Dalit Female Students and their Differential Treatment in University Spaces Due to Intersectionality- A Critical Analysis
Posted on : February 17, 2022Author : Samadrita Sarkar
Harassment faced by females in university spaces has become a serious concern over the years. After the popularity of the #Metoo Movement, the severity of women harassment (sexual or otherwise) became even more evident. The patriarchal mindset that is ingrained in society does not escape Academia as well; as a result of which, female students are not only subjected to abuse within the university space from teachers and fellow male students, but also face institutionalized, structural violence.
While talking about harassment in the university space, we often avoid a discourse about the lewd male gaze or misconduct, since ‘proving’ becomes difficult in such a scenario. As a result, many women have to endure this covert harassment without reporting to the concerned authority. Women, who already have a long history of oppression find their empowerment and subsequent economic freedom through education. However, complete liberation of women becomes next to impossible, as they continue to get subjected to institutional and structuralized patriarchal violence. The deeply patriarchal male state of mind, where women are the inferior sex and thus are academically lower in status than them results in male teachers or students being extremely discriminatory towards their female students or classmates. While this is not always apparent, but the silent gazes of sneer, dismissing the female students and giving the males positions of responsibility, interrupting the females whenever they pose a point are very common and are experienced by most women, during their academic life. In an interview, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak recounted her student life in Presidency, where her fellow classmates used to dismiss her talent and intellect by accusing that Professors liked her because she was good looking. She remarked how this gendered bias ultimately leads to the worst kind of lifetime intellectual insecurity. (Ghoshal, 2013) But, at the same time, it becomes imperative to understand that not all women’s experiences are similar. The term intersectionality, first coined by eminent scholar Kimberle Crenshaw in her paper ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of race and sex’ (1989) points out how there is an interconnected nature of various social categories such as race, gender, class, caste, etc. This means that when these categories are applied to a particular individual or group, it creates an overlapping and interdependent nature of discrimination or oppression. Focusing her research on critical race theory, professor Crenshaw aimed to find out how race was directly related to gender issues and how black women tended to receive more discrimination than an average white woman. Feminist author Zoe Samudzi says, “intersectionality is such a vital framework for understanding systems of power, because ‘woman’ is not a catchall category that alone defines all our relationships to power.” (Taylor, 2019) For example, a black woman or a woman of colour will receive misogyny and oppression at a completely different level than a white woman, and racism quite differently than a black man. Here’s where intersectionality comes into play- because it is important to go beyond the feminist perspective which deals with experiences of middle class, white, heterosexual and physically abled women and look into the experiences of oppression suffered by black women. If the same concept is applied to the Indian society, it will be seen that the experiences of a Dalit woman is different than that of upper caste women as well as than that of Dalit men. While the dialogues about female harassment in university spaces are addressed, only the gender narrative is included, and not caste. It is therefore important to realize the intersection between caste and gender and the fact that a Dalit woman would face more harassment than an upper caste woman solely because of her caste. In addition to the consideration that Dalit women are of the inferior sex, their bodies are also considered impure (Paik, 2009). While the gender of Dalit women intersects with caste and class, their bodies are treated with impunity (Rao, 2015). This makes the Dalit women at the receiving end of the highest level of oppression and violence inside the upper caste, male dominated patriarchal academic structure.
Female agitation and resistance are often regarded as a dangerous weapon against male dominance and supremacy. Therefore, a very upper caste patriarchal solution to prevent this is to silence and shame the women who come out with their narratives and protest against the injustices meted out to them.
Academic writings reagrding oppression of Dalit women in university spaces are scant as very little research has been done on this. Dalit women experience completely different, yet far reaching abuse and differential treatment, which have deep impacts. One of the most important factor lies within the standardized beauty structures within the Indian society. For a very long time, the conventional feminine beauty is the slim figure, fair skin and sharp features of women, the idea of which has also been strengthened by Bollywood movies. This conventional notion of beauty however is associated with upper caste women while the Dalit women are considered to be short, dark and having blunt features. The upper caste representation of beauty is the attractive notion while the Dalit one is not, thereby stigmatizing them through the lens of caste and gender (Gupta, 2016). This makes things even more complex. The people in academia who consider conventional beauty more important than intelligence conduct their favouritism towards the upper caste female students and the Dalit students are largely ignored. So, the importance of attractiveness and ‘beauty’ in academia becomes apparent to the Dalit women, who believe they do not receive their much deserved educational opportunities solely because of their looks, which in turn highlight their caste. The upper caste male professors tend to spend more time with their ‘beautiful, upper caste’ female students and pay attention to them more while covertly insulting, dismissing and disregarding the so called unattractive Dalit female students. Thus, upper caste females will receive abuse and even sexual harassment at a very overt and direct level, which can be easily identified and/ or witnessed. A research conducted by Vandana, Centre of Development Studies, New Delhi, in 2020 took several narratives from Dalit women, while maintaining their privacy. Arpita Rawat, a PhD student talked about her Dalit friend’s precarious situation in the following statement:
My friend Indu did her MPhil under him. There was another girl Renu, who was extremely fair (gorichitti), smart, from the general [caste] category while Indu was dark, simple, gullible, unfashionable and SC [Scheduled Caste]. Sharma sir personally pursued and requested the head of department (HoD) to allow Renu to work under his supervision. You know, he gave her good marks. Can you believe it, she topped the class? Poor Indu was given poor marks [as a result of which] she could not apply for PhD. Indu told me one day that both she and Renu were talking to him and he asked only Renu to have tea with him. He completely ignored Indu. It was quite embarrassing for her. On another occasion, they were having a discussion with Thakur Sir. Incidentally, I was also sitting there. Thakur Sir said to Indu while rubbing tobacco on his palm ‘it seems that you do not know how to please your guide’ (lagta hain ki tum he apne guide ko patana nahi aata). (Vandana, 2020)
However, this sexual rejection in no way means that Dalit girls in universities do not face sexual harassment. Lewd comments, threats, rape jokes, sexual misconduct and even sexual violation are among the few things Dalit female students face, in addition to the casteist slurs, rejection due to low caste physical features and losing out on opportunities.
Dalit women face oppression from the administrative structure as well, inside the university. It is seen that the administration is dismissive of their problems and often refuse to grant them sufficient liberty as opposed to other upper caste students because of the prevalent conception that their caste has already ‘earned’ them a reservation and thus they do not need any more benefits. The case of Deepa M Mohan, who is pursuing her PhD from the International and Inter University Centre at MG University Kottayam is a blatant example of this. Deepa, as she belonged to a lower caste, was hugely discriminated against was denied access to the University laboratory and other such facilities. She was said to be mentally harassed by the Centre’s joint director Nandakumar Kalarickal as well as denied a place to sit inside the University (John, 2015).
Research shows the inequality in recruitment of Dalit faculty as opposed to upper caste professors. The All India Survey for Higher Education (AISHE) conducted a survey, directed by the HRD department of India, which showed a data of 12,84,000 teachers in various higher education institutions as of 2017-18. Among them, 56.8% of teachers were from the general, upper caste category, while the SCs and the STs constitute a mere 8.6% and 2.27% respectively (Sharma, 2018). But, even the scant population of Dalit professors extend their solidarity and empathy towards the Dalit students, especially the females. The Dalit professor themselves face discrimination due to their caste. A very recent incident where the teacher-in-charge of the Hindi Department of Lakshmibai College in Delhi had slapped his fellow colleague, a Dalit associate professor, supposedly on grounds of caste, (Shankar, 2021) reveals that economic freedom and educational background of Dalits does not necessarily guarantee them freedom from discrimination and exploitation. Another incident which can be accounted- wherein a Dalit Adivasi professor of Jadavpur University, Maroona Murmu was reportedly attacked by casteist slurs where her ability and credibility as a professor was questioned (Ghosh, 2020). Since, the Dalit professors themselves are subjected to such inhuman treatment, they are often seen to encourage their Dalit students, especially females; diminishing the abuse of power that goes on whenever there is a power-dynamics involved and professors are at the top of the hierarchy and Dalit female students are at the lowest rung. Female Dalit students feel a sense of security and safety under the guidance of their Dalit professors as their shared identity and history of violence and oppression reduce the complex, formal and authoritative power structure. Unfortunately, however, when the Dalit male professors themselves pass derogatory comments towards the female students, that is largely ignored by the victims themselves as being less serious. One reason to this might be the fact that Dalit female students would find themselves in an extremely precarious position if they have to struggle against their sole ‘protectors’ from the power structure. An example can be found in the same article by Vandana:
I was waiting once for a male Dalit faculty member in one of the social science departments. He arrived along with some women PhD students. His room was on the second floor and we were standing on the ground floor. It was summer. After climbing up to his room, one of the PhD students, who was recently married, rushed to switch on the fan saying, ‘It’s quite hot. Let me switch on the fan first’. We were just settling down in the chairs when suddenly the faculty member, whom I had gone to meet, commented, ‘Yes of course, immediately after marriage heat anyway increases! (Haan bhai shaadi hote hi garmi to waise hi bad jati hain)’. Then he burst into laughter and looked at me and the others to check whether we were enjoying his ‘joke’ or not. It was extremely embarrassing for all of us and more so for the PhD student who was the butt of his remark. (Vandana, 2020)
Dalit women within the university spaces thus face discrimination and harassment in acutely different and complex ways than upper caste women. The persecution faced by them is two-fold- one based on gender and the other, based on caste. Standing on the intersection of caste and gender, Dalit female students face unreported, complicated and systematic exploitation, which goes unrecorded, neglected and unobserved.
Samadrita Sarkar
Intern, Asia in Global Affairs
The opinions expressed within the content are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of Asia in Global Affairs.
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