Trajectories of Persons with Visual Impairment: Narratives of a Woman

This study discusses the lived-in experiences of a lady with visual impairment. The main objective of the study was to explore the trajectories of a female with visual impairment and understand life experiences from the lens of equality and justice perspectives. This study comes out with the finding that discrimination against visually impaired females is still prevalent in our society even after the enactment of acts and provision in Indian Constitution.

Caste Patriarchy and the Dehumanization of Dalit Women in Indian Society: Phoole–Ambedkarite Perspective

Indian society is entrenched in graded inequality with the continuity of Brahminical order among the Hindu caste. The Ambedkarite perspective of graded inequality paves the way towards the possibility of a critical examination of the discourse based on a prospective theorization of the caste patriarchy having its epistemological origin in the ideas propounded by Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole and Dr B. R. Ambedkar. The article seeks to explore the potential of such a theorization emerging from the predominant practices in Indian caste society that are pervasive across the communities with respect to the dehumanization of Dalit women in their everyday life. The article also focuses upon the strength of such a stand-point which would not only form the basis of an alternate academic discourse but also contribute towards the agenda of Dalit women collective in envisaging their role in terms of self-identity embedded with critical consciousness. The multiplicity of vulnerabilities of being a Dalit and a woman reflects the way the Dalit women get dehumanized in a number of cases, and they are often considered a gateway to the caste system. There is an emerging need of such theorization based on experiential learning along with the realization of its importance in defining the base of a radical sociopolitical alternative championing the ideological principles of a Phoole–Ambedkarite perspective.

Who All Are Labours and Why Are They So Powerless?

In this article, we discuss the most anonymous section of the Indian society—Dalit labours. In addition, we deal with the most important question whether the informal labouring sector consists of a majority of Dalits or not? While sticking to the basic definition of ‘Dalit’ from ‘untouchable to Dalit’ by Eleanor Zelliot in which she defined from the consciousness developed into the minds of marginalized people for their rights, we ask whether Dalits really have sovereignty of their own thoughts? Or, they are the passive victims of the society. While dealing with the same question, we highlight the sub-caste stratification within the Dalits, and within the sub-castes, there is a hierarchy of class and urge to be strong in the Brahmanical idea of superiority. We have taken three scenarios for this—Dalit indentured migration, Dalit partition refugee and Dalit labour migration during the tumultuous times of the COVID-19.

Shilpakar Mahasabha in Colonial Uttarakhand: Subjective Representation of Collective Self

The caste system in India got transformed as a consequence of the policies of the British Raj. The introduction of the census under the colonial government, among other things, made the most direct impact because for the first time the castes have been enumerated with great details. As a result, castes immediately not only organized themselves but also formed caste associations in order to get their status recorded in the way they thought was honourable to them. Caste associations emerged over the period to pressurize the colonial administration to improve their rank in the census. This process was especially prevalent among the lower castes in different parts of India. Shilpakar Mahashaba was a case in point in Uttarakhand. Shilpakar Mahasabha claimed new advantages from the state like reservations (quotas) in educational institutions and in the civil service. Subsequently, they also became mutual aid structures. Shilpakar Mahasabha founded schools and hostels for the children of Shilpakars and led a sort of co-operative movement. Some have argued that caste associations acted like a collective enterprise with economic, social and political objectives for their caste.

Oppressed Within the Oppressed: The Patriarchal Hegemonic Discourse of Colourism on Dalit Women in Shahjadpur, Sirajganj, Bangladesh

The biggest victims of colourism in Bangladesh are girls, who are victims of colour-based violence and suffer from a dark-black complexion. In general, Bangalee society is a dominating patriarchal society, which has been established through a hegemonic discourse. This study explores how and in what process this racist discourse has started in the society. Therefore, being born with only a black complexion, a family deals with long-term psychological problems. In addition to the so-called mainstream social system in Bangladesh, a detached and marginalized group living in Bangladesh is known as Dalits. They are primarily a neglected community, isolated from the mainstream. Among them, the condition of Dalit women is much more deplorable. Dark complexion women are experiencing the most exploitation, deprivation and neglect. The Dalit women are ‘Oppressed within the Oppressed’—they are forced to live a cursed life through a dark-black complexion from birth. This study focuses on how masculine authoritarian behaviours dominate the dark-black face of the Dalit girls in Bangladesh. A random sample-based interview has been conducted on Dalit people of Shahjadpur in the Sirajganj district to explore what kind of mechanism exploits the girls and how the literal meaning of ‘beauty’ is established in society.

Revisiting Globalization Through Dalit Women Perspective

The relation of globalization with social and economic empowerment of Dalit women is a highly contested issue especially when they continue to be victims of discrimination on the basis of their caste, class and gender. One of the major innovations of globalization in India is the microcredit loans and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) that were formed with the aim of increasing the financial independence of Dalit and poor Indian women. Although increasing number of women participate in SHGs, I argue that it is the Dalit women who do not receive their adequate benefits due to the existing division between Dalit and non-Dalit women, the role of the intermediaries and the subordination that is inflicted upon them by Dalit men. Finally, this study concludes that it is only when reforms are built specifically targeting the plight of Dalit women, then they will bring a change in their social and economic status.

The Legal Defect in the Conditional Prohibition of Manual Scavenging in India

This article problematizes the definitional discourse of manual scavenging in Indian legislative interven-tions and its judicial treatment by the Supreme Court of India. It assesses the evolution of the definition of manual scavenging and the judicial treatment of it to cull out the insufficiency of legal doctrines and judicial interpretations in its elimination. It is argued that the career of legal prohibition of manual scavenging, despite deploying new measures to promote the elimination and rehabilitation, is antithetical to the very objectives of the legislations due to a paradoxical definitional discourse. The paradox is discerned by problema-tizing the condition-based permissibility of manual scavenging, where the usage of protective gear is the excluding criterion for identifying manual scavengers and perpetuates the practice. This condition-based permissibility has been a key burden on the discourse of elimination, as no such measures, it is argued, can mitigate discrimination, humiliation and stigma faced by manual scavengers. After identifying the conditional prohibition of manual scavenging, the article makes normative suggestions towards the adoption of a non-condition–based complete prohibition approach rooted in the understanding of human dignity. This must be complemented with the complete rehabilitation of individuals and complete mechanization of sewage work.

Destroying and Recreating Myths: A Subversive Response to Caste Ideology

Centred on a famous canonical Hindi fiction by Munshi Premchand (1880–1936), Godān (1936), which means ‘a gift of a cow’ and on contemporary Dalit fiction by Roop Narain Sonkar, Sūardān (2010), which means ‘a gift of a pig’, the present article discusses how the hegemonic Indian myths are destroyed and recreated as a subversive response to caste ideology. Godān, which can have a parallel to a popular Hindu myth of a ritual of gifting a cow which, as it is believed, guarantees moka (salvation) after mtyu (death), is condemned by Sūardān, which, in its turn, backs its assault by presenting a parallel myth of pig. Thus, the present article illustrates how the canonical literary texts are revisionized and re-appropriated by the vidrh writers using adaption techniques similar to the postcolonial strategies of ‘writing back’.

Geeli Pucchi: An Account of the Inheritance of Trauma and the Desire of an Untouchable: A Critical Film Review

The piece is a critical review of a part of a contemporary anthology. The film is written and directed by a contemporary Dalit filmmaker. The author discusses the portrayal of caste in the film while deconstructing the identity of both the protagonist and the antagonist, discusses their traumas and caste locations. The author further discusses how being Dalit, a woman and bearing an identity other than that of being heterosexual is a lethal combination in both rural and urban India even today. The author brings focus on caste and the power structures prevalent today and how they change the experience of love, intimacy and sexuality, how the bodies of Dalit folks are undesirable and continue to remain untouchable.

Book review: Romano Renee Christine, Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Post War America

Romano Renee Christine, Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Post War America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003, xiii + 368 pp., US$65. ISBN-0-674-01033-7.