Manu in our midst

– Mirapa Madhavi

What is the status of Dalit women
students in the University of
Hyderabad? What do they want it to be? What is their position in the Dalit associations on the campus and how do these associations treat them? Before we begin to answer these questions, let us get to know a little about the conditions in which the Dalit women students enter this particular campus.
Compared to fifteen years ago, the number of Dalit women students on the campus has increased substantially. Then, there would be only five or ten in the whole university. Now, three to five women join each department and discipline. In a year, anywhere between a hundred to two hundred Dalit and Adivasi girls are entering the University of Hyderabad campus. They come from different parts of the country. Some are from urban areas while others are from rural hinterlands. As everyone is aware, once their ‘caste’ is known, behavior towards them changes. A few students understand this discrimination while others don’t. Those who understand discrimination suffer mental agony. As the discrimination is not direct, it takes a while for them to understand its form and workings. Dalit women students face gender discrimination in the hostels, departments and vis-a-vis other students.  In addition they face it from Dalit male students too.

Hostels

In the women’s hostels it is rare to find Dalit and non-Dalit students living in a friendly atmosphere and treating each other with mutual respect. There is a tendency to accuse Dalit students of pilfering or creating disturbance. There are many ways in which non-Dalit students ill-treat and even exploit their Dalit roommates: for instance, refusing access to cupboards meant to be used by both room mates, and not allowing the latter’s friends to enter the room. Moreover, the non-Dalit students often push the responsibility of keeping the room clean onto the Dalit students. In all such situations, Dalit students often take the support of their seniors in dealing with them.
Major differences between Dalit and non-Dalit students often do not come out in public.  However, seemingly insignificant issues and also those which cannot be made public keep surfacing in the hostel on a regular basis. There are many instances where, whenever things go missing, non-Dalit students suspect their Dalit roommates of either stealing them or giving them away to someone else. Such suspicions and allegations come up among non-Dalit residents only with respect to their Dalit roommates. When two non-Dalit students live as roommates, issues get settled between them. Non-Dalit students don’t get accused as quickly and as often as Dalit students do.
What do Dalit women students do when they face sexual harassment in the departments?
Dalit women students face harassment from both Dalit and non-Dalit faculty members. In case of harassment from non-Dalit faculty (supervisors), they first try to keep the issue under wraps in order to complete the course. When it becomes unbearable, they informally complain to the heads of departments, who face the predicament of protecting the students while keeping the matter away from the rest of the faculty. Usually, the heads recommend other faculty members to take on these students or decide to supervise them themselves.
When the harassment is from the Dalit faculty, Dalit women students are faced with a difficult dilemma – there is an inability to face the harassment but also a reluctance to seek support from others. Someone who has to complain about sexual harassment from a Dalit faculty member feels immensely hesitant. She fears that such a complaint would harm the career prospects of the Dalit men who have just begun to enter the higher education sector. They take the onus of protecting the community men from possible harm and punishment from their non-Dalit colleagues. In other words, Dalit women think very deeply about the community. But, how are they perceived by the Dalit men on the campus? While the Dalit male students jump to support their women colleagues when there is harassment from the non-Dalits, they refuse to even discuss or respond – internally – when the said harassment is from the Dalit students or the faculty. There are instances where some male students supported their male colleagues and faculty involved in such harassment. Such unnecessary extension of support has led to a wrong perception among the University community that Dalit students and Dalits in general support sexual harassment. Thoughtless support by some students for unbecoming behavior of one or two students or faculty becomes an excuse for non-Dalits to blame the entire Dalit community.
When it comes to relations among men and women students in the University, there is a lot of tension and conflict around friendship and romantic relationships. Quite a few Dalit men turn their back on their girlfriends when it comes to marriage after a long relationship. Some marriages have occurred under pressure from the Dalit women and even under the threat of a police case. Dalit men don’t normally behave in this manner when the girl friends happen to be non-Dalit. They fear the consequences. Though it is not necessary that all relationships should lead to marriage, these conflicts and tension do have a huge impact on the careers and lives of Dalit women students who are just entering the portals of higher education.
Dalit women experience sexual harassment from both from Dalit men and non-Dalit men. While the former readily lend support in case the harassment is from non-Dalits, Dalit men are yet to recognize that dilemma and agony caused by Dalit men who harass Dalit women. Instead, these men look down upon women complainants.
The participation of women in Dalit associations is very poor – usually in the ratio of 1:3. The decision-making power lies in the hands of the men. Such unequal participation demonstrates the extent to which Dalit women are discriminated against in the Hyderabad university campus.
Dalit men and women enter the campus with dreams of a wonderful future. Once they enter the campus they are sure to get influenced (positively or negatively) by the different culture they see on the campus. The question is how these men and women who come from different Dalit cultures in India perceive the campus culture? Non-Dalit students have the wherewithal to deal with any negative influence. When the Dalit students do get influenced negatively, there is a tendency on the campus to see them only as representatives of their specific communities, rather than seeing it as part of the general trend. In a similar vein, there is a tendency to attribute their mistakes also to their community. Non-Dalits (and sometimes, Dalits too) ignore the fact that it is natural for Dalit students to change once they join the university and get influenced by the culture here.
In our society, both Dalit men and women are waging the battle between received caste culture and the new Dalit consciousness. No one has yet come out of this battle unscathed. Both men and women get badly injured. When they come out of the villages and families, they develop the consciousness to think of social change and question caste oppression. Dalit women and men compare themselves and each other with non-Dalit men and women. In the process, women also acquire the ability to take decisions on their own. But, the men are not able to accept their growth and their ability to question social norms. They complain that women are bent upon always questioning what they do. This triggers many questions in the minds of the Dalit women: On what basis are these complaints being made? How do they imagine women should be? What kind of boundaries and limits are being imposed on Dalit women? Thus Dalit women and men enter the university as equals in the same manner and with similar capabilities.  They learn the same subjects and get similar marks. But, when it comes to working together, a situation of mutual blame arises. Why have such conditions arisen? Isn’t there a need to discuss this predicament? Why do Dalit men forget that their women colleagues have inherited the legacy of working alongside them in the fields? Do they have objections to the entry of women into the fields of knowledge and education? If they had, they wouldn’t have fought for reservations for Dalit women in the university, would they?1  Have they not noticed that Dalit women are waging a lonely battle in the University?
What has led to this situation? Is it the Manu in our midst? Or is it conformism to the existing social norms? Do they also feel that Dalit women should follow the laws of Manu? We are burning the Manusmriti on the ground that it denies any rights to women and to the ‘lower’ castes. But how do we bury Manu’s ideas which have entered our heads without our knowledge?
Dalit women are reaching the University challenging all kinds of violence in the society. When they are denied the freedom and position to articulate the harassment and discrimination that they face on the campus, their identity and existence still remain problematic.
Questions of Dalit women’s identity in HCU campus are not new.  During the past 10-15 years several Dalit women scholars like Challapalli Swaroopa Rani, Jelli Indira, Swathy Margaret, Ratna, Sowjanya, and Samaanya have written about, theorized and challenged existing ideas about Dalit women. The questions that they raised in their unique ways still trouble their younger counterparts today. They are yet to enter the ‘public’ discussion in the Dalit community on the campus. I hope that such a process begins at least now!

Translated by A. Suneetha

Madhavi is a short term fellow at Anveshi

Notes:
1. Joint Action Committee, “Negotiating Gender and Caste: A Struggle in Hyderabad Central University”, in Economic and Political Weekly October 28, 2000, 3845-48.