'Uchalya' by Laxman Gaikwad is a heart-rending and eye-opening literature. The narrator himself, being the key character of the book, sheds light on the discrimination faced by the  Dalit community (Uchalya or Pathrut), which was declared a criminal tribe during the British  Raj. It perfectly epitomizes the concepts of 'hypervisibility' and 'invisibility' of criminal tribes.  A sense of deep ‘self-realization' can be seen in the book, as the narrator holds their community liable for their miserable condition. 

It can be observed from the book that the 'Uchalya' community faced two types of caste discrimination: i) inter-caste discrimination primarily by police officers and the villagers, and ii) intra-caste discrimination. Police used to carry prejudice towards them; they raided their shelters whenever they received complaints of theft and pocket-picking. In case they didn’t find anything, they used to carry all their belongings, like cooking utensils, the roof shades, if present, coverlets soaked in livestock urine and so on. If the male members of the family were not present, they used to beat the female members anywhere, touch their breasts,  drag them by their hair, and sometimes even arrest them without female constables. If the males did not show up, even after arresting the females, they used to nakedly hang the females upside down and beat them with a hunter. Sometimes, just to cause more torture and discomfort, they used to rub chilli powder or cigarettes on their eyes and anus. Being labelled as a criminal tribe,  they didn't even have the right to register a complaint and live with dignity. The author concealed his identity to get a rental room; he was thrown out 19 times in one year. The villager's act of separating their wheat flour at the hand mill to avoid contact with  Uchalya’s flour to maintain its ‘purity’ and the requirement of a ‘travel pass’ for travelling to another town also displays discrimination. All possible inhuman punishments were given to them just to torment and intimidate them. 

Further, the second type of discrimination, that is, ‘intra-caste discrimination’, can be observed more vigilantly in the book. It is also one of the prominent reasons behind selecting this book.  The narrator was the first child amongst the tribal group to get enrolled in school, due to which his family was chastised by their community members, while on the other hand, people from other communities accepted this and encouraged him. The narrator's identity was being reduced to 'pathrutach por' (son of the pathrut community). The 'invisibility' of his achievements, like winning the Sahitya Academy Award for this book, and the 'hypervisibility'  of his tribal identity are observed. Panchayat plays a very significant role in shaping 

their lives. The book depicts that the panchayat punishes those who go against traditional community practices. Severe punishments like shaving the heads of women and consumption of urine and human faecal matter were generally given. The narrator criticizes the panchayat for spreading these superstitious practices and holds the panchayat as well as the people responsible for the backwardness of their community. The people had internalized the act of criminality so deeply that there was a loss of sensitivity among them (the family member killed the narrator's grandfather with an axe because he was too old to bear the punishment of the police and reveal the names of the other crime partners), and they used to train their members to become a typical 'uchalya' rather than finding an alternative livelihood. The narrator himself also carries this internalization when he questions himself about how he can fall in love with a girl from an upper-caste family. 

The form of discrimination showcased in this book is distinct. Unlike the prevalent way of discrimination done by upper-caste people against lower-caste people, this book shows discrimination done by members of the community against other members who try to mobilize.  The 'crab mentality' is visible, especially in the acts of people and the panchayat. Killing and trafficking of family members because of the growing insensitivity was another unique aspect of it. Another reason behind this distinction is that the police, who are supposed to protect their human rights, are themselves the main offenders. Laxman Gaikwad condemns entire social,  economic, political, and religious practices that promote injustices and takes an oath to work against the cause.

Author: Shreya Rajendra Lande

Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble was a Dalit author and teacher, who was born into the Mahar caste in Maharashtra. She was the daughter of Sakharam Babar and wife of Krushnaji Kamble. Her  Paternal name was Najabai Sakharam Babar. She was the first woman Dalit writer and a  teacher. Her autobiography depicts her day-to-day life and the persecution faced by her and her  caste since childhood. And how she bears the brunt of class, caste, and gender. Mahar is a caste predominant in Maharashtra, that used to do manual scavenging and used to clean the place  where the dead body of the animals were kept. And they used to eat the flesh of the dead animals. Whenever any big animals like cows, buffalo, or camel would die in a village, Mahars used to clean it and used to cook the dead meat and eat it. Thus, the concept of impurity was  associated with Mahars because they ate rotten flesh and this dietary politics in the society led to their further discrimination. In this book, Kamble talks about the incidents where she faced  discrimination being the Mahar in society. 

When she used to go to school, a teacher named Sable used to make them sit outside, and when  he used to check the slate of the Mahar community students, he used to check it from a distance which made them feel that he was excluding them from the environment of the school. He used  to discriminate mahars against everyone. She also tells how Mahar’s unity helped them to fight  against Ganpati Bajare. When Kamble tried to enter the temple in the Pandharpur, she was denied access because she was a Mahar and not an upper caste person. This book highlights  how lower caste people were discriminated against and were not allowed to sit inside the class  with everyone. They were not allowed to fill water from the same wells that the upper caste  used to fill. This small act of discrimination by the people led to the micro-aggression against the Mahars and such incidents led to the micro-differentiation of the class from the society. 

Beyond the caste discrimination, there was discrimination against women which was depicted  by the author in this text. When food was cooked in the house of the author, the freshly cooked  food was given to the males of the house and stale food was eaten by the females of the house  just because women used to sit in the house and men used to do hard work in the field or  outside. When she got married to Krushnaji, initially their married life was good but when he  married her maternal uncle’s daughter, Shantabai got angry and left his house and came back  to his father’s house. These types of activity of polygyny were prevalent in the upper caste,  which used to portray the power and wealth in the society. This act can be called  Sanskritisation, where a person accepts the traditions and rituals of the Brahmins or the upper  caste to pass over from the hierarchical system of the society or the caste system. When a lower  caste society tries to get Brahminised or Sanskritised they accept their Brahmin’s patriarchal traditions and norms too. Now, being from a lower caste and that too a woman, made them feel  very inferior and the oppression of this patriarchal society was also prevalent. She also  describes that a woman from a lower caste faces more persecution, discrimination, and  oppression as compared to a woman from an upper caste. 

Caste discrimination was not only prevalent in her village but also in the village where her  cousin got married. When they took the wedding procession into their village, the Patil of the  village stopped them and told them he would not let them go until they gave salutations to them  as they were from the lower caste and he was from the upper caste. Moreover, her classmate's 

mother also called her “Maharechi-Porgi” when she went to call her at her home. 

The author describes how she faced discrimination in the workplace. She was threatened and told by the upper castes to leave the village or else they will beat her and then send her back  with humiliation. 

Beyond all the discrimination she faced in her childhood and workplace, she fought for her education and the education of the lower caste students. She was a big admirer of Dr. Babasaheb  Ambedkar. She helped in the growth of various girl's schools and lower caste schools in various  villages of Maharashtra. 

In the end, this autobiography, talks about the author's life and the discrimination she faced in  various aspects of life being a Mahar and a lower caste woman in the society. Her  autobiography tells how she battled for her education and tried to give education to the people of her community.

In this excerpt of the book, the author talks about the discrimination she faced when she was  quite young. When she went to the Pandharpur for a visit to the temple of Vitthal, they were denied access to it. Just because they were from the Mahar community and collected the  remains of human waste and ate dead bodies and were lower in the hierarchical system of the  caste. And then they were forced to offer prayers from the outside of the temple. 

In this excerpt of the book, the author tries to explain how they got hyper-visible when Ganpati  Bajare came and alleged that the food given by the Mahars to her cow led to her death. The case was that she had died because of natural causes. In this, it can be inferred that there is a  stigma that if a lower caste community does anything good, it is negated or gets no recognition  but if that community does anything wrong or makes a slight mistake then that community gets  hyper-visible among the society. This stigma discriminates against them in society.

Author: TEJAS RAJESH MAHTOLE

Caste as an idea has existed in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times which continues to dictate the life of its residents and especially the Dalits. Sharankumar Linbale’s text offers an understanding of how differently caste manifested in his childhood when he stayed in a village in the Hunnur district of Solapur and his youth when he shifted to more urban settings. The principle of purity and pollution which is responsible for stratification and ostracization of Dalits is starkly visible in the initial half of the text. The Dalit children were made to sit on the floor at the school while the upper castes sat on the porch. The students used to gather in temples, but the Dalits weren't allowed to enter them therefore they sat at the doorstep to receive education there was hierarchy even among them. For example, a Vambhar used to sit in front of a Mahar and then children from the Mangi jati. Girls used to sit at one side of the temple and the main porch was occupied by Brahmins. This sitting arrangement symbolically resembles the social hierarchy. When the students were asked to write an essay on their picnic experience, Limbale being younger than other students wasn’t able to write an essay. He was humiliated in front of the whole class when the teacher asked him, “Do you only know how to eat a bull?” 

The reason caste hierarchies are so deeply entrenched in our consciousness and despite attempts being made to uproot it, it is very much relevant even today, is because of the gradation given to each caste. Each caste is very much upset with the deprivations that entail due to higher positions of the upper castes but is reluctant to join hands with the lower castes and even take pleasure in the fact that somebody is below them. This phenomenon, first observed by Dr. Ambedkar, is also reflected in an incident of Limbale’s life. Once, he and his friend were tired and thirsty, so they went to drink water at his home. When he was about to give water to his friend, his grandmother scolded him and told him to refrain from giving him water because was from the ‘Mang’ community. Something as basic as access to drinking water was refused by a Dalit to a Dalit when they both faced the same discrimination from upper castes. This is a telling and eye-opening example of the existence of notions of protecting the ‘purity’ even among the Dalits and how the principle of graded inequality makes caste a rigid concept and makes it so hard to uproot. 

Limbale is discriminated against not only by the upper caste and middle to lower castes of his villages but also by the people from his Dalit community and occasionally even by his family members. He is the ‘Akkarmashi’, an outcast, the illegitimate child of a Brahmin man and Dalit mother and therefore ‘impure’ not ‘purely Dalit’. The experience of these incidents of discrimination and the pain Limbale has to go through turns Limbale into an empathetic person which is reflected in his writing. He takes a humanist perspective to look at things and compels the reader to contemplate the same by rhetorically questioning their beliefs.

The text also passes the Bechdel test, as there are mentions of atrocities against women and religious minorities, particularly Muslims. Certain practices in the text are unique to the region of Solapur. One of them is the custom of ‘Padevarki’, where on the occasion of ‘Pola’(a festival appreciating the bulls’ contribution to farming) the Mahar community used to appoint ‘padewars’. Each house in four of the lanes in ‘Maharwada’ namely varli aali, madhli aali, kombadyachi aali and khallya aali got the “honour” of performing tasks like cleaning and sweeping the village, burning lamps and so on. Further, if any animal died in the village, then the padewars brought them out of the village, skinned them and sold their hides. The remaining meat was taken by the people to eat. The thing to note here is that Dalits considered this as an honour.
Author: Toshnika Mugal

This essay dwells into the cinematographic depiction of the caste system in the Marathi movie “Dhag”  (धग) which is based in a rural area of Maharashtra. Dhag tells the story of Krishna, his mother,  

and their seemingly lofty goals for Krishna set against the backdrop of their socioeconomic status. Krishna's mother always wanted him to carve a path for himself away from the sorrows and hardships of his father's legacy, even though he was raised by a father who cremated people for a living. While his father's untimely death opens doors of opportunity for young Krishna, his widowed helpless mother's plight draws him back to his roots. Dhag captures the journey's moments, trials, and tribulations for young Krishna. 

The film begins with the death of a person in the village, and the father of the family cremating the deceased's body. Members of the family need Krishna to learn the cremation process so that he can assist his father. But the boy refuses to work in the crematory, instead demonstrating other ways to earn money. His attitude towards the line of work that provides for his family is extremely negative. Krishna's father is disgusted by the fact that he must wait for someone to die to eat for the next few days. His feelings about death have become so numb that he doubts he will be able to mourn the loss of his loved ones. Living around the ashes of the dead was despised by the entire family, but the fact that the village required a low-caste person to carry out such acts compelled them to stay and do that kind of work, despite their dislike. Professions that require dealing with 'impurities,' being associated with lower castes, have  become so deeply embedded in people's minds that the desire to fight the society has been massively  overshadowed and qualified as something they were "meant to do." 

Facing multiple forms of discrimination because of his father’s profession, Krishna is disgusted and takes out all his anger on his father, and goes to the extent of saying he’d rather be born in a home of beggars than his father. This is when the father has a moment of realization that sitting and thinking won’t make a difference, but acting on it will. He credits his rebellious son for his nature and backs his intentions to move out of the cremation business. The grandmother during all this is in denial. The night his father says all this, unfortunately, is his last night as he gets bitten by a snake at midnight and is discovered dead in the morning. 

This is when life gets tougher for Krishna and his family. People of the village are seen to be concerned with the fact that they now have to cremate their family members themselves, but  Krishna, the deceased’s son, could be assumed to continue this line of work replacing his father.  Shirpe’s (Krishna’s father) employer, Mangya carries on the cremation of Shirpe and later gives  Shirpe’s share of the money to the widow. He goes on to say “Now consider me in his place”. Mangya seems to very often come into the picture of the struggling family, being a helping hand but with underlying ill-intentions. Meanwhile, Krishna works at a sugarcane juice centre on a daily wage basis, but his family have no clue about it. 

Another person passes away, and the mother goes to find Krishna. He is found not in school but at the juice centre. She tries to get hold of him but Krishna runs away. She returns disappointed, with all of the men crowding the place waiting for the cremation to begin. Mother begins arranging wood and says Krishna is on her way. As usual, when women in the rural area take over some work a man is supposed to do, people speak. As did happen here. People spoke against the mother and said “It is against our customs”. Mangya again enters the picture, carries on with the procedures and sends the mother inside. He urges people around to help him in the name of humanity, and very few people give him a helping hand. While some are disgusted witnessing the happenings. The mother overhears people discussing Mangya’s frequent visits and his intentions to sleep with the mother. The grandmother advises her daughter-in-law to have such relations with Mangya for the sole reasons of the protection and survival of the family. Krishna overhears all this and in the middle of the night cuts wood for burning of any future bodies. Krishna’s mom hears the noise and goes outside to talk to him. She is now satisfied that they don’t have to be dependent on anyone else as she believes Krishna can be relied upon. Krishna believes that, to move on this work has to be continued. The movie is concluded when Krishna negotiates employment terms with his employer at the juice centre. Krishna wanted time to attend his school and also wanted wages. His employer agrees to a part-time job and appropriate wages.  

These incidents seem too grave but yet so “normal” in forms in which casteism exists. Casteism as a discriminatory form is not only facilitated by the higher caste but also by the lower caste as well.  The grandmother of the family has lived her entire life that way and thus never questions any of it. She now unconsciously accepts all of it. This is why the family is always hesitant to fight the system. Women have already been oppressed in the past but the degrees of oppression have differed for different classes of society. Krishna’s mother, as a lower caste woman is seen as someone who could be taken advantage of at her stage of vulnerability. This movie is an excellent example of how casteism is passed off in the ways of professions and gender in addition to casteism.  It also makes us realize that until another Krishna doesn’t stand up for himself and his socio-economic status, we will continue to have this kind of discrimination in rural areas. 

Author: UDAY KURUM