I live in a different time zone, so things take a little while before they reach me.

As an aspiring sociologist, I have been taught that making one’s positionality explicit is important when conducting analyses. So here goes. I am a rich brahmin woman. I have mostly had a social science education. Close to a decade ago, I attended an elite private university for a post-grad degree. Since then, I held an elite job and am now pursuing a PhD in a foreign university. I am a self-proclaimed feminist.

At this institution, I was taught by, let’s call her Dr B. Dr B’s classes, to my early twenties’ self, were interesting at first but quickly lost their lustre. Our relationship has been nondescript; she has always been nice to me and I have reciprocated that respect.

A friend sent me an image a few hours ago with Dr B in it. As part of a fashion series, Dr B was dressing up as inspiring women from India and across the world. She had dressed up as Amrita Pritam, Anandibai Joshi and Savitribai Phule. All the Instagram and Facebook comments appreciate her fashion (I guess) and her initiative to talk about these women. The image of Savitribai Phule has been essentially standardised in our school curriculum. Here is what the recreation looked like: imagine a brahmin woman (whatever that means to you) in a red sari, characteristically draped over her head, red horizontal line across her forehead and all. She is posing using a similar stance and expression. Seeing the juxtaposed image of Dr B and Savitribai Phule sent me into a whirlwind of uncomfortableness and anger.

Let’s examine Dr B’s positionality to begin this analysis. She has a PhD. I looked up Dr B’s last name in great detail and went down a Google rabbit hole. Dr B is a brahmin woman married into a brahmin family. Taking a leaf out of White Fragility, this means, despite the many hardships she may or may not have gone through, caste discrimination is not one of them. She teaches at an elite “meritorious” private university that boasts of having no reservations (this is factually untrue; this college doesn’t have reservations for Bahujan folks, it does have an upper-caste women’s quota and, wildly ironically, an upper caste occupation based we-are-so-diverse-our-student-body-has-a-doctor-engineer-artist-musician-diversity-quota). Dr B is, among other things, a fashion influencer on Instagram and Facebook. The image that was sent to me came from her social media channels. The image was captioned with a short intro to Savitribai Phule taken from Wikipedia (I checked). Dr B describes herself as “gender equality believer”. I don’t know what that means to you, but to me, that means “feminist”.

For those who are unaware, Savitribai Phule is a Bahujan woman who, along with Jotiba Phule and Fatima Sheikh, started the first school to educate girls of all castes amidst fierce, humiliating and violent resistance from the upper caste community. She is a symbol of destroying brahminical and patriarchal hegemony over education, a symbol of resistance and revolution.

I have been reading a few books here and there on caste and race. So, with my half-baked knowledge, and staying true to my Brahmin arrogance and entitlement, let’s explore my snowflake feelings.

In an article one of my academic inspirations critically explores the feeling of ownership that Kunal Kamra felt when he invoked the name of Rohith Vemula and his mother, Radhika Vemula, while heckling Arnab Goswami on a flight. To be honest, you may as well read his article (link below); he has already made all the arguments I want to make. Also, his article is much better researched.

In dressing up as Savitribai Phule and essentially playing a twisted fashion game of who-wore-it-best, Dr B likens herself to Phule. Not only does she directly liken herself to Phule in her appearance, but also in graciously accepting all the adoration from her followers, she also stakes claim to Phule’s ideology.

This is where this gets nuanced, so pay attention. Dr B, in uncritically producing this image and deriving satisfaction from the response it got from other upper castes, equates her own “gender equality” belief to Phule’s radical intersectional feminist ideology, completely erasing caste. Black feminists such as bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins, Kimberle Crenshaw, have articulated in many different ways that the experience of being a white woman is not the same as being a Black woman. Therefore, feminism written by white women does nothing to address the concerns of Black women that are intricately linked to systemic racism perpetuated by white men and women. White feminism is performative in its inclusivity and is more interested in the upkeep of racial hierarchy than the liberation for all. In a recent article titled Feminism is Brahmanism, Anu Ramdas uses evidence to illustrate how Indian feminism, that is legitimised in academia, is repackaged Brahmanism; it systemically excludes all those who are not upper caste. Indian feminism, as we have institutionalised it, is Brahmanical feminism, solely interested in the upkeep of caste hierarchy. This Brahmanical feminism is not interested in representation, freedom or justice. How many Bahujan feminists were you made to read in any class? I can recall zero. Not even Ambedkar.

The most egregious crime is of cultural appropriation. Wikipedia defines cultural appropriation as “the adoption of an element or elements of one culture by members of another culture. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from disadvantaged minority cultures.” Dr B is clearly part of the dominant brahminical culture who is appropriating, in the name of fashion, the visual identity of Phule. This is akin to blackface; which Google defines as “the makeup used by a non-black performer playing a black role”. What is the caste equivalent of blackface? Quoting from an article about the discomfort of being a Bahujan academic in brahmin-hegemonic academia, “I don’t have caste vocabulary equivalents of mansplaining, gaslighting and virtue-signalling.” And blackface. In uncritically accepting the praise Dr B is receiving, under the garb of raising awareness, she is erasing caste resistance as a fundamental marker of Phule’s ideology. Dr B is absolving herself and the brahminical community of caste oppression. The radical ideology of Phule that stands in opposition to Brahmins is defanged.

This is not new. Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.’s fiercely anti-capitalist anti-race radical ideology has been reduced to “I have a dream”, tamed and repurposed to suit the racist American state. In packaging Phule as palatable, Dr B furthers the larger nationalist Brahmanical project. Defanging Phule and reducing her to merely a feminist as we brahmins understand it, no… wait… I mean a “gender-equal”-ist, transforms her into someone who can be harnessed for the aims of both the caste-apologist liberal and the fascist right-wing.

Additionally, Dr B, at least don’t quote your caption off Wikipedia. In an instance of both intellectual callousness and laziness, she attributes a quote made by Jotiba Phule to Savitribai in said caption. I just… can’t.

I can’t believe this has to be said. Dr B, and all of us who have propped this up and validated this by our comments and likes: Savitribai Phule DOES NOT BELONG TO US. This symbol of resistance is not ours. She belongs to Bahujans. She (and her people) stands for equality, freedom and justice. We stand for the oppressors. We are the oppressors. We, brahmins and other associated upper castes, threw stones, faeces and abuses at her (Wikipedia says so too). A much more appropriate alternative to play fancy-dress would be dressing up as an average Brahmin woman, with dung in one hand, stones in the other, and abuses streaming from our mouths. Because this is what we did. Most of what we have put into this world is steeped in discrimination and hate – against Bahujans, women and Muslims. We did not fight for the marginalised. We created them and exploited them. We have absolutely no right to their icons, to their voices of resistance. Our sins run too deep; no amount of appropriation, Ganga-jal or gau-mutra (if that is more your speed) can wash the blood off our hands.

What could Dr B have done instead? First of all, not dressed as Phule. If raising awareness was her main aim, then she should definitely stop appropriating Bahujan icons; Dr B doesn’t need to look like Phule to talk about Phule. How about including Phule in one of her courses? Or talking about the representation of Bahujan folks in elite private academic institutions? If fashion was her main aim, then she should have chosen more appropriate muses. Also, if social justice was her aim (it wasn’t), then she really should learn to pass on the mic, make space for Bahujan icons/narratives and stop stealing their voice. But mostly, Dr B should have actually read one of the people she dressed up as and engaged with their thinking in a meaningful way.

It’s taken me the better part of thirty years to develop any kind of meagre critical thinking skills. Like I said, I live in a different (Brahmanical) time zone, so things take a little while before they reach me. What’s the time in Dr B’s part of the world?

Resources:

Feminism is Brahmanism http://www.dalitweb.org/?p=4002

White Fragility https://www.amazon.com/White-Fragility-People-About-Racism/dp/0807047414

Who does Rohith belong to? http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9818:who-does-rohith-belong-to&catid=119:feature&Itemid=132

https://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9916:suicidal-ruminations-of-a-frustrated-bahujan-academic-3&catid=129:events-and-activism&Itemid=195

Author – Sanchita Dasgupta