Hindu-Dalit caste conflict is exactly like Black-White racial divide
Racial discrimination and caste conflict form the major’ bulk of the description in the writings of both the Blacks and the Dalits. Alice Walker, the Black “womanist” writer, devotes more pages to racial discrimination when she pictures the lives of the Blacks in her novels. Civakami, the Tamil Dalit feminist too, gives graphic descriptions of caste conflicts when she presents the plight of the Dalits in her novels.
Historically, the Blacks (Afro-Americans) were brought as slaves from Africa into America to work in the farms and plantations of the Whites. The miseries and sufferings they were subjected to by the Whites have Jheen the subject of Black literature and the writings became very revolutionary especially after the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement.
Casteism is racism: In India, the Hindu caste system denied all human rights to the lower castes. They were even called the Untouchables. They were compelled to do all dirty jobs for the upper castes. The experiences of these subjugated people, who are being exploited physically, economically, politically, culturally, psychologically and even sexually, have become the theme of Dalit literature which being the literature of protest unfolds the plight of the Dalits and thereby creates awareness primarily among the masses. This article proposes to highlight how Alice Walker in The Color Purple and Civakami in Palaiyana Kalitalum have portrayed the sufferings of the Blacks in a world of racism and the exploitation of the Dalits in a world of casteism respectively. The article is topical when the UN Conference Against Racism discussed that “casteism is racism” at its just concluded Durban session
The introduction to the novel, Palaiyana Kalitalum, says that in the history of contemporary literature, the novel of Civakami has pride of place as it presents the social life of the oppressed in a very realistic way.
The novel. describes how caste consciousness, and the eternal hatred and rivalry between the upper and lower castes always explode into communal violence.
In the novels of Alice Walker, the oppression of the Blacks by the Whites forms the major part
notwithstanding her claim that she is primarily a womanist. However, in a sordid world of slavery, sexism and racism are bound to coexist. Of course, to a helpless southern Black woman, the dominating image of the White man is a formidable force.
In The Color Purple, though Alice walker does not portray the impact of the White’s demination on the life of Celie and her home front directly, she gives a clear account of the racial discrimination in the portrayal of Sofia Butler and the descriptions given by Nettie.
White Mayor’s arrogance: When Sofia goes shopping with her children along with her boyfriend the prize fighter, the mayor’s wife, the White woman, who sees the cute children of Sofia asks her: “All your children so clean. would you like to work for me, be my maid?” (CP:90). The insolent White woman has the temerity to ask this question because she is fully bathed in the racist superiority. It is this racism that makes her feel that she can treat the Blacks like wanton flies and keep them subservient at any cost. But the immediate answer to this question from Sofia is “Hell No”. Suddenly the Mayor slaps Sofia. Sofia, the fighter woman pays him back in the same coin. Immediately the police bounced on herand her children and bang their heads together.
Sexual abuse: When Sofia undergoes the jail sentence for the offence, she is put to work in the prison laundry. She is given the worst of the cells infested with mice, flies, lice and even snakes. The fighter woman in the community is slowly stripped of her strength and she starts dancing to the tune of the White officials.
In Civakami’s Palajyana Kalitalum the raging conflict between the upper caste and lower caste is pictured minutely to show how in the name of caste, a particular group of people are ordered to do all the dirty menial jobs and how they are brutalized and victimized if they choose to resist the oppression of the upper caste. When one caste wants to conquer or fight against another caste or to establish their strength and superiority, they use to take away the cattle. They also use to plunder women which would certainly prick the self-prestige of menfolk and that would incite tension and escalate into communal violence. While going through the pages of Civakami’s Palaiyana Kalitalum, one can see how the strategy is employed by the upper caste still more slyly.
The upper caste Utaiyar sexually abuses Tankam, the Dalit woman. She is a widow and patiently endures the humiliation because she works on his farm. If she resents, she will be deprived of her daily wages and she will have to starve. However, when the illegal relationship is known outside, once again it is Tankam who is beaten and mutilated by the upper caste people. Kattamuttu, the leader of the Dalit community, twists the whole episode to give vent to his rage against the upper caste. He cooks up a complaint to the police saying that she was beaten by the upper caste people for making their street a thoroughfare to her hut (the Untouchables are not allowed to enter the upper caste locality). However, understanding the situation, the Utaiyar caste takes revenge on the Dalits by distorting the whole matter.
Communal tension: The police too connive with them to file a false case saying that Tankam was beaten for having stolen some valuables from Utaiyar’s house. When the relatives of Utaiyar go at night to keep some valuables at Tankam’s house to create strong evidence for the police case they are beaten up by the Dalits. However, the whole incident is reported falsely by the upper caste men who complain that their people were beaten when they went to collect the people of the lower caste to plant the seedlings in their paddy fields. The tension continues. – Tankam becomes the cause of all this communal tension. This incident shows how the upper caste people treat the Untouchables in the most inhuman way.
Protest literature: Nevertheless, to satisfy their lust they use three Untouchables but when the physical relationship is known outside, they reverse the whole matter to their favour because their personal pride is at stake.
Civakami portrays these caste oppressions to enlighten the world and in turn to enlist the people in the eradication of the oppression. Her conviction is that by echoing the plight of these marginalised she can very well wake up the oppressed people from the slumber of slavery. True to the spirit of the protest literature, she vehemently protests the ill-treatment meted out to these people who have been suffering from the untouchability for centuries together ever since the Varnasrama Dharma (Hinduism) came into existence. That is one of the reasons why in Palaiyana Kalitalum she makes Kauri brave all the odds to take the lead in fighting the caste oppression. Though the elders in the family do not allow her to continue to study further after school education, she fights for her right to enter the portals of the college to get higher education. After that, she becomes a college lecturer and also starts an organization to work for the betterment of the Dalits.
Ruthless upper castes: Civakami wants many more Kauris to take up the leadership so that they can restore and regain the human dignity of these oppressed. people. She also portrays the plight of the Dalit farmers who are severely exploited and impoverished by the masses but also an awakening upper caste people. Through these presentations, she wants to create not only an awareness among them in the minds of the ruthless upper caste people. The lower caste people may not easily forget the scars created by the merciless exploitation of the upper caste people. Now it is the duty of the. Dalit organisations to fight for the rights. These organizations should strive hard to make them move to the centre from the periphery. By instilling in them a hope for a better tomorrow and by regaining their human dignity alone can these scars slowly be erased from their minds?
Alice Walker too, presents the southern Black peasantry, the poor sharecroppers as working on the lands owned by the White men and shows how the White racism exploits and impoverishes the Blacks. She also wants to tell the world that the Blacks are in no way inferior to the Whites. She exhorts the Blacks to fall in line to fight against the racial monster and assert their rights. Her only aim in portraying the plight of the Blacks is to liberate them from the shackles of slavery and make them feel important in the society they live in. Celie, at the end of the novel becomes liberated, gains her self-confidence and asserts her self-esteem. Alice Walker gives a clarion call to every Black man and woman to affirm his/her right to live on par with the Whites and to enjoy ali the possible human rights. Thus, the two writers reveal the plight of the oppressed to get the support of the people to fight the evils of racism and casteism.
