Dalit Women and the Question of Representation: Issues of Caste and Gender

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 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 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 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 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.

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 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 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)

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 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.

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).