My summer's reading concluded with a selection of books coinciding with the 65th anniversary of Indian Independence such as The Dreams of Tipu Sultan by Girish Karnad; Wilting Laughter: Three Tamil Poets by Chelva Kanaganayakam; and Sangati by Bama, translated by Lakshmi Holmstrom. Generally these books were illuminating and enjoyable each in their unique way.

Sangati [Events]

       Sangati by Bama (2005 edition), is a must-read for those who have never been exposed to feminist literature from the third-world (such as Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi). These kinds of tell-all books transform one's understanding of the challenges women face in caste-driven societies in ways no man ever dares to honestly portray (one is reminded of the fledgling Maggie by Stephen Crane or the mannequin Carrie in Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser). The book's Preface and Acknowledgments contain moving rationale for Sangati by Bama; additionally, the Introduction by translator Lakshmi Holmstrom provides an incisive analysis of how major themes enmesh with literary feminist theory.

        Sangati, which means "events" in English, refers to a woven set of voices from Grandmother to relatives and friends of communal life for the lower castes in the Dalit villages. What makes this a powerful story is that all the events unfold as seen through eyes of the narrator, presumably the young girl, Bama, herself, as she is growing up. Obviously, life is not easy for members of the lower castes, whether paraichi or vanaan. The long hours, which typically begin well before day-break, and end only after the women eat the leftovers from supper, casts long shadows upon the lives of both men and women. Oppressed like chattel, suffering from lifetime entrapment in their lowly stations, the men become more like beasts (think Sinclair Lewis's The Jungle); their outlets appear to be drinking, placing small bets, and as Bama observes, harassing their wives.

        Bama, obviously a bright cheeky girl, seems to have inherited her grandmother Vellaiyamma's spunk. Her statuesque courageous grandmother (called Paatti) serves as the spokesperson for the village women in dealing with the landowners when requesting for farm work (labor not already been allocated to the men). Even in these humble inquiries however, Paatti, not a bad-looking woman, is humiliated, for instance, they force her to "walk up and down ten times a day" between their distant neighborhoods in order to receive work orders or to collect wages for the women (8). Again and again, one is minded that this is a society with no basic rights for paraichi; worse, there are the dangerous presumptions that the abuse of paraichi males exacted by those above them justifies treatment of women as objects of abuse. The culture perpetuates from babyhood due to a dearth of legal, social, or even religious recourse in cases of gendered abuse.

       The humiliations of women are truly outrageous as depicted in various events. When teenaged cousin Mariamma is framed against the advances of a landowner, the tribunal condemns Mariamma. In spite of her innocence, the men shout down the women, fine Mariamma for misbehavior, and her reputation is soiled. The number of coerced marriages creates marital disharmony that Bama does not shy away from describing. From being beaten, dragged by the hair, trampled upon, to forcible rape, "most of them put up with all that violence and suffer a life of hellish torment" (67). This is a culture calculated to break the oppressed; depending upon individual stamina, only the strongest can survive while many other women surrender to various forms of madness, the most frightening among which is "possession by peys [spirits]" (an event also described).

        Of course there are a few happy and even triumphant events in this book. One memorable scene is the event of marriage; even though the women must do all the cooking, and therefore cannot partake in hardly any of the festivities, for the men and children, it is a joyful event. Other vignettes include the extensive and interspersed conversations among the women; in particular, there is the story-telling and explications offered when Bama queries her grandmother over the customs. Another is the swimming hole scenes; up to certain ages, the paraishi girls are free to swim in the holes, so they learn how to swim; this contrasts with the upper caste girls, who apparently live secluded lifestyles. Finally, towards the end, we learn that Bama has somehow escaped the clutches of her village, and is working and living by herself. Of course in Tamil society, a young unmarried female living by herself is subject to all kinds of questions, and even Bama does not dare disclose her true caste name to anyone for fear of repercussions.

        This book awakened within me an awareness and empathy regarding the plight of Dalit peoples in India, something which persists even today because of gendered child-rearing practices and entrenched caste traditions going back to the 3rd century A.D. According to Navsarjan (http://navsarjan.org/navsarjan/dalits/whoaredalits):

"Dalits face discrimination at almost every level: from access to education and medical facilities to restrictions on where they can live and what jobs they can have. The discrimination against the Dalits is especially significant because of the number of people affected; there are approximately 167 million Dalits in India, constituting over 16 percent of the total population."

This is cause for concern because as more Hindi have migrated to the United States, they may perpetuate the fourfold Hindu Varna system with its inside-outside systems of binary opposition (upper vs lower caste)--or in particular, discriminate against Dalit-Americans.

       In fact, the perniciousness of such a system and its ability to become transplanted prompted a House Resolution against caste discrimination (which passed in July 2007) (http://www.asianews.it/news-en/US-House-declares-caste-discrimination-illegal-9950.html). President Barack Obama also asserted that America was the land of equal opportunity at a Democratic Party fundraiser:

"There's no caste system in the United States of America. Anybody who is willing to make the effort can succeed," Obama said at the Democratic party fund raiser at the residence of eminent Indian American couple, Rajeev and Seema Sharma, in Rockville Maryland. (http://www.asianews.it/news-en/US-House-declares-caste-discrimination-illegal-9950.html)

The troubling aspect as Americans is whether (or how) such predispositions will cross-over or adapt into new strains for classification or preferential treatment.

       This also recalls to mind the fight against poverty and better opportunities for all women here in the United States. Women, and in particular women of color, continue to fall through the safety net where opportunities for work, equal pay, obtaining childcare, and single-motherhood are concerned. Women continue to be underrepresented in the chambers of Congress or politics. Women still bear too much of the brunt of defense when it comes to attempting to prosecute in cases of rape or other violence. Personally, I have experienced some of this, particularly after I started working in the private sector. While the U.S. welfare system is more progressive than many third world countries, there continues to be flawed access to it, with some bilking the system, while others are denied the most basic access despite homelessness. Henrici, Lein, and Angel's Doing Without is the culmination of a multisite, multi-method, longitudinal study which examined how 1990s welfare reform or the "work first" policy is a failure for women who lack the training and understanding to obtain lucrative jobs; their entry level work frequently disqualifies them from public assistance even while the company fails to provide them medical insurance.

       In Henrici, Lein, and Angel's Three-City Study (Boston, Chicago, San Antonio), the researchers collectively addressed how and why welfare reform and low-wage work may not meet women's needs: 1) the labor market is not a level playing field; 2) low wage jobs do not provide family stability; 3) welfare reform has not changed life for low-income families; 4) low income family needs are not comprehensively met by the welfare system. Although some of this seemed self-evident, these sociologists provided the data to prove that welfare reform needs to incorporate flexibility so that caseworkers could enforce the policy effectively in ways that benefit families long-term (192-199).

       One thing which Democrats through President Barack Obama have enacted during his presidency is addressing some of these long-overdue problems within the welfare system by allowing more welfare recipients to attend college in across the board training programs; by instituting health care legislation; by reinforcing Early Childhood Education programs, so that child care centers have well-trained staff; and by attempting to enforce family leave and maternity leave policies at work places.

      All the problems of a broken, unresponsive system eventually bubble back upwards, as Sangati makes clear. For instance, there is no sense of family planning despite the squalor of seven to eight children per family. Bama writes:

Women rarely go into hospitals, but deliver their children at home in a makeshift way. Many women die at childbirth or soon after. Almost immediately the men marry a second time. As for birth control, the men won't do it. They say they'll lose their strength if they do. And women say that if they are sterilized in a haphazard way by people without proper training, they will not be able to work in the fields as before. (36)

Of course, many things have improved in society with regard to class tolerance and promotion of equal opportunities, starting with Mahatma Gandhi. Nevertheless, the cult of violence in Dalit communities continues to mangle women's lives and make headlines, even while more Dalits are becoming doctors, lawyers, actors, writers, and politicians.

       Written nearly eighteen years ago, and descriptive of decades before, Bama's Sangati is a gem, a diamond in the rough, because it encapsulates a myriad of timeless sociological problems and mirrors them in ways worthy of feminist interpretations. Even with its occasionally gritty realism, I highly recommend this book for everyone.

Works Cited:

Bama. Sangati [Events]. Trans. and Intro. by Lakshmi Holmstrom. New Dehli: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Henrici, Jane, Laura Lein, and Ronald J. Angel. Doing Without. Ed. Jane Henrici. Tucson: U of Arizona Press, 2006.

Kanaganayakam, Chelva, ed. & trans. Wilting Laughter: Three Tamil Poets: R. Cheran, V.I.S. Jayapalan, Puthuvai Ratnathurai. Toronto: TSAR, 2009.

Karnad, Girish. The Dreams of Tipu Sultan; Bali: The Sacrifice: Two Plays. New Dehli: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Navsarjan. "Who are Dalits?" Navsarjan. 2009. Web. 21 Sep. 2011.

"U.S. Recognizes No Caste System: Barack Obama." Indian Express, 2010. Web. 21 Sep. 2011. .

--Prepared by chriswong (for complete review, visit blu-geese.org)