Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens

by Uma Chakravarti

Examining the crucial linkages between caste and gender, undertaken, perhaps for the first time, Uma Chakravarti unmasks the mystique of consensus in the workings of the caste system to reveal the underlying violence and coercion that perpetuate a severely hierarchical and unequal society. The subordination of women and the control of female sexuality are crucial to the maintenance of the caste system, creating what feminist scholars have termed ‘brahmanical patriarchy’. She discusses the range of patriarchal practices within the larger framework of sexuality, labour and access to material resources, and also focuses on the centrality of endogamous marriages that maintain the system. Erudite yet accessible, this book enables the reader to understand the interface of gender and caste and to participate in its critical analysis.

This book forms a part of the Theorizing Feminism Series edited by Maithreyi Krishnaraj.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, India, History, Gender, Politics, Womens

183 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2003

Reviews

[Laya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important and nicely historicized thesis on how gender and caste are intricately linked to each other. Especially loved the last chapter on how caste and gender in contemporary India, and overall it is certainly a great introduction. However, following this up, I would also suggest reading Jenny Rowena's important critique on Uma Chakravarty's original concept of Brahmanical Patriarchy (https://roundtableindia.co.in/index.p...), to understand some crucial gaps and errors in her work relating to dalit women's oppression.

[Tony Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book.An introduction to caste and gender in caste/class inequalities.The book doesn't give deep insight into the problem but as said by the writer is like the seed for the plant i.e., the research that still needs to take place in this particular subject.But the book with mere theories and some examples is eye-opening.Would recommend to anyone who wants to start the research into caste and moreover from the women or feminist perspective.Some great theories collected from researches and material that the author read in her life.4 stars seems valid for this masterstroke to whoever still says caste is good or even acceptable or to those patriarchy stricken fools who think they can make the world better from the contribution of only half of the world.

[Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have cited Uma Chakravarti’s work multiple times throughout my MPhil study and I believe her rhetoric on gender and caste made my study more efficient and nuanced.

[Shreya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully lucid materialist account of how gender, caste, and class come together to shape women's oppression in India. I found it very useful to understand how the Indian state apparatus (and the British colonial administration before it) has worked to codify caste practices, and the importance of land (and the appropriation of women's labour) in motivating the maintenance of caste/gender inequalities.

I remain struck by the provocation Uma starts this book with - the anti-Mandal agitations and young upper-caste women of Delhi University holding placards saying 'we don't want unemployed husbands!', revealing that nowhere in their imagination was the possibility of say, a dalit husband. There's a lot in here that's complex and that I'll be turning over for months to come, but the conclusion is simple - everything this system makes us internalize and everything it makes us enforce is profoundly opposed to consent, autonomy, love.

[Amol Saroj · Rating 5 out of 5]

gendering caste इस साल पढ़ी हुई मेरी दूसरी किताब है। किताब में उन जानकारियों का ढेर है जो अमूमन हमसे छुपाई हुई रहती है। जाति और लिंग आधारित भेदभाव के बारे में आम भारतीय की तो क्या ही कहे , बड़े बड़े बुद्धिजीवियों की समझ बहुत सतही है। ये बात किताब के शुरू में ही सामने आ जाती है जब लेखिका 1989 के मंडल आयोग विरोधी आंदोलन का जिक्र करते हुए बताती है कि दिल्ली के अधिकतर सवर्ण बुद्धिजीवी और प्रोफेसर उस आंदोलन का समर्थन कर रहे थे। अभी भी आये दिन ऐसी पोस्ट देखने को मिल जाती है जिसमें थोड़े से अफ़सोस थोड़े से रोमांस के साथ  लिबरल साहित्यकार इस बात का जिक्र करते मिल जाते है कि उन्होंने 1990 के आंदोलन में बढ़ चढ़ कर भाग लिया था। कुछ अपनी नादान उम्र का हवाला देते है , कुछ ब्राह्मणो के दबाव का । 1990 में 20 साल से लेकर 70 साल तक के अधिकतर सवर्ण ( लेफ्ट , राइट , सेंटर , विद्वान , नादान , अनजान ) सब आरक्षण के खिलाफ बिगुल बजाये हुए थे। इसके पीछे कारण नादानी नहीं थी जाति थी। प्राइविलेज खोने का डर था।  उस आंदोलन से वंचित समाज को जो नुक्सान हुआ उसके लिए कोई माफ़ी मांगता भी नजर नहीं आता। कमोबेश यही हालत औरतों के लिए भी है। आये दिन हो रहे साहित्यिक विवाद या साहित्यिक लोगों के विवादों और बोलों को अगर इकट्ठा किया जाए तो ये दक्षिणपंथ के किसी भी नेता को टक्कर दे सकते है। 
आम आदमी हो या बुद्धिजीवी जाति के लिए मोटामोटी समझ यही रखते है कि जाति में बुराई नहीं है जातिवाद में बुराई है। कि सब जातियाँ एक   दूसरे के सहयोग के काम आती है। इसमें शोषण जैसी खास बात न है। ऐसे ही जेंडर के सवाल पर बात अंत पंत नेचर पर आकर खत्म हो जाती है। प्रकृति ने औरत को ऐसा बनाया है। 
किताब जेंडर और कॉस्ट के आपसी पेचीदा रिश्ते और इससे उपजे शोषण का विश्लेषण बिलकुल शुरू से करती है और जेंडर और कॉस्ट में ब्राह्मणवाद से उपजे अमानवीय भेदभावों को बारीकी से बताती है। कैसे ब्राह्मणवादी पितृसत्ता शोषण का सबसे क्रूर रूप है। कैसे हजारों सालों में ब्राह्मणवाद मानवीयता की  हर लड़ाई में विपक्ष में खड़ा रहा है। 
पेशवाई राज की क्रूरता हो या अंग्रेजी राज में सुधारों का धर्म के नाम पर विरोध हो या आजादी के बाद प्रगतिशील विचारों का विरोध सब  में ब्राह्मणवाद आगे रहा है। 1872 में जब अंग्रेज शादी का कानून लेकर आये जिसमें लड़का लड़की अपनी मर्जी से शादी कर सकते है सभी हिन्दू ब्राह्मण बुद्धिजीवियों ने इस कानून का विरोध किया।  अम्बेडकर ने annhilation of caste में बताया ही कि कैसे सामाजिक बदलावों को दरकिनार कर कांग्रेस के नेताओ ने अंग्रेजो से आजादी को अपना लक्ष्य बना लिया था। आजादी के बाद भी हिन्दू कोड बिल के खिलाफ जो खड़े था या जो 1990 में मंडल आयोग आंदोलन के खिलाफ बिगुल बजा रहे थे  ब्राह्मणवाद आज भी मानवता के खिलाफ ही खड़ा है।  

ये किताब पढ़ी जानी चाहिए जिन्होंने नहीं पढ़ी है। इतिहास को सही तरीके से न पढ़ने के बहुत नुकसान है। किताब में  सबसे अच्छी बात है और बहुत किताबों का , फिल्मो का रेफरेंस है। कुलमिलाकर किताब पढ़कर बहुत  अच्छा अच्छा फील हुआ।

[Conrad Barwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to the topic; the author's background as a historian and knowledge of Sanskrit and Pali means she is able to interpret the shastric and Vedic texts to illustrate her points and to use examples from the great Hindi epics to show the entrenched nature of gender bias and casteism that runs through sanathan dharm Hinduism.

[Sookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to caste, gender and inequality that still exists in the society. The author describes various incidents throughout history in various parts of the country. This provides quite a strong historical base to understand the problem in the modern context. Societal polity is less nuanced and more, well, outlandishly biased.
The author further explains that a poor Dalit woman working for daily wages experiences in multi fold; from the oppressive caste, the men from her own community and from the labor class. This puts these women in a unique position of helplessness and further makes the struggle, harsher. Rape for the women is a tool of violence used to subjugate. Here, in this society, its a mark of purity that the society itself defines and then shuns when the said standards are broken for no fault of theirs.
In Indian context gender and caste are intertwined and have a complex relationship. This book provides excellent tools to navigate the subject.

[mantenloarayo · Rating 4 out of 5]

De lejos y sabiendo poquito poquito, me pareció una muy buena puerta de entrada al marco conceptual del feminismo anti casteísta. Muy necesario para entender como el sistema de castas y el patriarcado nacen de la mano, reposan y se retroalimentan el uno al otro en el subcontinente. 100% recomiendo haber leído algo de Ambedkar primero, porque aunque Gendering Caste sea básico no por ello se me hizo fácil (sobre todo por temas contextuales).

[Akriti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and accessible. Goes through the entire history of caste from speculating the catalyst to the conception of it all the way to how caste has metamorphosed to still exist within modern Indian society.

[Aditi Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best works to understand the intersection of caste and gender that plays out around us in subtle to overt manners.

[Saniya Puri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Systematically organized and exhaustively researched, Gendering Caste: Through a Feminist Lens is a well-rounded discussion on divergent feminist interests. It moves from common bond of oppression that women face universally towards a more diversified form of oppression and struggle that delineates gender inequality intersected by caste.

Maithreyi Krishnaraj, series editor states that

“Patriarchy in India, Uma explains, is in the plural (and the word is used as an adjective), not a monolithic unchanging system”

In the wake of recent feminist wave that advocates an examination of inequality in terms of multiple vectors, Chakravarti’s work is an excellent study into how caste violence influences, disintegrates and attacks women in particular. One of the most interesting chapter from the book, “Caste and Gender in Contemporary India” discusses women’s complicity in the caste politics and this is by far the most brutally honest rendition on internalization of both patriarchy as well as caste system. This chapter highlights as to how gender and caste are inextricably linked, thus reproducing the structure of oppression many folds.

The book also explicitly derives that caste is responsible for dividing women and erasing a possibility of a sisterhood amongst women. Uma Chakravarti traces this argument and takes it forward through an organized research on different levels. The ideological and material hold of patriarchy is investigated to determine not just gender inequality or subsequent oppression but it also put forth a dark reality of two kinds of oppression mechanisms correlated and interdependent. Specific and worse forms of oppressions experienced by Dalit women are informed in this work.

The series editor introduces the ideas that Chakravarti has discussed in this extensive work and pauses at few questions in her Foreword. She states that symbols of caste are laden with meanings of hierarchy and to discard these symbols would scoop out a major portion of Hindu religion and its manifestation. “These are things to ponder on”, she says.

Read more if you are interested in this inextricably twisted dynamics of Gender and caste.

[Meha Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a brilliant take on the presently misunderstood or rather complied with the relationship between caste, gender and class. However, there isn't much acknowledgement of counter-arguments which I believe makes a social critique worthwhile.