*A pedagogue of the oppressed*
Savita Hiremath
The eternal Other, ''the perpetual minor'', ''a devil's doorway'', ''an
occasional and incomplete being'', ''a kind of imperfect man'' — woman is
everything but a person. This historical accident is elevated and abased
simultaneously. She suffers during wartime and she suffers in peacetime. She
has to fight in a situation where every revolution has a meaning but
feminism. She is tagged along for every protest that concerns the society,
yet, she has to wage her own war in a situation where only empty rights
prevail; where each trivial victory is but a brief escapade.
Step down the caste hierarchy and you invite yourself to a more wretched
landscape: Dalit woman is paraded naked, raped; her children and husband are
forced to drink urine; she is made to carry shit on her head and told to
force it down her throat too. She is ostracised. She is prostituted; her
sexuality is religion's playground. Even Dalit men have debased her to a
level lower than where they find themselves in; from where they are crying
for emancipation.
''She is a Dalit among Dalits,'' says Dr Ruth Manorama. This phrase would
have gathered little attention if not for the halo of Right Livelihood
(Alternative Nobel) that surrounds her now.
''Dalit men react to the victimisation they suffer at the hands of the upper
caste people by pouring it out on their wives, daughters...'' Perhaps, this
is one of the worst tragedies of humanity that the oppressed themselves
attempt to fill the emptiness by reducing their own women to drudgery and
further oppression. Or else, how will they construct their sovereignty
unless they set themselves up against someone else?
''I take up such issues with Dalit men during our regular meetings. Yes,
this way I become irritable to them. But my argument is since they have
suffered, they should see to it that their own women are spared. I want to
see an Ambedkar in them.'' ''If you dig deeper, you will see that the upper
caste ideology has percolated down to the lowest levels and that's where we
are.
The standards are set by the upper castes. And it's so natural that those
who inevitably look upward, end up following them. Hence, you will see many
Dalits Brahminising themselves. This way they think they elevate themselves
to a higher level.'' Coming from a Dalit family in Chennai which initiated
her into activism at a young age, Ruth knows what it means to be
discriminated against just because she is one among ''the dregs of
humanity''. There's one quality that sets her concerns apart from that of
other activists': genuineness.
Having worked for Women's Voice for years, she can talk at length on many
issues: poverty, illiteracy, subjugation of Dalits; the poor social
indicators that they display and the depressing social and economic
achievements. Ruth has the acuity to see the interconnectedness between all
these issues. She knows that it's a tissue of mocking echoes. She knows
pain.
''This interconnectedness is far too obvious. Here you'll see that each
issue is entangled with another. Take dowry system for instance: you cannot
separate it from the caste system, patriarchy, consumerism, globalisation,
etc. Each of these works in its own way to maintain the status quo.
Dowry forces women to stay within endogamy and helps patriarchy perpetuate
endlessly. Hence, you have Devadasi system and bonded labour thriving.''
Thrive they will especially when some of the finest qualities of women have
been bent or twisted out of shape only to have her enslaved to male
dominance. That's how when the upper castes decide to outrage Dalit women,
they don't even need to devise new strategies. The old ones work just right.
''Gender oppression is the same for all women irrespective of their caste.
But when it comes to poor Dalit women, the issue is multi-layered. There may
be some options available for upper caste women like walking out on a bad
marriage. But what will a Dalit woman do if she doesn't even have a shelter?
I know many women for whom the topmost priorities are food and shelter.
Harmonious family relations are secondary.
Dalit women's priorities are different from adivasi women or women belonging
to minorities. Moreover, they have to face atrocities both within their
community and without. That's why it's imperative that we see the
specificity of all these issues. We have to see them in their wholeness.
These are the issues of the 'Fourth World' (a Dalit's world),'' she
explains.
Her decades of association with slum-dwellers, unorganized workers, and
urban poor has Ruth firmly anchored in reality. Perhaps that's how she is
able get to the root of individual issues while keeping the larger picture
in mind. But how does she tackle these problems especially when women are
hemmed in by the family structure; when the feminine situation betrays
little solidarity towards other women because each woman associates herself
with a family or a caste or a religion but never with the collective
consciousness called woman? ''Through organisation,'' replies Ruth.
Trenchant as these arguments are, they are so beautifully laced with
thoughtfullness, angst. ''If we have to create a humane world, we have to
fight caste, class, patriarchy. I have learnt this by working with the poor.
If the apartheid could be rooted out of South Africa, why can't we eliminate
the caste system in India?''
She is also painfully aware that women, especially upper caste women,
contribute to it by protecting their own subjugation, willingly or
unwillingly. ''Women not only adhere to the status quo, they help it
perpetuate by keeping the spiral of silence intact. If you accept the status
quo, life is much easier and you don't have to fight for anything. You get
perks and plum posts. Patriarchs are also happy with you because the
existential order is let to rot in its blissful state.''
Although she has taken out innumerable protests and led huge crowds of men
to mainstream her concerns, she knows that she is standing on the fringes.
And that's not a vantage point from where she can dream of creating
something anew! She knows that she has to move to the centre to be heard by
the bourgeoisie. That's why her criticism is unsparing and her zeal
unflagging.
''Tell me, when did the intelligentsia in India oppose the caste system?
Mere acknowledgement does not work. Gandhi did not do much about it. He only
opposed untouchability. Even trade unions are so fixated on only economic
issues that they never tackle Dalit issues like untouchability or
wife-beating practised by their own members. That's the reason why we have
SC/ST workers' unions. Unless unions combine economic issues with social and
political issues, their fight can only have a partial impact.'' Ruth knows
her struggle is to emerge beyond the given and instill hope in those who
look up to her. For once, we have a woman here who expresses her happiness
in all its simplicity at being recognised. She isn't just a celebrity these
days, but a Dalit feminist celebrity. Ruth is well aware of that. She also
knows she is not a voice in the wilderness anymore.
''If someone says I am a Dalit feminist, I am happy to be clubbed with all
the Dalit women. It's a matter of pride because I come from the most
downtrodden section and I am happy to represent it. From a nonissue, the
issue of the oppressed has suddenly become a core issue. Otherwise, how
often do we see Dalit issues hitting the skies?'' True. Unless one makes a
spectacle out of everything, it's difficult to come under the media glare.
But in the case of Dalits, such spectacles happen only when the women are
either raped or paraded naked. On other days, they are mere 'off-beat
items'.
Yet, throw her into any disheartening situation, Ruth will emerge
optimistic. She has Ambedkar, Karl Marx, Paulo Friere and her family for
intellectual support. ''If Dalits have survived even after 4000 years of
oppression, there must be something in them.'' Quoting Marx she adds: ''We
will keep up our fight because we have nothing to lose but our chains.''
Ruth's reach Dr Ruth Manorama's working life has been spent on organisation
building, mobilisation of people and advocacy on behalf of Dalit women
through a large number of organisations.
She is: General Secretary of Women's Voice, founded in 1985, to work with
women in slums, struggling for land, shelter and survival rights of the
urban poor.
President of the National Alliance of Women, set up following the Fourth
World Conference of Women in Beijing in 1995 to monitor government
performance on its various commitments to women and lobby for change.
Joint Secretary of the Christian Dalit Liberation Movement, formed in the
1980s to mobilise Christian Dalits for affirmative action.
Secretary of the Karnataka State Slum Dwellers' Federation.
Secretary for organisation building of the National Centre for Labour, an
apex organisation of unorganised labour in India.
President of the National Federation of Dalit Women, set up in 1995.
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