New Delhi: Pune-raised Shailja Paik has received a ‘Genius Grant’ worth $800,000 as a ‘MacArthur Fellow’. Pack, 50, now teaches at the University of Cincinnati. She is doing research on the challenges faced by Dalit women. Pike’s work is getting a lot of appreciation. Their inbox is filled with emails and their schedule is jam-packed. People are talking about him/her even on social media. But Pike is unfazed by all this. She is concentrating on her research. Here are some excerpts from the conversation with Shailja Paik.

What was the experience of winning a MacArthur Genius Grant like for you?
I am very happy and pleased with this highest honour. This is a great recognition of my hard work. As an Indian American woman, I am extremely grateful to be included in this group of talented, creative people in America. I already have several book projects. I am working on my third monograph which will probably be titled ‘Caste Supremacy and Normative Sexuality in Modern India’. I also have a few co-edited books I’m working on. There is a Dalit Pathak, where I will translate historical documents from Marathi to English. I think this should be a great resource for people who want to be able to connect to these primary sources. I am also working on a co-edited book titled ‘Caste, Ethnicity and Indigeneity in South Asia and Beyond’. I am collaborating with around 24 international scholars working across multiple disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, geography, religious studies and women’s and gender studies.
How did your childhood influence your work?
Growing up in Pune, my family came from a particular social and economic background and had limited resources. But I always thank my parents and uncle who focused on education. Education and getting out of the slums became a chapter in my first book. Education became a magic wand not only for me but for millions of people. Higher education opens up a lot of possibilities
Your previous book focused on the Tamasha artistes of Maharashtra, how do you view it?
I call this the ‘sex-gender-caste’ complex in my book ‘The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality and Humanity in Modern India’. I analyzed how caste intersects with gender and sexuality and oppresses women, especially marginalized women. I focused on Dalit Tamasha women. They have to fight double discrimination due to both caste and gender. They were under constant threat of sexual and caste violence. This is because Tamasha women are seen as ‘public women or promiscuous women’ by the larger society. Let me give you an example. Mangalatai is an artist whose five generations of his/her family perform Tamasha. She told how when she was a teenager, performing in a village, she was forced to dance on a bullock cart that went around the village. Many men danced around the cart like crazy, trying to jump on the cart, trying to touch or meet them.
Dalit women in India have long been victims of sexual violence. What is the role of caste discrimination in this violence?
On one hand we have laws and work is being done on paper, but at the same time atrocities against Dalits are increasing on the ground. Caste violence combined with gender gives rise to sexual weakness of Dalit women. Historically, dominant castes have used violence as a tool, as a means of maintaining their authority and power to maintain the caste hierarchy. This is their age-old accumulation of power and privilege. Dalit women are poor and lack autonomy. The book, edited by Aloysius I.S.J., Jayshree Mangubhai and Joel Lee, explores the nature of violence against 500 Dalit women within and outside the family (2011).
How did you view Ambedkar’s work in this field?
Ambedkar was very aware of what I call the sex-gender-caste complexity. Both the colonial British and elite Indians portrayed Dalits as ‘childish’, ‘immature’ or ‘effeminate’. Furthermore, Dalit women faced even more discrimination as they were considered ‘sexually promiscuous’. In 1927, when Ambedkar was raising funds for the Mahad Satyagraha, Patte Bapurao (a Brahmin male tamasha and lavani artiste) offered money to support Ambedkar. But Ambedkar refused because, as he/she argued, money was collected by making Dalit women dance to music that was considered sensual. he/she did not want Dalit women to be objectified as this encouraged sexual exploitation. As we move into the 1930s, he/she faced various pressures socially, politically, ideologically and religiously – he/she announced that he/she was going to convert to Buddhism. When he/she did this, in 1936, there was an occasion when he/she gave this speech to the so-called public women which included prostitutes, showgirls and jogutini. There, she said that women should give up these so-called ‘dirty professions’ and embrace Buddhism. At first glance, this may seem patriarchal. However, one must take into account who he/she was fighting. Dalit liberation was the main agenda to uplift human dignity for Dalits. It was intrinsically linked with the Dalits and the entire community which has not got the privilege of being called human beings.

#indian dalit woman #indian dalit women education #indian slum area dalit women life #Lifestyle of Indian slum women #mumbai slum area lifestyle #shailaja paik books #Who is the author Shailaja Paik?

Why education is the magic wand for Dalits… Indian-American historian told one thing each

Leave a Reply Cancel reply