Abstract
Bharti Arora’s paper explores how women’s writing across linguistic, regional, caste and/or communal divide engages with the task of knowledge production in contemporary times. In fact, in what ways does one ensure that the alternative knowledge production by women is neither biased nor does it reproduce the sociocultural and economic hierarchies embedded in the structures of the nation-state? How does the category of ‘mainstream’ feminism impinge on the production of a Dalit feminist standpoint? The present paper deals with these issues, emphasising the need to foster dialogue among the diverse contexts of Indian women’s writing. The paper goes on to establish that English language and translation could play a seminal role in constructing an alternative engagement with women’s productivity and rights.
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Notes
- 1.
However, all texts written by women need not be feminist. Sometimes, they are as much a product of ideological, social determinations and role models prescribed for them as any other texts. In fact, women’s texts both in their internalisation of patriarchal structures as well as in challenging and subverting these structures of power offer us a site to study the gendered patterns that construct and feed into the architectonicae of the nation-state.
- 2.
The term ‘Dalit’ in this paper does not particularly refer to a particular caste group. At times, I employ the term in the context of referring to lower castes, minorities and other disenfranchised sections of society who have been relegated to the margins of the nation-state. The term ‘Dalit’, as defined by Lakshmi Holmstrom in the introduction to Bama’s Sangati (2005) “comes from Marathi and meaning ‘oppressed’ or ‘ground down’” (xii). Though the term has its own issues, it has been appropriated for particular reasons: “it does away with reference to caste, and points to a different kind of nation-wide constituency; specifically, it signals the militancy of the Dalit Panthers, their broad definition of ‘Dalit’ and their professed hope of solidarity with all oppressed groups” (Holmstrom 2005, p. xii). The 1972 manifesto of the Dalit Panthers, quoted in Tamil Gail Omvedt’s “Dalit Peenterkal, Tamil ilakkiyam, penkal” (Dalit Panthers, Tamil Literature, women) asserts: “Who are Dalits? All Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, neo-Buddhists, labourers, landless and destitute peasants, women, and all those who have been exploited politically and economically and in the name of religion are Dalits” (as quoted in Holmstrom 2005, p. xii).
- 3.
M. Swathy Margaret, a Telugu-speaking Dalit Christian woman, completed her Ph.D. at EFLU, Hyderabad. Her dissertation is titled “Writing Dalit Feminist Discourse Through Translation: Translating Select African American Short Stories into Telugu”.
- 4.
Lata Pratibha Madhukar is a Dalit Bahujan feminist writer, social activist and researcher. She has published three books and several short stories, poems and articles in Marathi, Hindi and English periodicals. She has been active in various social movements for the past 35 years. These include the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini, Stree Katha and Narmada Bachao Andolan, among many others. She is currently doing her Ph.D. on “Bahujan Women’s Role in OBC Movement”.
- 5.
Lata Pratibha Madhukar extends a similar angst against Indian English writers such as Uma Chakravarti, V. Geetha, Susie Tharu, K. Lalita, Vasanth Kannabiran and Kalpana Kannabiran and Sharmila Rege and Marathi writers such as Vidyut Bhagwat, Lata Bhise Sonawane, Wandana Sonalkar and Usha Wagh, who have articulated the nexus of gender, caste and class in their writings. She argues “Quite often, they base their arguments on the experiences and writings of regional Dalit and Bahujan women writers”.
- 6.
Elen Turner suggests in her article “Reconciling Feminist and Anti-Caste Analysis in Studies of Indian Dalit-Bahujan Women” that feminist publishing houses like Kali for Women and Zubaan have popularised studies on Dalit Bahujan women as seminal to the oeuvre of feminist and/or women’s writing in India. Apart from them, mainstream academic publishers like the Oxford University Press on the one hand and caste studies-oriented publishers like Navayana are also very much open to gendered and feminist analysis of caste. These publishing houses have also been, as Turner further states, “well-known mediators of certain sections of the Indian Feminist Movement, particularly those that can be described as mainstream, being urban-based, educated and middle class and their publications can tell us how a mainstream version of feminism interacts with caste”. It goes without saying that such an interaction, for the most part, remains contingent on translation practices.
- 7.
As Makarand Paranjape (2010) suggests, these contexts serve as contrary point of reference. He asserts that “Indian English Literature can best be read in conjunction with these counter-texts. These con-texts are the vernacular literatures of India, in which Indian English literature is best understood. In fact, without the vernacular con-texts, many Indian English texts remain con, that is fake, just as Indian Anglophony remains phoney” (p. 98).
- 8.
Ambedkar underlines the significance of conversion: “to get human treatment, convert yourself, convert for getting organised, convert for becoming strong, convert for securing equality, convert for getting liberty, convert so that your domestic life could be happy” (as quoted in Louis 2007, p. 16).
- 9.
The following are some of the prominent contemporary Muslim women writers, writing in bhashas: Jameela Nishat writes in Hyderabadi (Deccani) Urdu (Lava, Lamheki Ankh), and Tarannum Riaz (Yeh Tang Zameen (1998), Ababeelain (2000), and Yambarzal (2004)) is also a famous writer of Urdu. Apart from them, Jeelani Bano’s (Roshni ke Minar, 1958; Nirvaan, 1963; Jugnu aur Sitare, 1965; Naghme Ka Safar, 1977) and Wajida Tabassum’s works (Teh Khana, 1968; Kaise Samjhaoon, 1977; Zakhm-e Dil aur Mahak, 1978; Zar Zan Zamin, 1989) have made significant contributions to voicing the concerns of women and minority rights and how majoritarian politics has impacted upon the former.
- 10.
Married off at a young age and forced to live in parda, Salma confronted each and every obstacle, equipped as she was with the talent of writing. Salma’s anthologies are titled “Oru Malaiyum, Innoru Malaiyum” (One Evening and Another Evening, 2000) and “Pachai Devadhai” (The Green Goddess, 2003). Her first novel Irandaam Jaamangalin Kathai was published in 2004.
- 11.
For details, please refer to Salma’s interview (“In Conversation with the Tamil Author, Salma”) at http://cafedissensusblog.com/2014/06/07/in-conversation-with-the-tamil-author-salma/ accessed on September 7, 2015.
- 12.
See the “Review of UGC Women’s Studies Departments/Centres” made by the UGC standing committee on Women’s Studies. In Changing the Terms of the Discourse: Gender, Equality and the Indian State, ed. Kumud Sharma. Delhi: Pearson
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Arora, B. (2019). Democratising the Language of Feminist Expression: English and Bhasha Contexts of Indian Women’s Writing. In: Mahanta, B., Sharma, R. (eds) English Studies in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1525-1_9
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