JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 2, Issue 11, December 2014

THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MAHAR DALIT SITUATION IN BABY

JASPAL SINGH*
DR. PARVEEN KAUR KHANNA**
DR. ARVIND KHANNA***

*Research Scholar, English, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, A CFTI & Deemed University,
Punjab, India
**Associate Professor, Dept. of Management & Humanities, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, A
CFTI & Deemed University, Punjab, India
***Professor, Postgraduate Department of English, Govt. Mohindra College, Patiala, India

ABSTRACT
The Prisons We Broke (2008) is an English translation of Jina Amacha (1985), a
Marathi text by Baby Kamble. The text which has been translated by Prof. Maya Pandit, is in
fact, a narrative of pain dealing with the lives of Mahar men and women in Veergaon,
Kambles village in the state of Maharashtra. The personal elements in this text are relegated
to the background and hence the text is an authentic documentation of the lives of Mahars.
The paper makes an attempt to reveal the plight of the Mahar community in the Pre-
Ambedkar era and the positive change that took place in the life of the Mahars after the onset
of this movement. One of the most ironical things which emerges about Dalit women is that
they dont have security in their own homes. They can be rightly called as the most
vulnerable community in Indian contexts because of the social, cultural, and economic crisis
in their lives. The two factors of caste and patriarchy are very much dominant in the lives of
dalit women all over India. The paper also makes an attempt to reveal the fact that Dalit
women here have to face both Brahmanic as well as Dalit patriarchy. However, this narrative
shows agency in the lives of Dalit women which helps them in emerging as the agents of
transformation in their community. It is not the change but the degree of change that can
transform their life in a better way.

KEYWORDS: Dalit women, Mahars, Dalit Patriarchy, Brahmanic Patriarchy

The Dalit Panthers movement which was spearheaded by the male writers like Namdeo
Dhasal and Raja Dhale in 1972 in Maharashtra, was least concerned about the rights of the
dalit women and this type of development indicates that dalit patriarchy is very much visible
like that of Brahmanic patriarchy. It was only in 1980s that dalit women writers like Baby
Kamble, Urmila Pawar and later on Bama and P.Shivakami plunged into the literary world to
give an expression to an age long suppression. The works of these writers echo the common

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JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 2, Issue 11, December 2014

idea that the dalit women suffer from the triple oppression of caste, class and gender and
hence, get a little chance to explore the greener pastures.

Further all the feminists share one common goal that is to challenge essentialist gender
identities (Beginning Postmodernism: 44). However, the idea of global sisterhood is not of
much relevance in Indian feminist contexts because Indian women have to grapple with
different issues unlike their western counterparts. In India the term Feminism in itself is
problematic because it does not deal with the issues of all categories of women, e.g., the
phenomenon of Brahmanical Feminism as mentioned by Anupama Rao in her book Gender
and Caste, for instance, does not identify with the dalit feminism because both of them are
entirely different in terms of ideology and perspective.

Post colonialism challenges the world of inequalities that once in the past deprived people of
enjoying fundamental rights of their lives. In this context, Young States It refuses to
acknowledge the superiority of western culture. Its radical agenda is to demand equality and
well-being for all human beings on this earth (Post colonialism: A very Short Introduction:
7). But the reality is that the gap between rich and poor has widened in the recent times with
the advent of global and neo-global scenario. As far as the Indian social set-up is concerned,
the dalits are still the lesser sons and daughters of God. Dalits, all over India, are the victims
of oppression that is both epistemic and hereditary that perpetuates the agony by resorting to
both violent and non-violent means. Dalits are suffering from the double burden of being
poor and being dalit. For dalit women, the situation is even worse, as they suffer from the
triple oppression of being women, poor and low caste. August Babel called the women the
first human being to come into bondage. She was a slave before the male slave existed
(quoted in Haunted by Fire: 404). But what about dalit women who can rightly be termed as
the slaves of slaves.

The text under analysis reveals the plight of the Mahar community in the Pre-Ambedkar era
and the transformation that took place after the advent of the Ambedkar movement. The
feminist slogan Personal is political had least relevance in the lives of dalit women even
after the appearance of B.R. Ambedkar. Those were the times when the Mahar community in
the state of Maharashtra was living like primitives. Their standard of living was tantamount
to the savages living in jungles in most obnoxious way. One of the most uncivilised practices

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Impact Factor 1.625, ISSN: 2320-5083, Volume 2, Issue 11, December 2014

among the Mahars was to eat the meat of the dead buffalo with much fanfare and gusto
during the occasion of amawasya The buffalo fair was the centre of attraction among all
the age groups of Mahar community.

The text explores how the Brahmanic domination had turned the Mahars as good as animals.
The Dalit women shown in this text emerge as sandwiched between the Brahmanic and Dalit
patriarchy. Maya Pandit in the introduction to the novel states If the Mahar community is the
other for the Brahmins, Mahar women become the other for the Mahar men (XV). The
Prisons We Broke demonstrates the Democratic Patriarchy as propounded by Iliah Kancha
in her book Why I am not a Hindu. This type of patriarchal set-up gives the authority to wife
not to make herself an easy prey to her husbands dictates that are in the form of pervasive
and coercive ideology. But here in this text, the dalit patriarchy is not democratic patriarchy
of Pandit. In fact, the Dalit patriarchy as represented by Kamble in her self-narrative is the
one in which Dalit men have become the beacons of brutality against their own wives and
daughters. The text shows the extreme types of exploitation that the dalit women have to face
from the dalit patriarchal forces. One of the worst forms of exploitation was to chop off the
nose of dalit women who did not abide by the patriarchal norms. The Devdasi system also
gets some space in this narrative. Mahar women could never resist the inhuman treatment
meted out to them by their own husbands. The mark of kumkum on the forehead of these
women becomes more precious than a kohinoor diamond. This mark of kumkum thus
becomes a symbol of servitude.

This text depicts the Mahar Dalit women in a strange condition in which they have to appease
both the high caste Hindus and their own Mahar men. The writer narrates the saga of her
maharwada women who had to sell firewood to the high caste community to make both the
ends meet. They were not allowed tread upon the road that was frequented by the high castes.
However, their entry into the high caste community was possible because of the firewood that
they carried to that prohibited area for sale. On the way, they had to cover themselves if they
happened to see the high castes coming down the road. They also had to bow before them in
most humble manner and utter the words The humble Mahar women fall at your feet
master (52). Even a small child belonging to high caste community was given the same kind
of treatment. Sometimes newly-wedded girls in the group of old women would fail to join the
other women in this act of humble submission. Their failure to join the chant would make the

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master furious and hence all the Mahars were summoned to the Mahar chawdi and the new
brides cursed for not showing respect to the higher castes. Consequently they had to face the
ire of their sasra, sasu, who threatened them in the most abusive language. Thus it was a
complete surrender to Brahmanic patriarchy and its ideology.
These women wear ragged saris. The clothes were worn as per the caste of a woman. The
Mahar women could never muster courage to wear saris like high caste women. These ladies
of low birth had to tuck the pleats of the sari in such a way that the borders could remain
invisible where as the high caste women were recognised by wearing saris with their borders
remaining visible.

The ceremony of marriage, which again depicted the suppression of a brides family was a
spectacular site to watch in the Mahar community. The bride and the groom had to pass
through strange and cumbersome marriage rituals and the brides father had to bear all the
expenses. They had to reach grooms home a day earlier than the marriage. The marriage was
a mega event lasting for eight days. The bathing ritual was nothing short than a comic event.
The bride and the groom were made to sit on a wooden board in the courtyard with two huge
pots placed in both sides and the bride was rolled around in the muddy water by his brothers
till she was fully besmeared with mud. After this event, the bride and groom were not
allowed to walk for five days. A Brahmin priest had the prerogative to solemnise the
marriage ceremony. It was just an empty ritual for him because he was just there for money
and the fear of being polluted haunted his mind and compelled him to maintain a distance.

The text also presents the example of travesty of the institution of marriage in dalit
community where girls are married off before attaining the age of puberty. The writer was
herself married at the age of thirteen. The text also reveals the plight of the newly wedded
Mahar girls who had to go through various types of suppression and violence. Their ordeal
started after the very first day of the marriage. The very first job of the newly-wedded
daughter-in-law was to prepare bhakris so that she could prove her culinary skills and get
acclaimed for that act. She had to do all the household chores without being given the chance
of making any complaints and further suffer the exploitation by their mothers-in-law who
used to vent out their retaliation in the form of abusive language. Further these women were
just depicted as child producing machines. Their prime duty was to look after the domestic
chores and produce children A mahar woman would continue to give birth till she reached

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menopause (82). It is one of the ironies that some people die by overeating and others by
under eating. The Mahar women described in this text have been shown to be the victims of
malnourishment after the act of delivery. They had to contend with only the gruel made from
jowar. The midwives performed their jobs without any professional skill.

The text deconstructs the Brahmanic myths which controlled the dalits with the help of
epistemic forms of violence. No doubt now a days deconstructionism is in fashion. It helps in
re-interpreting literary text from a different angle to explore the other side of the total reality.
Gail Omvedt states Reinterpretation and debates concerning the traditions of Gandhi and
Nehru, as well as those of Ambedkar, Phule, and Periyar will go on, but so different is the
situation from the colonial period that Ram raj is no longer a viable ideal in India today any
more than Nehruvian socialism ( Dalit Visions: 101 ).

As has been observed by the author, Mahar men and women never ever made an attempt to
defy the dictates of Hinduism. Whatever the circumstances, their complete surrender to the
Hindu gods and goddesses were one of the main causes of their sorry state of affairs. They
were the blind followers of the Hindu gods and goddesses and never dared to challenge their
authority. But the winds of change started blowing when Ambedkar, the true hero of dalits
persuaded them to shed all forms of slavery and start leading their lives afresh with a tinge of
hope and better future. He also inspired the people not to worship gods and goddesses like
family deity khandoba because they have always brought discomfort to their lives.
Ambedkar also stressed upon the idea that ignorance and superstition have always been the
main culprits for their sorry state of affairs. He also exhorted them to improve their eating
habits My poor dear brothers and sisters do not eat carcasses any more (65). He also made
women realize that they had the power to empower their children by sending them to school.
Now the Mahars for the first time became more assertive and aggressive and clearly it was
the result of Ambedkars radical ideology. They started mispronouncing the name of Gandhi
as Gandi deliberately in order to belittle the importance of his name in front of high caste
people. Ambedkar directed the Mahars to challenge the given social and cultural hegemony
of the Brahmanism. Sharmila Rege states Both Phule and Ambedkar underlined the
historical character of caste based exploitation, rejected the varna order and suggested
annihilation of caste as the only path to an egalitarian society ( Writing Caste, Writing
Gender: 37).

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In this text the meta-narratives of Brahmanism have been challenged because they have been
responsible for the sad state of affairs of Dalits for thousands of years. Now it is the age of
local narratives that poses threats to Brahmanism and patriarchy. The Brahminical concepts
like Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram have come under the scanner of Dalit writers. The principle
of beauty does not give any importance to the black skin of a Dalit. Here Sharankumar
Limbale makes a pertinent remark In fact, the aesthetic concept of satyam, shivam,
sundaram is the selfish mechanism of upper caste Hindu society. It is necessary to replace
this conception of aesthetics with one that is material and social (Towards an Aesthetics of
Dalit Literature: 21)
The binaries of purity/pollution accentuate asymmetrical relationships between mahars and
upper castes. And the text throws the hint that mahars too can feel the glimpses of modernity
in their otherwise savage and inglorious lives. Ambedkar tried to challenge the ideology and
perspective of Brahmanism. And the text shows the verbal battle between mahars and higher
castes in a more aggressive and violent way when they start hurling abuses at the leaders of
their respective communities. Mahars could never tolerate any ill-will against their leader
Dada Sahib Ambedkar and Gandhi was dear to the higher castes. It is interesting to note that
the writer makes use of the word Bhimrekha instead of Lakshmanrekha just to obliterate
the Hindu symbols. Here Sharankumar Limbale needs to be evoked Rama the killer of
Shambuka, cannot be our ideal. Gita and Mahabharata, which support the caste system,
cannot be honoured by us( 34 ). Ambedkars philosophy however again started losing its
impact as the Mahars started living Hindu way of life which was once discarded by
Ambedkar and his followers and once again the author seems to lament that. In fact, the
domination of Brahminism is so strong that a Mahar seems to be incapable of coming out of
its shackles.

Works Cited
1. Bebel, August. Woman Under Socialism. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.
2. Kamble, Baby. The Prisons We Broke. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2011.
3. Limbale, Sharankumar. Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature: History, Controversies and
Considerations. New Dellhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2014.
4. Omvedt, Gail. Dalit Visions. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2012.
5. Rege, Sharmila. Writing Caste, Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Womens Testimonies. New
Delhi. Zubaan, 2013.
6. Sivaraman, Mythily. Haunted by Fire: Essays on Caste, Class, Exploitation and
Emancipation. New Delhi : LeftWord Books, 2013.
7. Woods, Tim. Beginning Postmodernism. New Delhi: Viva Books, 2010.

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