A reflection from the first ever Dalit Literature Festival in Chicago
It’s been a whirlwind of a Dalit History Month in April! I wrote several pieces for major publications, traveled to Chicago for the first ever (!) Dalit Literature Festival and then again to Syracuse to deliver a keynote at the South Asia’s Publics Symposium at Syracuse University.
Many of you might also know that I’ve been involved with the efforts around the New York State Caste Bill, which is currently under consideration in state legislature and if passed could make New York the first state in the country to have caste protection laws in the books. So much has happened in the last few months and I can’t wait to update you all about it.
But I want to start with the address for the panel on Gender and Caste, that I spoke in at the Dalit Literature Festival with Prof Shailaja Paik and Dr. Helen Chukka. Despite the provocation being on a slightly different subject, it was revealing that all three of us ended up addressing the same issue in our reflections — the state of Dalit women inside our own Dalit communities. Dr Paik — who I have written about on this Substack — talked about how Dalit women are often overlooked even within our own spaces, and ironically, how her work, which spans two decades became popular among Dalit communities only after she won the McArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ Grant.
In my address, I wrote about the absence of Dalit women from leadership in movement spaces, barring a few prominent examples like Equality Labs’ Thenmozhi Soundarajan. This is also why I’m so thrilled to be among the leading voices on the New York Caste Bill, which is a Dalit femme led effort, introduced by firebrand Dalit lawyer, Swati Sawant and organized by community activists like Shalini (more on that soon).
Me (left) with Swati Sawant and Pabitra Dash from Adhikaar at the AAARI CUNY Asian American Symposium on May 15
I’m grateful to my friend Pushkar Sharma from SACRED Chicago and Obed Manwatkar, along with the Midwest Ambedkarites, who organized this momentous gathering and invited me to participate in the festival. A special shoutout to Obed, who ensured that our voices were included as central to the celebration and who encouraged us as Dalit women, to speak our truth, even in the face of palpable discomfort.
Here is the reflection in full:
Dear friends, comrades and attendees at the first Dalit Literature Festival. I’m beyond honored to participate and be in conversation with Dr Shailaja Paik, Dr Helen Chukka and Kshitija Chavan, who is moderating today. Before we move ahead with the conversation, let me acknowledge the historic nature of this moment, where Dalit women and our voices are centered so assertively as part of this broader conversation of Dalit Literature.
Dalit women have been historically marginalized not only within the larger Brahminical structures, within the Savarna feminist movement but also, and yes, there can be no better place to say it, even within mostly male-dominated Dalit spaces. Before we address the persistent focus on representation that become the precondition for a visible feminism in this neoliberal hellscape, I think it’s even more crucial for us to address the issue that is closer to all of us, both literally and figuratively. The presence and participation of Dalit women within Dalit spaces has no doubt increased over the last several years. The existence of this panel within this gathering is far from the only example. Yet, based on many experiences that I have both witnessed and undergone, it is safe to say that while Dalit women in movement spaces are encouraged, their leadership within our own communities is at best tolerated.
The Dalit movement, as we know and understand it, takes shape in academia, as we are all gathered here to witness. But it also takes place on the streets, in community meetings, on social media and inside our homes. There have been countless instances where we find Dalit women expected to carry out the ‘consigned feminine’ roles of organizing events, cooking for gatherings, managing decorations but more or less excluded from rooms where decisions actually happen, and where their presence/our presence would challenge the gender dynamic that sadly still continues to take hold in our movement spaces.
The panel on Caste and Gender at the Dalit Literature Festival in Chicago; Dr Shailaja Paik (left), Me, Dr Helen Chukka (center) and Dr Obed Manwatkar; April 18
Just a few weeks ago, the shocking story of Cesar Chavez, the pioneering movement leader of Latino Civil Rights and an enduring champion of farm workers broke in the New York Times. Chavez, whose work had elevated him to a godlike status within his communities, was accused of sexual abuse by several women and young children who had come in contact with him over the years, including by his closest aide and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers union he had founded, Dolores Huerta. The story which was published in the New York Times after five years of relentless investigative work highlights a chilling account of the ways in which Huerta and countless other women were silenced and ignored for years, just to preserve and maintain the legacy of what was then considered a fragile and deeply crucial movement. If you haven’t read that story, I would highly encourage you to do so.
Not because there is a one-to-one parallel between that and what happens within our own movement spaces. But because it shows in incredibly clarifying detail, how marginalized women within movement spaces are devalued, ignored and forced maintain silence for quote, unquote the greater good. It forces us to question the deep discomfort we feel with contrarian ideas, especially when they are espoused and originated from women whose identities make them further marginalized in a group of already marginalized communities. And it makes us wonder about the instinctive knee-jerk reactions that we exhibit in respond to Dalit women who fail to conform to the communal ideas of intellect, hierarchy, performance and even morality.
These ideas, this distinction that I’m referring to here – this instinct that many of us have to either question or disbelieve ideas when they come from Dalit women. Or expect a much more stringent and punitive moral code that unrelentingly punishes them for not following the agreed upon coda of how a Dalit women should behave. This behavior is not merely abstract. Neither is it limited to an academic symposium where speakers can lament about the marginalization of Dalit women in beautifully lit halls in front of packed audiences, and then go back to practicing the same hierarchies within our spaces, that we accuse Savarna spaces of following. Only to return next year and do it all over again. These are real habits, conditioning and behaviors that impact the day-to-day functioning and existence of Dalit women inside of the Dalit movement.
There are countless Dalit women I personally know, who have stepped out of our spaces because they have suffered exclusion, erasure and silencing from their own, from our own people. I have heard of stories of Dalit male only spaces that fall silent when a Dalit women enters the room. Music that is turned off when Dalit women stand up to dance in a room filled with mostly men. Ideas that get rejected for being too ‘out there’ when they come from Dalit women. But which become immediately acceptable when a Dalit man proposes them. And I’m not talking about tokenization either. Sure, we can all point to a handful of Dalit women who are allowed to exist within the narrow patriarchal and hierarchical structures and even elevated to upper echelons of power when their gender identities conveniently serve the purpose of assimilation.
But what about challenging the very same power structures that still privilege the leadership of Dalit men over Dalit women. Not just when it comes to talking about feminism or Dalit rights but the future of the entire Dalit movement. Where are the Dalit women leaders whose voices can unfurl Dalit imagination and creativity and give rise to a future that is encompassing of the kind of brilliance that seems impossible to conceive? The answer: they are everywhere. Look around you. No, seriously. Take a minute and scan the room and see the Dalit women, nonbinary folks and femmes who carry the brilliance to change the conversation of Dalit rights as we know it. Many of them are right here on this panel with us. It is no accident that as a movement we feel more ease in accepting the contributions and leadership of incredible thinkers and intellectuals if they happen to be white women compared to one of our very own. It took a “genius grant” to recognize the excellence of Dr Shailaja Paik but even today her ideas find resistance within some of our own spaces. Or acknowledge the incredible power of Dr Chukka’s words, as they ring with wisdom and divinity. Which is why, I’m so grateful to this space at Dalit Literature Festival, to Obed Manwatkar, to Sacred, Midwest Ambedkarites, AKSC and all community partners for finally recognizing the power of Dalit women’s voices beyond ‘women’s issues’ into leaders of our movement. Let us reject the same Brahminical structures that keep us all subjugated and stop holding back Dalit women and femmes from their rightful place as the leaders of Dalit movements everywhere. We cannot replicate the same structures that we desire to seek freedom from. The time has come to change that.
Jai Savitri, Jai Bhim.
I’m grateful for all the tremendous support I’ve received here in the last few weeks of my absence. I’m incredibly proud of this space that we have built together.
My decision to continue reporting on the Mamdani campaign when most media outlets did not consider it a big story led me to write the cover story for City and State New York’s Asian Trailblazers issue, a rare honor for an independent journalist. It has also allowed me to expand my reporting to include local political stories on my Instagram and for other outlets.
My piece on Zohran Mamdani’s multi-religious identity in the May 4th print and online issue of City and State New York
It was because of my work on this Substack that I was able to generate a beat of local reporting that didn’t exist before. And I’m immensely thankful to all you readers who have supported me throughout.
I’m planning to release a lot more reporting here in the coming few weeks, including pieces I’ve done on the New York Caste Bill and beyond. Stay tuned for so much more to come! We’re finally cooking with gas.
Yashica Dutt
Courtesy : Substack
Note: This news is originally published on https:/substack.com/bha and is used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, especially human rights