Caste as An Inseparable Social Stigma: A Critical Study of Gujarati Dalit Short Story 'Dayan'(The Midwife)
Abstract
Dalit Literature is literary tradition that questions the authority of the mainstream literature and its discourses. It has always been seen as a tool to interrogate, to protest and to resist against the age-old orthodox traditions, caste system and the Brahmanical ideology. It represents the voices of oppressed, poor and marginalized people. As earlier, the Dalit people had no right to read, to write, to own property and to use weapon. However, with the efforts of Babasaheb Ambedkar and other social reformers, the Dalit people have started raising their voices. Moreover, the Dalit activists and writers also play significant role to enhance the confidence and to make Dalit people realize the value of self-respect. Gradually, Dalit people protest against injustice, inequality and oppression. Dalit writers through their writings show that after enduring all pain, suffering, exploitation and oppression, they survived. However, many Dalit people still have fear to question. Among them, Dalit women are the one who feel unsafe to give voice of their problems. Therefore, through this short story The Midwife, this paper tries to find the causes that hold back Dalit women to speak. It also examines how widow Dalit women lead their life without any social and economic support. Moreover, it also presents how upper-caste community treats Dalit women.
Keywords- Dalit Literature, Dalit Woman, Caste conflict, Untouchability, and Silence.
Dalit people have been put into numerous pains and suffering because of the Indian societal structures. Due to caste system, they have been deprived of their basic rights and striped them off to live their life with dignity and self-respect. Even in this age of modernization, caste consciousness is still visible but many in hidden forms. Dalit people are generally characterized as poor, dirty, illiterate and unsophisticated and due to these contributing factors, those upper-caste communities often victimize Dalits. By taking advantage of their ignorance and helplessness, upper-caste people by asserting their power and status, they exploit Dalits utmost. Dalit people do not even think more than two times food and for them basic facilities like access of water, roads etc is matter of privilege. They are not allowed to acquire knowledge, own or but property and to use weapons. Gradually, the upper-caste people make them cripple economically and make them to live on the mercy of their upper-caste masters.
In this type of circumstances, the condition of Dalit women is even more pathetic to anyone. The effects of caste system on Dalit women is devastating whether it is social or economic. They have to endure and face several kinds of exploitation and discrimination both within and outside of their community. Both upper caste male/female and male from their community are victimizing them. Therefore, Dalit women are lowest of lower or Dalits within the Dalit community. They live their life in vulnerable and insecure condition, mainly doing menial works and labouring works in farms where they are exploited more than male companions. Moreover, on that work place, they are assaulted sexually and even raped. At the same time, they are also mistreated and beaten up by males of their community. This whole picture of Dalit women talks about the depressing life they live which is full of humiliation, abuses, sexual exploitation, mental torture and marginalization.
Harish Mangalam with his works often reviews the fact that Dalit women continue to be overpowered and pushed to the margins. And through this story Dayan (The Midwife), he highlights the harsh reality of struggle and exploitation of Dalit women which they face in their everyday lives. It is not just that due to their social or economic status and their deprivation of education, they are bullying but it is Hindu scriptures and religious texts that validate this kind of act. On this context, Ruth Manorama presents her view,
In a male-dominated society, Dalit women face a triple burden of caste, class and gender. Their hardships are not simply due to their poverty, economic status or lack of education, but are a direct result of the severe exploitation and suppression by the upper classes, which is legitimized by Hindu religious scriptures. Even the killing of a Dalit woman is seen as a minor offence for the Brahmins, equal to the killing of an animal (qtd in Xavier 164)
And this type of portrayal is drawn by the writer in his short story and he also presents appalling existence of Dalit woman. Benima, a Dalit widow woman is leading character of the story. She has to face the daily insults and oppression at the hands of upper caste people. As she is woman so she is looked down upon in our society. She is looked down upon because she belongs to lower caste and she is also looked down upon because she belongs to an economically lower class. Thus, the Dalit woman is 'thrice alienated'(Paswan 18). But here in the story, Benima is 'quadruply alienated' as she is woman, she belongs to lower caste community, she has lower economic status and she is widow old woman who is not physically capable to lead her life all alone. So, it is interesting to see how she is treated by society and how her life is viewed by society as well as by herself.
The story opens up with beautiful narration of the village that located on the embankment of river Sabaramati. The writer presents the daily life of the villagers in which the peasants from Ambedkar colony left for their daily fieldwork and the school-going children and old men and women remained at home (Mangalam 95). But with this introduction, it can be seen that the Dalit people of the village are laborers who earn their living by working on the fields of the upper caste communities. As Dalit being lower caste community, they do not possess land or own a property and this make them to work on the fields of landlords. There is no scope for them to earn their living except to do this kind of laboring work. As A. Ramaiah in his essay Dalits to Benefit from Globalization Lessons from the Past for the Present writes that “landlessness has been one of the main factors responsible for the unchanging poor economic status of Dalits since Independence” (Channa 404) Hence, in order to change the economic status, Dalit has to be own land and break this chain which bind them to do slavery under their landlords. Jhinkoo Yadav also throws light on the issue of landlessness and says
The liberation of the weaker sections of the society is essentially linked with their freedom from bondage to the economic system of the villages over which mono-polistic control of the dominant castes and maintained the exploitative relations between feudal lords and their slaves, e.g. share croppers, bounded laborers and landless laborers etc., who were economically, socially and educationally too weak to protest and seek alternative livelihood (qtd in Kumar 07).
Due to this inability to own land lead Dalit people to work as laborers on the farms and fields of upper caste people. In the story, the writer also shows that 'old men and women' of the village do not go for work and they stay at home. However, the central character of the short story, Benima who is old Dalit widow has to go for work in order to lead her life. She sells mangoes in village and at the same time, she is midwife(Mangalam 95) This work of midwifery also throws light on the requirement of Dalit women to perform all the menial and impure works for the upper caste women whether it is child birth or menstruation and they do this work in low pay or sometimes nothing in reward(Shah 155). Benima who works day and night and remains bedside of upper caste pregnant woman, Pashi to attending her need till the delivery is over. Her fees consist of single coconut (Mangakam 97) This shows what Dalit women are getting in return after doing such impure or menial work. This story also questions why there is always only Dalit women to perform this kind of duties and get nothing in reward.
With the character of Benima, the writer tries to depict that those lower caste people who do not even have right to live a normal life and struggle every day to survive, they are always ready to do service of people without any expectation of getting reward. Benima whose husband had passed away, who is not physically capable enough, who is Dalit widow woman and her position is the lowest of the lower in the society still leading her life by doing service to the people who needs her. She does midwifery not to earn money but to do one kind of the service to the society. That shows that Benima is gracious and kind-hearted who is always ready to help. This selflessness somewhere is missing who has lot more to give. Still upper caste people look down upon the Dalit people because of the activities and functions they do, in order to subsist their life. In the story, after many years Benima sees Pashi and her son coming along the street. She calls out Pashi and ask for her son, in return Pashi says he is now a year and a half old. Benima calls Pashi's son out of love and care. While walking, Pashi’s son stumbles towards Benima. By seeing this, Pashi stifles and rushes towards him to stop him and says, “Dear, don’t touch Benima!” (Mangalam 99) It shows that when upper caste people need the help of doing agricultural labor, manual scavenging, street sweeping, removing human waste or dead animals, child birth and menstruation, they do not bother about from where the lower caste people belong. Same is the case here, when Pashi needs Benima to deliver a baby, she doesn’t care about Benima is untouchable. This shows the hypocrisy of society who use lower caste people as per their need. This hypocrisy is also seen when Dalit woman is raped by some upper caste member or when they are forced to practicing the role of devadasi. Usually, these devadasis belong to the Dalit community and once dedicated, the girl is unable to marry and forced to become a prostitute for upper caste community members (Qadri 312) According to Tamil Nadu state government official also, the raping of Dalit women exposes the hypocrisy of the caste system because no one practices untouchability when it comes to sex” (Keepin 145) So, the notion of untouchability is very convenient idea of upper caste people for keeping the lower caste people low socially, economically and politically. But this age-old social stigma is so deeply rooted that it is not easy for Dalit to come out their condition and status.
On this ground, some social scientists argue, "Dalits have nothing to lose. If at all they lose, it would be their misery; it would be their humiliation and social stigma"(Palanithurai 223). This misery and social stigma are very well depicted by the writer who shows the status of Dalit people by giving metaphor of mangoes. The conditions of mangoes indirectly indicate the position of people in the society. As Benima sort out the mangoes and keep them in separate piles; the good ones on one side and the bird-bitten ones on the other. The bird-bitten mangoes are cheap and are mostly bought by the Dalits of the village. (Mangalam 95) This act of buying cheap mangoes shows the low economic conditions of Dalits, which decide the social status also that is economic condition and social status go hand in hand. The economic condition of Dalits is not so well due to less job’s opportunities and the absence of employment which makes them to work under the authority of upper caste people. In this context, Kathleen Gough observes,
There is no doubt that the traditional form of caste distinction against which official propaganda is so much directed will vanish from the villages only when the old economic arrangements which allow high caste authoritarianism has been more thoroughly undermined. (qtd in Paswan and Jaideva 113)
However, people of society strongly follow the old economic patterns and they cling to caste hierarchy. Therefore, Dalit people from Ambedkar colony do not have any other option rather to work as laborers.
Moreover, upper caste communities not even consider or appreciate the works of Dalits no matter how good they are at their works. The upper caste people never recognize their skills and talents. Here, Benima's skill to sort mangoes out and her expertise in midwifery has no match but still the credit is never given to Benima. When Pashi Patlani has difficult pregnancy and she cannot endure the labor pain, Dali Patlani comes to Benima to help her sister-in-law. Benima and Dali go in hurry to see Pashi where she is in extreme pain. Her mother-in-law, Manek Doshi tells that the doctor Paresh Patel has come but he just gives her injection and tells us that she will deliver baby within two hours. He takes fifty rupees for the injection but nothing has happened yet. Later on, with the efforts of Benima, Pashi delivers baby boy without any complications. (Mangalam 96) Here with this incidence, the writer tries to present the reality of the society where the doctor, Paresh Patel who is from the same community as Pashi's family and who has enough experience to help Pashi, has nothing to do with Pashi's safe delivery but he just interested in a money. He just gives Pashi injection and leaves home by taking charge of fifty rupees. Whereas Benima who belongs to lower caste community and who is need of money as there is no financial assistance of her, has lot of concerns to Pashi or any other person in village. The sentences like 'she comes out in thrice', 'adjusting the fold of her dress, she runs with Dali', 'after feels Pashi's pulse, she turns to Mansek Doshi with fire in her eyes', 'her fees consists of a single coconut' etc. (Mangalam 96) shows that she does care of any person in village without thinking a second about herself. However, no one appreciates Benima's work who gives new life to people. Dali, Rubhi and Manju say, "It's Pashi's luck that she escapes death. Pashi herself used to say that the offering makes to Ramkabir do it”. (Mangalam 99) Here, the efforts of Benima do not get the appreciations but people of society believe that it is luck and offering to God saves the life of Pashi. It is just because Benima’s traditional occupation and work which is impure and filthy in the eyes of upper caste people. Harsh Mander in his essay titled Status of Dalits and Agenda for State Intervention also says that “to pursue traditional occupations such as removing dead animals and night soils, scavenging, sweeping, tanning, selling skins and bones etc-such occupational diversity however has marginal impact on their social status in rural society” (qtd in Shah 144)
Moreover, Benima also gets humiliations once her work is over. People of the village forget that it is Benima who rescues someone from death and gives new life. Another incident also happens in which one little boy insult her. When Benima going on her round of village, carrying the basket of mangoes on her head. On the way, beneath the shade of a banyan tree, some little boys are playing. As Benima passes, they shout at her, "Hey, you scavenger woman. Go away. You will pollute us. Can't you look where you are going?"(Mangalam 100) The boy name is Daylo, a son of Dali whom Benima saved four years ago from the death. Now he is humiliating and molest Benima by calling her polluted when she passes by him. Though she is far away from him enough that she cannot touch him.
However, Benima after hearing all the humiliations, she remains calm and polite even towards those who insult her. She never says no to anyone and never thinks to stop giving service though she cannot get money out of midwifery. Throughout the story, Benima comes out as strong, caring and kind-hearted woman but somewhere she feels weighs down. In order to present the psychological condition of Benima, the writer in this story uses symbol of 'dark stifling attic' and 'dark terrific cloud'(Mangalam 100). Benima spends her day in a dark stifling attic where she finds herself safe. Somewhere this darkness becomes the part of her life and she accepts it. This darkness does not accompany her just in her room but it also comes when she goes out for selling mangoes. "When she looks up at the sky. The sun is no longer a bright ball of light. Dark terrifying clouds has enveloped it" (Mangalam 100). The writer indirectly depicts that social stigma, low economic status, untouchability, violence etc are the symbol of this darkness, which becomes integral part of Dalits' life and they accept that they cannot escape from it rather to embrace it.
Works Cited
Meghana Babulal Dalwaniya, Central University of Gujarat. meghanadalwaniya90@gmail.com