Intersections of Gender and Caste

Author(s): SHARMILA REGE, J DEVIKA, KALPANA KANNABIRAN, MARY E JOHN,

PADMINI SWAMINATHAN and SAMITA SEN
Source: Economic and Political Weekly , MAY 4, 2013, Vol. 48, No. 18 (MAY 4, 2013), pp.
35-36
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

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 REVIEW OF WOMEN'S STUDIES

Intersections of Gender and Caste

SHARMILA REGE, J DEVIKA, KALPANA KANNABIRAN, MARY E JOHN, PADMINI SWAMINATHAN, SAMITA SEN

specifically, the new visibility and depth of Ambedkar sameness/difference.

Developments thatthecan
scholarship following birth be traced
centenary from
celebrations thetensions
The creative 1990s, more
produced suggests
by the changing social a movement beyond the often assumed binaries of
of B R Ambedkar, the secular resurgence of caste in the public composition of students in higher education in the last dec
sphere, the implementation of the Mandai Commission Report, ade have brought forth pioneering research, especially at the
the renewed assertion of dalit feminism at national and re- level of PhD and MPhil, as also on "new sites" like web jour
gional levels, the addressal of caste at the un Conference nals and portals. Feminist scholars, many of them dalitbahu
against racism at Durban, all posed serious challenges to the jan feminists, have framed their doctoral work in the inter
theory of gender in India. Dalit feminism, which problema- stices between dalit and gender studies. In the process they
tised the historically constituted opposition between the rights have raised significant methodological and epistemological
of women and those of the so-called backward castes and questions that emerge through resisting the symbolic domi
minorities, wedged open diverse and divergent histories of nation of the academy as also from a merciless critique of its
anti-caste feminisms in India, thus drawing attention to the concepts, metaphors and modes of reasoning. Four of the
disjuncture between academic knowledge and the social papers in this issue are products of these "new times" in the
practices of caste. academy. Out of these, three papers in the collection fore
As interrogations of the structures of power, modes of dif- ground the experiences of dalit women in
ference, as well as the connections between class, caste and ranging from the history of dalit feminism
gender in academia followed, some feminist scholars felt the urban resettlement and rehabilitation pro
imperative to engender histories of caste. The last decade bai, to the political trajectories of forms of
thus saw a reconceptualisation of structures and practices of Kerala. Smita M Patil, through her fieldwor
brahmanical patriarchy and surveillance in India. Within the investigates the historically constituted di
women's movements, there were efforts to build dialogue Mang and Mahar women to compare the polit
and solidarity between non-dalit and dalit feminists; the lat- two dalit castes. Historically constructed "
ter often interrupted by the relative silence of feminists in seen as informing dalit feminism to bridge
the face of the increasing violence against dalit women and ing gaps and enhancing the potential that
the failure to recognise the structural violence of caste- holds for epistemic démocratisation. Varsha
ordained linkages between sexuality and labour. What have based on extensive fieldwork conducted in a
been the implications of these developments for the body of in Mumbai foregrounds specific experienc
research on caste and gender and the field of women's studies women affected by displacement to demon
in general? Have the new interpretations of the caste/gender religion and gender play a significant role
question destabilised the assumed meanings of violence, traumatic processes accompanying displa
sexuality, or labour in women's studies? Or have the inter- untary resettlement. The paper critically ex
sections of caste, class, and gender become a mantra too oft- of a non-governmental organisation, and e
repeated as if it were an automatic guarantee to a politically played by a small segment within the disp
correct method? The recently concluded (15-16 February) in mitigating displacement through their poli
two-day Dalit and Adivasi Women's Congress at the Tata and networks. Rekha Raj's article addresses t
Institute of Social Sciences (tiss) in Mumbai has suggested of and changes in dalit women activists' exp
the crucial need for deepening the debate on intersectional- context of Kerala's politics and social mov
ity for building solidarities. narratives from the political field of Kerala, the paper ex
plores the ways in which the very structure of public action
Contemporary Scholarship disallowed dalits, though they were major participants in
This Review of Women's Studies (rws) collection, focusing political interventions, from making any significant ga
on gender and caste, brings together seven papers which
collectively give a succinct account of the theoreticalWe would like to thank the members of the editorial advisory group of
and
the Review of Women's Studies - Sharmila Rege, J Devika, Kalpana
methodological tendencies that frame contemporary schol
Kannabiran, Mary E John, Padmini Swaminathan and Samita Sen -
arship on caste/gender. Each of the papers outlines caste
for putting together this issue on the theme of Gender and Caste.
and gender as entangled, but never easily equated and
Economic & Political weekly B3Q may 4, 2013 vol xlviii no 18 35

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REVIEW OF WOMEN'S STUDIES

tracks the presence-in-absence of dalit women across dif- through social and political categories like caste and
ferent time periods and the evolution of a complex relation- Swathy Margaret's work critically analyses Gudav
ship to more visible forms of feminism within the Malayali brahmam's popular Telugu social film, Malapilla m
public sphere. 1938, against the backdrop of the MacDonald Award of
Two of the papers in this collection focus on the gender- separate electorates. It de
caste matrix in the making of patriarchal notions and prac- which issues of inter-caste lo
tices of "honour". Anandhi S' paper outlines the politics of important undercurrent mark
reform and resistance around the ritual practice of dedicat- popular cinema's investment
ing young girls to goddess Mathamma among the Arun- tics and history. Meena Go
thathiyars, a dalit sub-caste group in Tamil Nadu. Through a standing the specific genderin
detailed ethnography, the paper analyses how this parti- caste to foreground what lies co
cular form of ritual practice has drawn its sustenance from moment in the women's mov
existing caste and gender hierarchies and its implications dancing is seen as wedging open
for the gender and sexuality of the Arunthathiyar women, emancipation, which have led
Manisha Gupte's article explores the gender-caste matrix the recognition of the bur
of patriarchal honour in Maharashtra to indicate that only labours of women,
men from the dominant caste and class groups possess "in
trinsic" honour, while women are patriarchy's embodied Inadequate Representation
honour. Through focus group discussions and detailed case In different yet related ways,
studies, the paper maps how women possess the gendered explicit the unique contribution
counterpart of honour, namely shame, since men lose hon- tives which remain inadequat
our through the behaviour of women from their families stream Indian feminism. Toget
or kinship. lysing the caste and gender matrix in Indian society, merely
The other two articles in this collection map the constitu- pluralising the term patriarchy is n
tion of labour and the literary and cinematic imagination map the ways in which the category
respectively, demonstrating how categories of labour and ently reconstituted within regionall
culture are never neutral but constituted historically tions cross-hatched by graded caste

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36 may 4, 2013 vol xlvin no 18 laavi Economic & Political WEEKLY

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