Between Her Legs: Hindutva and Dalit Women - Meena Kandasamy

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20 glorifies; of women who committed suicide because they were raped and of women who committed suicide because they would be raped (jauhar). Publications of the Sangh Parivar paint halos for incidents of jauhar. Sometimes, their exaggeration reaches unimaginable levels: the book Partition-Days: The Fiery Saga of RSS, 10 cites more than a dozen instances of mass self-immolations of women who killed themselves to ‘save their honour.’ While one of the earliest reported ‘incidents’ details the mass immolation of 107 women, 11 other ‘incidents’ include stories of women consuming poison, and women being willingly beheaded by their kinsmen in order not to be ‘dishonored by beasts in human form’ 12 or in some cases, the heads of 28 girls being broken with bricks to save them from dishonor 13 or 1700 women in Rajouri taking poison that the Swayamsevaks distributed in packets on Diwali day. 14 These are lauded: ‘Has any country in the world been able to present examples of such stern calls of honour?’ 15 and ‘The history of Jauhar of Chittor was repeated, A glorious history of self-sacrifice was created.’ 16 By this covert propaganda and constant glorification of such women does the Parivar intend to suggest that suicide is the solution to being raped? When the premium on chastity for women is exaggerated to such limits, what is the practical solution that the Sangh Parivar gives to Dalit women (who form the greatest percentage of the women subjected to sexual atrocities)? Do not these stories that epitomize women who committed suicide following rape, silently show contempt on the lakhs of women who continue to live post-trauma? Significantly, while Dalit women increasingly become victims of violation, subordination and exploitation the Sangh Parivar continues to maintain its deafening silence on issues of gender, caste and class. Phule—Periyar—Dr. Ambedkar To gain an understanding of how extremely casteist and antiwomen the Parivar is, one has to compare and contrast its silence and shoddiness on Dalit and women issues with the vehement and strong actions of revolutionaries like Phule, Periyar and Dr. Ambedkar. All these three stalwarts believed in liberating women to put an end to the caste system. Mahatma Jotirao Phule
21 championed the movement for the education of shudra and atishudra women and men for he believed that it had immense emancipatory potential. He was firm in his view of challenging caste and gender issues simultaneously, because only that would lead to an egalitarian society. Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, the founder of the Dravidian movement was not only a fierce anti-caste proponent and rationalist, but he was also one of the foremost radical leaders who took up the matter of women liberation with vigour unparalleled in Indian history. He lashed out that ‘if slavery has to be abolished in society, the male arrogance and wickedness which leads to the enslavement of women must be abolished first.’ He emphasized that “only when this was achieved, the tender sprouts of freedom and equality would register growth.’ 17 In the same manner, Babasaheb Ambedkar, messiah of the millions of Dalits, declared that castes continued to be maintained through the sexual exploitation of women; and therefore, as mentioned earlier, women were gateways to the caste system. According to Ambedkar, the control on women’s sexuality could alone ensure that the closed character of the caste-system would be maintained. In his early years, he burnt the Manusmriti, not only because this codification of crude laws was anti-Dalit, but also because it was anti-women. Incidentally, it is a matter to be rejoiced that the Indian Association for Women’s Studies have started to celebrate Manusmriti Dahan Divas (25 December; the day on which Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti) as the Bharatiya Stree Mukti Divas. Ambedkar repeatedly laid stress on the fact that the lower the position of the woman in the hierarchy the more intense her exploitation: a statement that serves as the foundation for the necessity of Dalit feminism. His resignation from the post of independent India’s first Union Law Minister, because the Hindu Code Bill that challenged casteist patriarchal laws was not passed, is one of the defining movements in the history of the struggle against brahminical patriarchy. Moreover, another common thread running through all their challenge to Hindutva is that they vehemently attacked its major icon, Ram. In the hands of Phule, Periyar, and Ambedkar, the character of Ram was exposed; he was portrayed as the original anti-Dalit, anti-shudra, and anti-women villain. Be it Phule’s call for
Page 1 and 2: Chapter 5 Between Her Legs Hindutva
Page 3 and 4: instead it is a capitalization of t
Page 5 and 6: the ensuing possibility of inter-re
Page 7 and 8: silence on inter-caste marriages? T
Page 9 and 10: interest in them in remaining as a
Page 11 and 12: 11 Agreed: Bollywood’s obsession
Page 13 and 14: 13 extremely high potential for out
Page 15 and 16: 15 Also, for some time now, feminis
Page 17 and 18: 17 The Sangh Parivar, apart from gi
Page 19: 19 Sangh Parivar doesn’t even men
Page 23 and 24: 23 are: oppressor castes who have a
Page 25 and 26: 25 I want also to record another in
Page 27 and 28: 27 The fascist Sangh Parivar’s tw
Page 29: 29 6 Mridula Sinha in Dashak ke Jha

Between Her Legs: Hindutva and Dalit Women - Meena Kandasamy

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