Fwd: Mayawati: Caste Anxieties and Patriarchal Fears

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From: Round Table India <contact@roundtableindia.co.in>
Date: Tue, May 1, 2012 at 8:35 AM
Subject: Mayawati: Caste Anxieties and Patriarchal Fears
To: Palash <palashbiswaskl@gmail.com>

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Round Table India For an Informed Ambedkar Age Dear Palash, Feature Mayawati: Caste Anxieties and Patriarchal Fears Continued from here. Her roofless abode gives her a clear view of the fields and the village she guards over. She is my paternal family's deity, revered as a force of nature as are the scores of female gods of the Shudra, Atishudra and Adivasi cultures. Her free spirited nature echoes the attitude of another goddess in Siddalingaiah's narrative of village deities: one who refuses a temple with a door, saying, 'I would like to go and come as I please.' Within the timeless non-brahamincal world, female iconography is rendered in ways whereby it is 'her gaze' which is anxiously worried over, as it could mean, protection, forgiveness and peace. From the 10th and 11th centuries AD onwards, with the onset of large scale temple building activities, female iconography begins to appear on temple panels. Here the female form is rendered through the brahmanical male gaze, though the imagery itself is not inspired by brahmin women. From Multan to Somnath, from Konark to Hoysala to Thanjavur temples, all of them bear sculptures that have been inspired by the temple-women, drawn almost exclusively from the shudra and atishudra castes. These visuals radiate the highly disciplined intellect and body literacy of these subjugated, ancestral dalitbahujan women. Throughout the ages, the collectives of temple-women were known to be rigorous knowledge producers, surpassing the productivity of the best universities, bequeathing to the subcontinent, civilization-sustaining bodies of knowledge. Yet, for us, the images are life size portrayals of women manacled by caste and patriarchy. Contemporary dalitbahujan women are often ambiguous about celebrating these images as immortal style icons of amazing grace and ability. This visual history highlights an ancient struggle in progress-- against caste, the father of all hegemonies. Read More Perspective Twin blows to OBCs Kancha Ilaiah The backward class politicians failed in forcing the government to undertake a caste-wise census of all sections. The Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the country have had two setbacks in the recent political manoeuvring of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. The pushing of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha and also starting the process of census without initiating the caste-based enumeration of population that gets released in 2011. On both these issues the OBC leadership of the nation has not shown enough strength and imagination to counter the strategies of the ruling Congress. The Congress party was clever enough to work out its strategy around a bill that has a national moral appeal to various sections of people in the country to counter the rise of the OBC political forces. Read More History Women played a major role in Dr. Ambedkar's movement: Baby Kamble [This is the second part of excerpts from an interview with Baby Kamble conducted by Maya Pandit, originally published as part of the English version of her autobiography ('The Prisons We Broke')]  Continued from here. How did you think of writing your autobiography? (Laughs.) It so happened that I used to sit in the shop at the counter. I used to have plenty of time on my hands. There were books that came along with the old newspapers we bought for packing. Some of them were story books and I began to read them. Many contained stories about gods and their great deeds. But gradually I started feeling very angry because the stories were all wrong. Consider for instance, the story of Vrinda, a Shudra princess. Read More Current News Police accused of ignoring cases of atrocities against SCs and STs Members of Dalit organisations on Sunday accused Urwa police of not registering cases of atrocities on people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Participating in a meeting convened by police... Read More... Confederation to launch forum for creating Dalit entrepreneurs All India Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Organisations will float a confederation of Dalit entrepreneurs for strengthening economic power of Dalits, according to Udit Raj, national... Read More... Dalit woman who set herself on fire, dies The 26-year-old dalit woman, who had set herself on fire on Thursday after accusing a former village sarpanch of harassing her, succumbed to her injuries on Friday. Amandeep Kaur, a resident of Dhudi village... Read More... HC pats Asra Garg for uniting dalits and caste Hindus MADURAI: Madurai rural SP, Asra Garg came in for praise from the Madurai bench of the Madras high court for creating unity among caste Hindus and dalits of nearby Villoor village, who were at loggerheads... Read More... The Shared Mirror - reflections in poetry and prose I am the Yanadi I put the whole village to sleep While spending sleepless nights, I keep guard over the roads leading to the village While Brahma Jemudus grow in the path... Immortality   The seed, dying, promised the crop   The little flower, withering, promised the fruit, with a smile,   The forest, burning, promised the conflagration   The sunset,... Dalita Naaniis Gujarat is an experiment to see if a state would grow when you sow blood ~~~   I've always kept my heart's doors open for Dalits among Brahmins... Opinion In school, biases remain entrenched KV Lakshmana & Rahul Karmakar For Dalit students in Perali village in Tamil Nadu's Perambalur district, the route to school is long and dangerous. To reach the Government Higher Secondary School in the village, they need to carefully avoid streets that run through upper caste neighbourhoods. They must instead risk the busy traffic of a highway as they circle these localities. Violating the village's unofficial diktat could cost Dalit families their employment, as upper caste communities control most of the economic opportunities even in the state that, for the past four decades, has seen politics centred on backward communities. As India strives to send every child to school under the Right to Education Act, students from traditionally deprived or minority communities face disadvantages that deny them an equal opportunity at quality education. Read More Write to us We invite all our readers to send in their feedback, and contribute their own articles to us at contact@roundtableindia.co.in