Abstract:
A community which bears the brunt of discrimination and violence is often pushed to the margin through a continuous process. Within the community, it is the women who get further marginalized due to the pervasive nature of patriarchy. The voice of a marginalized class mostly goes unheard and unexpressed. If a community is marginalized, it brings double marginalization for its women. And the oppression is unimaginable when it comes to Mahar women since they belong to the last layer of social hierarchy. This kind of multiple oppression and marginalization can be comprehended with the help of intersectionality. The term ‘intersectionality’ was coined by Kimberley Crenshaw to emphasize the exclusion and subjugation of Black women. The paper extensively and painstakingly portrays the triple torture based on caste, class and gender of Mahar woman. The paper serves as a catalyst to strike an attack on the heinous caste system and triple marginalization of Mahar women.
Keywords: Castes, class, gender, intersectionality, triple marginalization, social hierarchy
The grip of caste is so strong and devastating in India that even the conversion to another religion cannot annihilate them (Vaijanath 2022: 1136).Women from the oppressed section, particularly the Dalit women, form the major proportion of the marginalized oppressed groups in a caste society like India. “The oppressors perpetuate the caste system against the oppressed through multiple forms of oppression.” (Priyadarshini and Panda 2023: 62).And this violence against women takes unique form when gender and caste intersect. The concept of intersectionality allows comprehending how multiple forms of discrimination combine and overlap. This challenges the homogeneity of the categories “woman” and “Dalit” as two independent exclusive categories. Dalit feminism views this intersectional oppression based on caste and patriarchy as the two dangerous enemies of Mahar women. Mahar women are placed at the absolute bottom of the social hierarchy as they face threefold discrimination: as Dalits, as poor, and as women. They face double challenges of patriarchy and casteism posed by their men as well as by non-Mahar men and women. Discrimination based on caste and patriarchies are the sources of deprivation. “A Mahar woman is deprived of equal rights due to caste as well as patriarchy whereas Brahmin woman is deprived of equal rights due to patriarchy and not caste. A Brahmin woman enjoys privileges not because she is a Brahmin but because of varna-caste ideology that accords higher status to the Brahmin race and a Mahar woman is deprived of rights not because she is a Mahar but because of varna-caste ideology that accords lower status to Dalit race.” (Karunyakara 2021: 3). It is not so much about the social identities but the exploitative nature of the varna system which is the root of these social identities that needs to be demolished. A story of a Mahar woman is the story of her community where the traumatic experience of an individual converts itself into a collective biography (Sarvesh et al. 2021: 100).
Livelihood of Mahar women
The Mahar women lived a life of permanent deprivation and suffering without food, proper shelter and clothes. All lowly jobs, right from arranging fuel for cooking to collecting leftovers from upper caste families, would be thrust on the Mahar women. They would wake up at the crack of dawn. The grains would have been cleaned the previous night and kept ready. At cock’s crow, the grinding stones in each house would start whirring. The women would pull down their pallav, cover the sleeping child and then, pouring small quantities of grain into the opening of a small hole, they would start grinding (Kamble 2008: 49). It was the Mahar women who had to clean the garbage pit. Sweeping the house, cleaning all the shit of the children, cutting firewood and stack it neatly for cooking- all the dirty and menial jobs were the privilege of the Mahar women (Kamble 2008: 76)
The Mahar women collected firewood in summer and grass in winter. “During the night, they would sharpen their axes on the stones, gather strings and keep them in bundles and keep everything ready for the next day.” In the early morning they would begin their journey in groups. “Around one or two o’clock in the afternoon the women would return, almost running in the scorching sun, with bundles of firewood on their heads.” The children would jump in joy after having a glance of their mothers. Holding the pallav in their hands, they would follow them home. After having worked the entire day, the women would be drenched with sweat all over their bodies. Their throats would be patched dry with hunger gnawing in their empty stomach. Immediately they would look for the basket of Bhakris as soon as they returned home. Most of the times these baskets would be empty as the children would have finished the Bhakris. They would go looking for some crumbs in their friend’s house. “Now they had to break the firewood into small pieces. Once the big branches were cut into small pieces, they tied them up in small bundles and carried them on their heads to the village to sell them.” (Kamble 2008: 51-52). The Mahar women had to trudge through various small lanes and nooks and corners of the town to sell the heavy loads on their heads. “They had to cover themselves fully if they saw any man from the higher castes coming down the road, and when he came close, they had to say, ‘The humble Mahar woman fall at your feet master.’ Sometimes there would be a young, newlywed girl in the group and she would fail to join the chant out of sheer ignorance or awkwardness. All hell would break loose then.” (Kamble 2008: 52). The upper caste master would burst out in anger. “He would march straight to the Mahar chawdi[i], summon all the Mahars there and kick up a big fuss. ‘Who, just tell me, who the hell is that new girl? Doesn’t she know that she has to bow down to the master? Shameless bitch! How dare she pass me without showing due respect?’ Then the girl’s in-laws and other elderly men from the Mahar community would fall at the man’s feet begging for mercy, crying, ‘No, no kind master! That girl is a new animal in the herd! Quite foolish and ignorant… please forgive us for this crime’.” (Kamble 2008: 52-53).
Once the bundles of firewoods are sold off, they walked all over the bazaar, looking for places where they could get cooking ingredients at cheap rates. Then they would buy some inexpensive low quality fish for their kids waiting at home. But some did not even have time for this meager refreshment; instead they would start walking the long way. “They would just take some morsels of dry bread and fish in their hand and nibble on them while walking. The chatting which they had while returning back is about their struggle in selling the firewood just for a few annas.” (Pawar, 2003: 9-10). They also discuss how the upper caste women would pour water from a height of four feet which they would drink with cupped hands holding close to their mouth. (Vaijanath 2022: 1137).“Sometimes a bunch of Kulwadi[ii] women coming from behind would cross them, taking care to avoid their touch. Someone would notice that and flare up, ‘Look at them! See how they kept far from us!… See how they show off as if we pollute them!’ They experienced extreme brutality of the high castes.” (Pawar 2003: 12). At the same time these Mahar women have to worry about their babies- if anybody has fed their child, if their drunkard husbands have bashed their kids- these fears and doubts made their feet tread the rough-hewn path home faster. Such is the wretched life of Mahar women of Maharashtra.
During marriage ceremony in upper caste houses, the sticky leftover food would be kept in a huge cane basket, kept ready in the corner of the house. By the time the guests are done with their food, there would be two big baskets filled with the leftover food. Then the head of the upper caste family, where the marriage is taking place, would summon the Mahar woman waiting in front of the garbage pits. Having continuously worked for hours when hunger gnawed in her empty stomach, somehow she would have to satisfy her hunger with the baskets of leftover food. But she could only have her food after sweeping the pandal clean. Then she would carry the baskets of leftover food to the chawdi for her Mahar community patiently waiting for those leftovers. “Meanwhile, someone would go and make an announcement in the Maharwada, ‘Come on, folks, come and collect your share of the leftovers…’ People waiting impatiently would rush to the chawdi with whatever small plate, pot or bowl they could lay their hands on.” (Kamble 2008: 77). The entire chawdi would be over crowded. Then the karbhari[iii] of the Mahar community would stir the contents inside the bag with his hands. He would take out leftovers from the basket with a big German silver bowl called khob and put them onto the blanket, which the people would collect in their pots and plates. Each and everyone receive a small portion as their share. Children would fall over each other in a desperate urge to snatch food. By the time they reached home it would be midnight. But the entire community would be still awake. And they would only go to bed after having the leftover food, savouring the sweet taste on their tongue. In the next morning, the Mahar women would be again called off to sweep the pandal clean. In return the leftover foods from the previous night’s meal would be given. But by that time food would have been spoilt. “Yet, the Mahar women would carry this home in huge clay pots placed over their heads and eat it somehow.” (Kamble 2008: 77). Besides being engaged in all kinds of menial tasks, these Mahar women are also used as bonded labourers. “They do hard labour from dawn to dusk but do not get wages in proportion to their work done. At the rate they worked, they are no less than Dalit men. But they never received a payment that was appropriate to their labour. Mahar men received one wage, women another. There is a huge wage disparity among Mahar men and women.
Marital Life of a Dalit girl
“Young girls, hardly eight or nine years old, were brought home as daughters-in-law. Dalit girls, even younger, were married off. They were children who could not even remember their marriages.” (Kamble 2008: 73-87). Baby Kamble, one the earliest Mahar women writers asserted in her narrative that the Mahar of the sixteenth share, in those days, enjoyed much more social prestige than even a judge. If a Mahar family can get their daughter married in such prestigious familes, it was considered a matter of great honour and privilege. Delicacies such as the liver, kidney, etc went to the Mahar of the sixteenth share. The young daughter-in-law of that house would be busy all day doing household chores. The Mahar men of the family would bring in big baskets loads of meat which needed to be preserved. And this arduous duty fell on the daughter-in-law. She had to sit down with a sharp knife, cut the huge pieces of meat into smaller ones and then stretch these into long snake-like strips. The Dalit girl would finish cutting the huge heaps of meat by the end of the day. Then these meat strips were hung out to dry over the courtyard to ward off birds. The poor daughter-in-law would spend the day drying the meat pieces. “Then they would beat the dried meat strips with wooden tongs and cut them into small finger-length pieces. The woman crunching these pieces could easily have outdone machines in a factory as far as noise was concerned.” (Kamble 2008: 73-74).
After marriage, the young Dalit bride was allowed to stay with her parents for a short while. But then her sasra (father-in-law) would bring her to her in-laws. Thus, the girl would embark upon a new life that was hard and arduous. A young girl, a child really, highly immature to comprehend what marriage really was, would suddenly start to lead a married life, without even knowing what a husband meant, or what it was to be given away. “Since in those days there were no vehicles, the sasra would start with his daughter-in-law on foot early in the morning. It took two to three days to reach his home.” (Kamble 2008: 93-94).And finally when they arrived home, the newly bride would be immediately asked to make bhakris[iv]! The child would have to sit down and make two baskets full of bhakris, but she would not be able to give them proper shapes. Some bhakris would invariably get burnt and some would remain uncooked. “Then the sasu (mother-in-law) would call all her friends and neighbours and hold an open exhibition of the tiny burnt bhakris, ‘Attyabai, come and see what’s happening here. Didn’t you think that I’d brought the daughter of a good woman into my house? Look at the bhakris this slut has prepared. She can’t even make a few bhakris properly. Oh well, what can one expect of this daughter of a dunce?’ The child was not even allowed to sleep.”(Kamble 2008: 94).Around 3 am in the next morning when the cock crowed, the mother-in-law would drag the poor bride by her hair. She would be forced to clean the grinding stones and grind the jowars. At the beginning the mother-in-law would also help her grinding jowars. But as soon as her newborn baby would wake up and start crying, the father-in-law would yell at the mother-in-law to leave grinding and stop the wailing newborn. However, the young girl had to continue with the work. Her hands were too tiny to pull the heavy stones and her palms would get blisters. After a lot of struggle when the grinding was done, she would be sent to the river to fetch water. After fetching water, she again had to sit down to prepare bhakris. “If the bhakris weren’t perfect, her sasu would examine the kneaded flour and slap the girl on the face with the unbaked bhakris, pinch her cheeks, and shower a million abuses on her, ‘What’s your aai really? Tell me! Is she a good married woman at all? Or does she know only how to run after the pot-maker’s donkeys? Didn’t she teach you anything? I pamper you a little and you take advantage of that! Look what a nice sasu I am! My own sasu was a spitfire.’ Then she would mourn her fate loudly and go on in a voice drenched in self-pity.” (Kamble 2008: 94-95). At the top of her voice she would yell and say that they could not even dare to call a dog or a hen by their name in her in-laws’ house. Even the animals had to be addressed respectfully or else they would be kicked out. Immediately after completion of almost all household chores, she would be taunted with her eating style, “You are like a beast gone mad, eating so! Simply out of control, that’s what you are! That’s why you are being such a pest! The mother-in-law would continue to rant.” (Kamble 2008: 95).The poor girl is bombarded with abuses from everyone in the household, including her haughty sisters-in-law and her lousy brothers-in-law. By the time she gets free from the household works, all the bhakris would have been eaten up. “All that was left for her would be half-burnt, half-baked bhakris that she herself had made. However, the Mahar daughters-in-law experienced one comfort. There were no pots in the house to clean and no clothes to wash, because there were not even enough rags to wear.”(Kamble 2008: 95).
The childhood punishment at the hands of her own parents was far more preferable to what she had to endure once she reached maturity. When the daughter-in-law for the first time gets her menstrual period, the mother-in-law would get super afraid and start keeping a close watch on her daughter-in-law and son. She would go to any extent to not let them lead a conjugal life. She would be surrounded by a different level of fear that her son would be snatched away from her. That’s why at night when they meet, the mother-in-law would immediately wake her daughter-in-law up to grind the grain followed by fetching water from the river. “Then she would poison her son’s mind against his wife by saying, ‘Watch her, you fool! Look how she goes out all the time… Keep her under your thumb. Otherwise you will be disgraced in public.’ And while she was away, the sasu would hatch new controversies against her.” (Kamble 2008: 96). Often the Mahar man would drag his wife by hair in front of the entire community and beat her up mercilessly as if she were an animal with his belt. Everyone would arrive to watch the scene but no one had the courage to rescue the poor woman. The other women of the village would gather in front of the poor tortured girls’s house. They simply loved such controversies. Then in front of the whole village, the daughter-in-law would be compared to a witch who has come to kill the whole family. Yelling loudly, beating her breasts, crying how her daughter-in-law has tried to ruin her family and her kids- all in all it was nothing short of an episode by the mother-in-law. Things did not end here. The latter would go on to claim that the poor Mahar girl is possessed by an evil spirit who would destroy her house. “This would make the poor Dalit women tremble with fear. They would hastily apply kumkum and haldi on the possessed woman’s forehead.”(Kamble 2008: 97). Amidst this chaos, the poor daughter-in-law would tremble like a leaf. “Petrified and unable to utter a single word, she would watch the people around her with a sinking heart. The furious husband would beat her to a pulp and drive her out of the house.” (Kamble 2008: 97). She was an easy target who could be tortured as per wish. “The women of the Mahar community lead the most miserable life. Their lives turn out to be hell because of poverty, violence, oppression, discrimination, patriarchal domination, and humiliation.” (Vishwakarma 2022: 113). At least one Mahar woman in hundred would have her nose chopped off. “A Mahar woman’s life is ever filled with hurdles” (Malayil 2021: 5605). They curse themselves for being born first as Dalit, second as poor and third as female. “A Mahar woman would continue to give birth till she reached menopause.” (Kamble 2008: 82).Most of the Mahar women die during child birth due to malnutrition and hunger. One in every ten lost their lives during child birth. They could not even afford to buy the cheapest food like Jowar. They suffered from diseases like tetanus due to careless attitude towards infection. The ignorance of the Mahars and fear of death led them to perform all the meaningless rituals rather than going to doctor(Kamble 2008: 60-61).The suffering of the Mahar women is beyond endurance. Even a dictator would find it difficult to watch their plight.
Triple marginalization: Class, Caste and Gender
- Class
Most of the Mahar women earned their livelihood by weaving bamboo baskets, manual scavenging, cleaning of drains and sewers, garbage collection, sweeping of roads, agricultural labourers and performing many other menial tasks. It indicates their economic position and social status. Almost all the Mahar women suffered from same economic disabilities- lack of sufficient food, clothing, shelter and the other basic necessities of life. Their poverty stricken life is evident from the fact that during festivals their entire house would survive for two days on those leftovers. In some houses the flesh of dead animals would be eaten. “The upper caste girls brought novel items in their tiffin which the Dalit girls could not since they are born in a particular caste marked by poverty. Often they had to satisfy their hunger with bhakris and small inexpensive fish. In the rainy season they would just cook a plateful of takla leaves with a little salt.” (Pawar 2003: 93-94). Even the Mahar women used to serve jackfruit to their children immediately before meals so that they eat less. This was done in order to save food. (Pawar 2003: 96). Tasty fish like surmay, pomphret and halwa never came their way. All that they could get was small dried fish particularly bull fish with a strong foul smell. They are always served with extremely low quality dish with no nutritional value (Pawar 2003: 100). Quite often the eating of Mahar girls became a burning issue in school. Some compared their eating style to monsters and some claimed that the Mahar girls eat like goat! (Pawar 2003: 102).
- Caste
There are many instances of cruelty undergone by the Mahar women at the hands of the upper caste Hindus whether in terms of so called Hindu ritual where an upper caste man would inflict a wound on a Mahar’s back and his wife had to cover the wound with some cloth and go on walking around, howling! This is a so called ritual practiced in the name of religion where the Mahar symbolizes the animal sacrificed! (Pawar 2003: 86). The practice of untouchability and the monstrous treatment meted out to Mahar women because of being born in a low caste is all pervasive. Urmila Pawar, a prolific Dalit woman writer of Mahrashtra, narrated a shameful and ignominious situation that she encountered in a marriage celebration. “She described the incident, ‘Once I attend wedding at my sister-in-law’s place, along with two of my nieces. However, when we three spout girls sit down to eat and begun asking rice repeatedly, the cook got angry, “Whose daughters are these anyway?” He burst out. “They are eating like monsters.” (Pawar 2003: 117).All the Dalit women writer writers of Maharashtra who have expressed themselves through literature have recalled that at every phase of their life, in every social interaction, they suffered humiliation due to caste. As soon as their caste is revealed they would face disdainment, avoidance, ignorance and separatist tendencies.
- Gender
The exploitation of poor Mahar women at the hands of their drunkard husbands is unimaginable. After toiling the entire day- working in the fields, cooking in the house, cleaning the pots and plates, serving meal to the men first- by the time they lay down, their backs would be bent like a bow. Still they had to sit down and massage the head and feet of their husbands with oil. In addition, the woman had to behave as if she were a deaf and dumb creature (Pawar 2003: 246-247). Even the working women are also expected to behave as deaf and dumb. A Mahar woman always has to address her brother-in-laws with respect. They can never be called by name even if they are younger than the former. “A man always has greatness thrust upon him whereas a woman has to achieve it!” (Pawar 2003: 196). A Mahar girl can never confront her in-laws inspite of the abhorrent treatment meted out to her. She has to endure the pain and suffering silently even if that leads to her untimely death. Talking about good food, good education and proper clothing, Mahar women are always at the bottom. At first the food will be served to the male members of the family and if they are satisfied then only the Dalit women could feed themselves.
Dalit Feminism- A challenge and defiance to intersectional oppression of Mahar women
The 1990s can be considered the most crucial decade for mainstream feminist discourse. It is during this period when the Dalit women started to question feminist movements’ overemphasis on the concerns of upper-caste women and for the first time a significant shift in mainstream feminism can be witnessed. For the first time, the feminist movement was brought under scanner for its blindness to caste question. To comprehend Dalit feminism, it becomes very crucial comprehending feminist movement and Dalit movement in India. If feminism is limited to the concerns of upper-caste and middle-class women neglecting Dalit women, Dalit movement accorded primacy to caste question rejecting Dalit women’s issues and the theorization of patriarchal domination that operates at multiple levels among different castes in society. Dalit feminism critiques both the Dalit movement, which excludes theorization of internal patriarchy, and feminist movement, which excludes the theorization of caste system. It refutes the feminist claim of women as a universal category. Gender is considered as the most significant factor of oppression and a Dalit woman is subjected to caste discrimination being a Dalit and gender discrimination being a woman. Dalit women are misrepresented as weak and vulnerable by Dalit male writers, and are unrepresented or only marginally represented in mainstream feminist writings. Therefore, Dalit feminism exposes the reality of caste and gender discrimination of Dalit women, which was disregarded by both the Dalit movement and mainstream feminism (Pan 2019: 29-30). Dalit feminism brings forth the void in mainstream feminism or Dalit politics. The core tenet of Dalit feminism is the notion that a “Dalit Woman” is situated “at the intersection of caste and gender”. They can neither be categorized solely as “Dalits” or as “Women” nor can they be considered as monolithic entities. These two categories of caste and gender are seen as two different, individual categories in Dalit movement and mainstream feminism defining “Dalits” and “women” as separate from each other. As a result in both feminism and Dalit movement, the concerns and issues of Dalit women get absorbed and erased (Pan 2019: 23).
Dalit feminism as an ideology sought to address the intersectional nature of Dalit women’s identity. It emphasizes on intersectionality of caste and gender, how these two oppressive systems affect one another and operate in conjunction with each other. “Dalit woman” is the primary constituency of Dalit feminism who can only be identified in terms of intersection of caste and gender. It emphasized on how mainstream feminism and Dalit politics gave prominence to “Woman” and “Dalit” as separate categories overlooking the concept of intersectionality. Treating “Woman” and “Dalit” as exclusive categories has only benefitted upper caste women and Dalit men. Dalit feminism addresses this erasure of Dalit women by invoking intersectionality. However, intersectionality does not simply refer to the distinctiveness of Dalit women’s experiences but also identifies the differences within (Pan 2019: 29-30).
The Mahar women of Maharashtra are situated at the bottom of the hierarchical social order, they are triply marginalized: first being Dalits (caste) secondly being Poor (class) and thirdly being Women (gender). The lived-experiences of Mahar women in Maharashtra is itself a blot to the mainstream feminists’ claim that puts all women into a singular homogenous category irrespective of the social, economic, religious and cultural differences. Indian feminists’ incapability to understand the true voice of Dalit women, their elitism and blindness towards caste issues demanded the need for the emergence of Dalit feminism. The Mahar women are affected by this power dynamics operating not just through the members of the upper caste but also their own men. The caste, class, gender and religion each of them form an intersection to sustain the unequal distribution of power. For them, the situation is significantly worse since they are subjected to triple oppression because of their economic disadvantage, lower caste status, and gender (Rather 2017: 1). Further the patriarchal subjugation is dual, by their community men and by society at large (Rajput 20174: 139).
Mahar women- the last layer of Social hierarchy
“A Mahar woman was treated as a sexual object and she was available for upper caste men whenever they had sexual urge.” (Sachin 2022: 165). It was the duty of the Mahar men to offer their wives to upper caste men for sexual satisfaction in every possible manner. Sharan Kumar Limbale, an eminent Dalit activist and writer from Maharashtra, asserts in his autobiography, “The Outcaste” that his father offered his mother to several upper caste men. He wrote, “My mother was not an adulteress but the victim of a social system. I grow restless whenever I read about a rape in the newspaper, a violation anywhere in the country, I feel, is a violation of my mother.” (Limbale 2003: ix). Limbale boldly confessed that his siblings were not born from the same father. He also asserted that the degrading position of Mahar women is because of the inhuman customs and rituals fixed by the upper caste. “This shows how Mahar women were sexually exploited by upper caste Marathas.” (Anju 2018: 280). There is a mindset among the upper castes that they can do whatever they want with Mahar girls and can easily get away with it. Even today, there is a separate mohalla for the Mahar women and their families in one corner of the village at the outskirts routinely clustered in segregated hamlets, lacking the basic amenities, food, water, education, health care, access to places of public use, etc. In urban areas, their homesteads are mostly located in slums, which are commonly found in very unsanitary environments. Their subjugation in the name of religious practices like Devdasi, Jogini and various other similar practices makes them more vulnerable to violence and exploitation. It is a permanent license towards their sexual exploitation in the name of religion (Sabharwal and Sonalkar 2015: 47). Often cases of sexual assault are withdrawn by the victim herself due to external pressure without adequate protection. “Sanctioned impunity for perpetrators is a major problem in India, and the police often deny or purposefully neglect and delay women’s right to legal aid and justice.” (Vaijanath 2022: 1138).Here violence against women often goes unreported. And the consistent irregularities in criminal proceedings lead to widespread impunity creating serious hindrances towards justice for Mahar women. Even when Dalit women gain political power, such as when they are elected sarpanches, there is often no protection against societal power that sanctions violence and discrimination against them. In a village with a Dalit woman sarpanch, a Dalit woman was cremated but no action was taken. Urmila Pawar, a prolific Mahar woman writer from Maharashtra, once painstakingly said, “I was born in a backward caste in a backward region, that too a girl!” (Pawar 2003: 6). “Even in the European and North American context, among the ‘Dalits’- the most marginalized community and the lowest in the hierarchical order of the Indian Caste System- Dalit women experienced the extreme forms of exclusion in the historical processes.” (Sarvesh et al. 2021: 92). As Janaki Nair (2008) rightly points out, within the Dalit community, Dalit women’s voices in the transitional processes of the society went unheard and undocumented, and this has been seen as ‘sanctioned ignorance’ of the mainstream academia and history.
Mahar women fight!
The challenges faced by Mahar women include poverty, caste discrimination, gender discrimination, socio-economic deprivation, sexual assault, verbal abuse, domestic violence, rape. While at the same time, the persistence and unwavering spirit of Mahar women to overcome all the obstacles and survive through solidarity without male assistance in the most patriarchal society. The wounded self and dark territory of Mahar women who accept their subordinate state are trying to subvert their subordinate state into a strong, self-sufficient and respected one. The Mahar women rose to the situation in order to break all the barriers of social and cultural system and depict their problem as a Dalit and as a woman. A Dalit woman is Dalit among Dalits. She is thrice marginalized on the basis of caste, class and gender. The journey of a Mahar woman is not an ordinary journey but rather a journey from weakness to strength. They dared to stand up for change. They dared to demolish all the casteist and patriarchal institutions that use caste to bully Mahar women into submission and demonstrate that there is no hierarchical division in society rooted in the Varna system. Their desperate urge to break, throw away and destroy these chains, and when the chains were shattered into fragments, the Mahar women’s rags too got blood-stained (Malayil 2021: 5605-5607).
Conclusion
Though the tortures that the Mahar women have been subjected due to intersectional realities are separate from that of Mahar men, they are either underrepresented or misrepresented in early literature on caste as complete entities. The conspicuous absence of Mahar women’s voices has left them buried inside the mounds of patriarchal and hierarchical intersections of Indian society. The intersectional dynamics of triple marginalization based on class, caste and patriarchy faced by Mahar women could not be addressed by categorizing women as a homogenous entity. It is through the life narratives that the Mahar women are able to articulate their first-hand experiences of discrimination and exploitation. These testimonial literatures also helped them to regain their voices in the literary arena which has been missing for a long time. In spite of being the biggest democracy in the world, India still suffers from the tradition of silencing and marginalizing Dalit women’s voices. Time and again Indian democracy has to be reminded of its exclusionary policies and practices as democracy in its true and real sense can be seldom established without the inclusion of the largest marginalized section till date.
Endnotes:
i In rural areas of Maharashtra, Chawdi refers to a small community space/building where various administrative and communicative activities are conducted
ii Kulwadi is a Sudra caste community in the Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka. The National Commission for Backward Classes included the Kulwadi in the Central list of Backward Classes for Karnataka
iii The village chief is called Karbhari in Marathi
iv Bhakri is a round flatbread often eaten in the cuisines of the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka in India
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