
logic why separate electorate for Dalits should break the national unity. Looking at
powerlessness of Dalits in the novel and the increasing incidents of caste violence, one feels
that Ambedkar‟s demand for separate electorate for the depressed classes was a far-sighted
move because it could save us from every day experience of humiliation and violence. Gail
Omvedt in her book Dalits and the Democratic Revolution: Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit
Movement in Colonial India remarks that Gandhi who was worried about political division
in villages overlooked the fissures already existed. He cautioned the people about the spread
of violence but he neglected the violence that Dalits were facing everyday. Ambedkar was
not against the transfer of power from the British to the Indian ruling class, but his effort
was to ensure the protection of the interests and security of the wretched of India.

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Braj Ranjan Mani in his book Debrahmanising History: Dominance and

Resistance in Indian Society opines that two contrary interpretations of the Poona Pact
exemplify how two different classes read the same event with radically different
perspectives. In sharp contrast to the Vedic expression ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti
truths are not absolute; they are relative and carry different meaning for different classes
of society. Indeed, the idea of truth for Gandhi relating the Indian society was a parody
of truth for Ambedkar. Gandhi‟s repeated threats of self-immolation during the Poona
drama was a clear rubbishing away of Ambedkarite ideology and politics.

Ambedkar blames the caste Hindus for colonization of the country. He

challenges the Congress politicians‟ complaint that the British are ruling India by a
complete disarmament of Indians. He counters them by saying that the disarmament of
the Shudras and the Untouchables as a rule was established by the Brahmins. The
disarmament of the subalterns has led to the emasculation of a large majority of Indians.
He denounces the Brahmins as the intellectual class for promulgating this kind of law.
He says: “For, no intellectual class has prostituted its intelligence to invent a philosophy
to keep his uneducated countrymen in a perpetual state of ignorance and poverty as the
Brahmins have done in India”45.

D.R Nagaraj in his book The Flaming Feet concludes that after accepting and
examining the difference between Gandhi and Ambedkar, one comes to the truth of
underlying unity. He argues that in their interaction both of them transformed each other.
Gandhi learnt from Ambedkar that social, economic and political power is important for
the empowerment of Dalits. Earlier, he treated untouchability as a basically religious and
spiritual question. He came to know that caste is only a structure of cultural values but
also represents a system of unequal distribution of power and capital of various kinds
along the lines of caste hierarchy. So, those who advocated untouchability as a religious
problem should also accept the horror of materialist demands. Gandhi positively
responded to the spiritual beauty of the struggle against caste, but he found its material
form very threatening. Even today such a fragmented response to the prejudices of the
caste system affects liberal supporters of the Dalit movement. While Ambedkar
recognized untouchability as a religious matter after his engagement with Gandhi.
Nagaraj believes that it is difficult to remove the differences between these two

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adversaries. But there is an urgent need to see their inner commonality. This would be a
hermeneutical task of confuting the extremist positions.

He puts forth that Gandhi is indeed very relevant for the Dalit movement today.
Actually the emancipation of the Dalit is organically tied up with the liberation of rural
India and the reverse equally holds good. In this context, Gandhi‟s effort to combine the
Harijan cause with the reconstruction of the entire village is of utmost significance, but
this needs to be altered from the Dalit perspective because village India, according to
Ambedkar, is a den of ignorance and localism. By implication, the Gandhian
idealization of village India should be assessed by Ambedkarite skepticism. This is very
important in the context of Gandhi‟s suggestion for the economic empowerment of
Dalits. For instance, he launched the khadi programme because simple weaving was an
exclusive specialty of Harijans. The Step Child also testifies to this fact because the
Vankars predominantly are engaged in weaving. The two main protagonists of the
novel, Teeha and Valji are weavers. This could be seen as a model of economic
rejuvenation of the entire village economy with special focus on the Dalits. But his
programme of village tanning overlooks the working of the caste ethos. In the psyche of
the caste Hindus tanning is associated with the untouchables, and that is one of the
major sources of cultural stigma. For instance, the interpellation of Vankars as
untouchables took place due to their association with the disposing and tanning of dead
animals. Ambedkar‟s insistence on the historical necessity for Dalits to disengage from
such jobs is more realistic and radical in its implication.

Thus it can be said that Joseph Macwan‟s The Step Child exposes the fact that
there is a conflict at the heart of nationalism and nation in India though they promise
liberty and adult suffrage. But they are complicit in undemocratic form of government
and domination. Partha Chatterjee calls this „liberal dilemma‟. In the novel, Master‟s
scathing remark on the occasion of Teeha‟s death tellingly brings forth this liberal
dilemma: “This is our Swaraj and this is our Ramrajya” (229). The horror of Swaraj is
manifest in the killing of Valji and Teeha. After Teeha‟s death, Bhavankaka leaves the
village. In the wake of Methi‟s death, Dana also deserts Ratnapaar. The fact that
protagonists of the novel leave their village vindicates Ambedkar‟s apprehensions about
the village life.

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In Chatterjee‟s words, new political processes have displaced dharma as a

unifying force but nation has replaced it as being embodied in the State. What has
emerged is not the actualization of bourgeois equality but rather contending demands of
caste groups which are purely secular claims upon the state. One the one hand, capitalist
relations are entrenched in agricultural production in which the new forms of wage
labour fit in subtly with old order of caste divisions. On the other hand, the paradoxical
situation lies in the fact that cast subalterns are asserting their backwardness in the caste
structure to get Constitutional benefits from the State and the upper caste sections are
highlighting the importance of bourgeois equality and freedom so as to obviate any
potential threat to their traditional privileges. This was clearly visible in the violent
demonstrations over the Mandal commission‟s recommendations in 1990s.

Silence on Conversion

Sobin George in his article “Dalit Christians in India: Discrimination, Development

Deficit and the Question of Group Specific Policies” points out that in the Western
region of India, about 15000 Vankars in Gujarat converted to Christianity between 1899
and 1905. But Joseph Macwan maintains silence on the issue of conversion, barring a
passing reference to it in the novel when it is said that the colonial government has a
hand in conversion of Dalits that‟s why they are protecting the Vankars. The Patels
allege that the inspector is a stooge of the British government. His attempt to bring the
Patel culprits to justice is construed as a conspiracy against Dehlavala to prevent him
from entering the District Local Board. The Patels denounce the Christian missionaries
saying that they have incited the „Dhedas‟ (Vankars). They do not spare Gandhi also.
They complain that his effort to uplift the Dalits has gone against them. They look at the
newly-gained confidence of Vankars as arrogance. The following speech by Dehlava‟s
man for mobilizing support for Dehlava makes the things amply clear:

The padres have incited the bloody dhedhas. The English government has a hand in conversion.
If we have to live in fear of them, then that‟s the end of us. I say we squash them well and
proper. They will learn the lesson of a lifetime. The gall of these low-caste people to point a
finger at Dehlavala‟s reputation! This country belongs to the Hindus and will remain so. Those
who want to live here, must live the way we have been living for generations. On the one hand,
we have Jhinno (Jinna) the trouble-maker. He wants a separate state for the Miyans (Muslims).

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Next we will hear of these dhedhas incited by the priests, creating trouble. Gandhi‟s obsession
with the lower castes has gone to their head. If we don‟t keep our eyes and ears open, all land
and property will be taken away. Wake up now. If you wake up, you will live, otherwise you are
dead. (101)

The Patels feel threatened due to the empowerment and mobilization of the Vankars. The
recent protests by the Patels under the leadership of Hardik Patel for their inclusion in the
OBC category certainly stems from the strengthening and consolidation of the Dalits in
Gujarat by virtue of reservation for them in government educational institutions and jobs.
They are pressurizing the Gujarat government that if they do not get the benefit of
reservation, other communities also cannot have caste-based reservation.

The issue of conversion raises a fundamental question in the novel: Can Dalits
experience „liberation‟ without a radical break with Hinduism? The book Journeys to
Freedom informs us that a fluid movement between Hinduism and Christianity does not
allow neat generalizations. Dalits convert to other religions often because of educational
opportunities for their children; sometimes they re-convert for Constitutional benefits.
Occasionally they convert to a different religion for the sake of self-respect. In fact, all
the proselytizing religions in India have a long history of exchange with the dominant
religions in India. It has not been easy to shun the memory of a society whose economic
logic is determined by religion. At times conversions have resulted in conflicted
identity. In other words, the new religious identity, which struggles with the older caste
identity, is not recognized as new by the other communities. The philosophy of the new
religion (signifying equality and dignity) has not always translated into social practice
nor has the caste society permitted to go unpenalised. Ambedkar has always inspired
Dalits to convert to other religions so as to get out of the ghetto of Hinduism. However,
there are Dalits in Gujarat who have chosen to live within the Hindu fold; efforts at
Sanskritization are many in Gujarat. Many Dalits have tried to change their names in
order to locate their history in some jati (caste) occupying a higher position in the caste
hierarchy. These efforts are very helpful in a State dominated by the Hindutva politics
of the Bhartiya Janata Party.

Joseph Macwan problematizes electoral democracy by pitting off Gandhian

politics against the Congress-based electoral politics which believes in the idea of ends

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justifies the means. A representative of Gandhi comes to the village to take cognizance of
the events that have taken place here. He represents Gandhi‟s concern for the Dalits. He
emphasizes: “We are striving for Swaraj for everybody. Not for any particular caste, nor
do we want to establish a Hindu nation”. (102) Dehlavala turns out to be a manipulative,
unscrupulous and casteist Congress leader, whose every action is un-Gandhian.

Conclusion

The major intervention of The Step Child is that it not only highlights the tension between
the Patels and the Vankars in the Kheda district. It zeroes in upon the repressed conflict
between the caste Hindus and the lower castes in the Indian society. The novel exhibits
that this repressed tension comes to the surface whenever Dalits assert against upper caste
dominance. Teeha‟s act of challenging the Patidars‟ high-handedness illuminates
asymmetrical power relations between the caste Hindus and the lower castes. The novel
unravels the structural violence against Dalits. Even if Dalits want to question the upper
caste dominance, they cannot do so because they are economically dependent upon the
upper castes. Teeha‟s courageous act does not get appreciation from the Vankars rather he
is reprimanded by them for fear of backlash and losing their source of livelihood. So,
socio-economic and cultural logic underlies the marginalization of Dalits.

Joseph Macwan deftly pushes the idea of nation in India to its limits by
underlining its contradictions in The Step Child. As a counter-discursive practice, the
novel demonstrates that India is conceptualized as an imagined community despite
caste and class inequalities. It is not possible for Dalits to relate to the idea of nation if
they are treated as worse than cats and dogs. They face discrimination, humiliation and
exclusion every day. How can they feel a sense of belonging to this „nation‟? Dalits
remain just the margins of the nation. They are not treated as the brethren of the caste
Hindus. They face physical segregation, untouchability and violence at every step. Dalit
women are treated as mere sex objects. Caste and patriarchy converge when the Patel
boys try to sexually molest Methi and later want to teach her a lesson by raping her.
Rape here becomes an instrument of exercising upper caste male power.

The Step Child deconstructs India as majoritarian construct. The discourse of

nation has mystified the inherent contradiction of Indian society and bestowed immense

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power on the caste Hindu majority. Thus, it excludes Dalits, lower classes and religious
minorities as just fragments of the nation. One does not notice any horizontal
comradeship between the Patels and the Vankars. The entire Ranapaar is attacked for
Teeha‟s act of saving Methi from the Patel youths. The novel testifies to Homi K.
Bhabha‟s statement that nation remains a site of heterogeneity and difference. Dalits are
treated by the Indian State as step-children, as angaliyats. In the post-independence
phase, Dehlavala is able to influence the district administration, so Teeha, Dano and
other Vankars do not get any succour from the government. In fact, false charges are
levelled against them. They run from pillar to post to get justice for Valji but all in vain.
Vankars‟ experience as Dalit experience splits the Indian nation and illuminates the
conceptual ambivalence underpinning the idea of nation in India. Even the anti-colonial
nationalist movement aimed at only attaining freedom from the British imperialists, it
did not attempt to dismantle the socio-cultural hierarchies.

The novel makes it evident that the Gandhian movement was a status-quoist
movement as far as the caste question was concerned. The manipulative and
megalomaniac Congressmen like Dehlavala mutilates the Gandhian ethics and plays a
crucial role in the oppression of Dalits. The well-orchestrated attack on the Vankars‟
village Ratnapaar, murder of Valji and Teeha contests the Gandhian idea of Swaraj. In
fact, the idea of Swaraj itself sends a chill down the spine of the Dalits of Ratnapaar.
The murder of Valji disillusions the Vankars with the notion of Swaraj and Ramraj. For
Gandhi Swaraj meant happiness in the life of the least and last person of the country.
But as power comes in the hands of the upper castes in the wake of independence of the
country the lower castes are further marginalized and subjected to violence. Dehlavala‟s
becoming a minister worries Master who says that thugs have gone and robbers are left
behind. For the Vankars, the British rule was a lesser evil. The Vankars do not feel
happy when Dehlavala declares the independence of the country from foreign rule by
hoisting the Indian flag.

Joseph Macwan beautifully delineates the contours of Gandhi-Ambedkar debate

in The Step Child. He, as a matter of fact, problematizes this dichotomy in the character
of Master who seems caught up in the pull and push of these two different worldviews
and ideologies. Ambedkar always fought for the annihilation of caste because he knew

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what it means to be a Dalit in a caste society. On the contrary, Gandhi only campaigned
against untouchability. He gallantly advocated Varnashrama dharma. The Vankars‟
experience of landlessness, violence and humiliation is a sharp rejection of caste and
Varna in every form. Their heart-wrenching tales demonstrate that the caste Hindus
have not imbibed the Gandhian creed of non-violence and the Gandhian land remains
devilishly violent.

Macwan‟s silence on the issue of conversion compromises the sharpness of The

Step Child as a radical counter-discursive text. One really wonders as to why he remains
silent on such a crucial issue though a huge number of Vankars had converted to
Christianity in Gujarat. Moreover, the depiction of Dalit identity becomes another
limitation of the novel. The problem is that the assertion of Dalit identity happens
through physical valour in the men and through purity in case of women. Besides,
Methi suffers because she is not allowed to marry Teeha who she is in love with. Her
father, Heera Khana, is more concerned about social standing and caste laws than his
daughter‟s happiness. This helps us understand how Dalit patriarchy functions. Dalit
women are twice cursed. They face caste oppression outside their community and Dalit
men brutalize them at home. They are not free in their own homes. They have to
conform to the dictates of Dalit men. The novel unravels the intersection of caste and
gender. The Patel youths plan to rape Methi in order to teach the Vankars a lesson. A
question arises here: why do they choose raping a Dalit woman as a tool to punish the
Dalit community? The reason is that as a woman Methi is a soft target. And men look at
women as objects. The Patels can vent out their frustration and display male power and
caste arrogance by violating a Dalit woman‟s body. However, the deployment of
Brahmanical categories inadvertently pushes the novel into a symbolic Brahmanic
order.

In Rita Kothari‟s opinion, the title of the novel signifies the age-old divide
between the centre and periphery in the domains of the private and the public in
Gujarat. The term angaliyat means a step child who, accompanying the mother‟s
second marriage arrives in a new home holding her finger, angali. Valji, Teeha‟s friend
and Gokal, son of Methi, constantly bear the pain of being referred to as angaliyats.
Moreover, Dalits are also treated as stepchildren in the Hindu society though they

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contribute immensely to the society. Perhaps due to their low caste status, Dalits
hesitate to claim India to be their motherland. It is in this context that Ambedkar had
said to Gandhi:

Gandhi ji I have no homeland… You say I have got a homeland, but still I repeat that I am
without it. How can I call this land my own homeland and this religion my own wherein we are
treated worse than cats and dogs, wherein we cannot get water to drink? No self-respecting
Untouchable worth the name will be proud of this land46.

It cannot be denied that in a patriarchal and patrilineal society, such a child occupies
liminal space in the stepfather‟s family. Further, in a society where the second marriage
of women is seen as a social taboo, the marginalized castes which permit such a
marriage would be stigmatized as backward or inferior. In such a society, angaliyat
remains the secondary, the peripheral, never accepted by the core, the mainstream
culture. Importantly, the two stepsons in this novel, never become a part of the centre.
As a matter of fact, the entire Vankar community has been reduced into an angaliyat
who receives step-child like treatment at the hands of the dominant Patidars.

The novel manifests Ambedkar‟s vision in the sense that it accords immense
significance to education as an emancipating force for the oppressed section of the
society. Gokal, the son of Methi, emerges as a torch bearer for the Dalit community. He
donates seven thousand and one rupees for the school so that it can be built in the name
of Teehabhai Gopalbhai Parmar.

Indeed, The Step Child marks a new beginning. It signifies the emergence of a
new genre- the Gujarati Dalit novel, a form which is significant in itself because of its
complex engagement with nation and democracy. The novel certainly alerts us to fact
that the post-colonial State might degenerate into Hindu majoritarian space excluding
Dalits and minorities. It shows that in the post-colonial democratic India, the middle
castes have become new dominant castes who perpetrate atrocities on Dalits and pose a
major challenge to the empowerment of assertion by Dalits. The Patidars are very
powerful rural capitalists who decide the fate of politics in Gujarat. So, the novel
indicates that power has shifted from traditional upper castes to the erstwhile Shudra
classes. The Patel agitation for reservation under OBC category under the leadership of

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Hardik Patel and the Patidars‟ display of power on the streets of Gujarat corroborates
the novel‟s delineation of this new challenge to the Indian „nation‟.

The representation of the Vankars in The Step Child attempts to capture the
complexity of the Dalit world. It presents before us the social history of the Vankar
community. It looks at Indian history from Dalit perspective and punctures the meta-
narrative of the idea of nation in India and alerts us to the fact that India has been
portrayed as a nation without nationalism. It familiarizes us with the ethnographic blind
spots in the grand-representations of Dalit life in Gujarati mainstream literature.

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