Environmental Casteism and the Democratisation of Natural Resources: Reimagining Dalit Testimonies

Abstract

Mainstream Indian environmental movements and academic environmental histories, embedded in casteism, have overlooked the inequitable distribution of natural resources, leaving the ecological crisis facing Dalits unaddressed in both scholarly discourse and public arenas. This study aims to scrutinise the casteisation of natural resources and Dalits’ socio-ecological precariousness in two Dalit self-narratives—Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke and Bama’s Karukku. We seek to deconstruct and transform narratives about environmentalism in India, which can best proceed through the active and progressive intervention of the insecure social classes (mainly Dalits). In doing so, the study will throw light on egalitarian eco-consciousness in Dalit narratives, and highlight Dalit voices as fundamental to shaping post-colonial ecocriticism.

Keywords:

• Bama
• caste
• Dalit testimonies
• discrimination
• environment
• Kamble
• natural resources

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the two anonymous readers of South Asia for their feedback and suggestions, which have greatly helped us in revising the essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Baby Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, Maya Pandit (trans.) (Hyderabad: Orient Black Swan, 2009).

2. The Mahars are one of the largest Dalit communities in India.

3. Bama, Karukku, Lakshmi Holmström (trans.) (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012).

4. Ibid., p. xxii.

5. Ibid.

6. V.M. Ravikumar, ‘Green Democracy: Relevance of Ambedkar’s Ideas for Indian Environmentalism’, in The Journal of Tribal Intellectual Collective India, Vol. 2, no. 1 (2014), pp. 24–34.

7. Mukul Sharma, Caste and Nature: Dalits and Indian Environmental Policies (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 114.

8. Ibid., p. 117.

9. Ibid.

10. M. Rangarajan, Nature and Nation: Essays on Environmental History (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2015), p. 208.

11. Sharma, Caste and Nature, pp. xv–xvi, italics in original.

12. Subir Sinha et al., ‘The “New Traditionalist” Discourse of Indian Environmentalism’, in The Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. XXIV, no. 3 (1997), pp. 65–99 [67].

13. S. Rangarajan, Ecocriticism: Big Ideas and Practical Strategies (Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2018), p. 5.

14. The Dalit Panthers are a social organisation that seeks to combat caste discrimination. The organisation was founded by Namdeo Dhasal, Arjun Dangle, Raja Dhale and J.V. Pawar on 29 May 1972 in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The Dalit Panthers emerged to fill the vacuum created in Dalit politics when B.R. Ambedkar’s Republican Party of India split into factions. The Panthers led a renaissance in Marathi literature and art: Mamta Rajawat, Encyclopaedia of Dalits in India, Vol. 1 (New Delhi: Anmol Publication, 2004), p. 325.

15. Susie Tharu and K. Satyanarayana, The Exercise of Freedom: An Introduction to Dalit Writing (New Delhi: Navayana, 2013), p. 21.

16. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. xxix.

17. Lorraine Elliott, ‘Environmentalism’ [https://www.britannica.com/topic/environmentalism/History-of-the-environmental, accessed 2 Dec. 2020], see especially the section, ‘History of the Environmental Movement’.

18. Ramachandra Guha, ‘The Past and Present of Indian Environmentalism’, The Hindu (27 Mar. 2013) [https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-past-present-of-indian-environmentalism/article4551665.ece, accessed 11 Jan. 2021].

19. Bama, Karukku, p. xiv.

20. ‘New Traditionalism’ appeared in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries in opposition to secular liberalism and is considered to be a new phase of traditionalism. Jeffrey Stout has written about an ‘alternate philosophy’ that will create a path between New Traditionalism and secular liberalism [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_traditionalism, accessed 13 Mar. 2020].

21. Ralegan Siddhi was a watershed village development programme initiated by environmental activist Anna Hazare. In 1975, the village was adversely affected by drought and poverty. The village tank would not hold water because the embankment wall was leaking. Hazare encouraged the villagers to donate their labour to repair it, and once fixed, the seven wells below held water for the first time in living memory. In 1992, Hazare received the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India for his work in making Ralegan Siddhi a model for others to emulate.

22. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, The Use and Abuse of Nature (New Delhi: Oxford India Paperbacks, 2004), p. ix.

23. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 115.

24. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), p. 120.

25. Ibid.

26. G.D. Berreman, ‘Himalayan Rope Sliding and Village Hinduism: An Analysis’, in Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. XVII, no. 4 (1961), pp. 326–42.

27. S. Viswanathan, Dalits in Dravidian Land: Frontline Reports on Anti-Dalit Violence in Tamil Nadu, 1995–2004 (Chennai: Navayana, 2009), pp. xviii–xxx.

28. Ravikumar, ‘Green Democracy’.

29. Joseph McQuade, ‘World Earth Day: Colonialism’s Role in the Overexploitation of Natural Resources’, in Down To Earth (22 April 2019) [https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/world-earth-day-colonialism-s-role-in-the-overexploitation-of-natural-resources-64095, accessed 11 Jan. 2021].

30. Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies, Ecofeminism (London: Zed Books, 2014), p. 25.

31. Elizabeth Terzakis, ‘Marx and Nature’, in International Socialist Review, no. 109 [https://isreview.org/issue/109/marx-and-nature, accessed 21 Nov. 2020].

32. Ravikumar, ‘Green Democracy’.

33. Ibid.

34. Annu Jalais, ‘Dwelling on Morichjhanpi: When Tigers Became “Citizens”, Refugees “Tiger-Food”’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 40, no. 17 (2005), pp. 1757–62.

35. D.K. Swearer, ‘An Assessment of Buddhist Eco-Philosophy’, in Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 99, no. 2 (2006), pp. 123–37.

36. Mukul Sharma, ‘The Making of Moral Authority: Anna Hazare and the Watershed Management Programme in Ralegan Siddhi’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 41, no. 20 (2006), pp. 1981–8.

37. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 97.

38. Gopal Guru, Dalit Cultural Movement and Dalit Politics in Maharashtra (Mumbai: Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, 1997).

39. Gail Omvedt, ‘Why Dalits Dislike Environmentalists’, The Hindu (24 June 1997), p. 12.

40. Social ecology theorises the relationship between ecological and social issues and claims that the environmental crisis is a result of the hierarchical organisation of power and the authoritarian mentality rooted in the structures of our society: see Murray Bookchin, Social Ecology and Communalism (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2006).

41. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. xix.

42. Ibid.

43. Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin, Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 101.

44. Bama, Karukku, p. 79.

45. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. xxvii.

46. Ibid.

47. Mukul Sharma, ‘Observing Water Day on Ambedkar’s Birthday Is a Hollow Exercise if His Legacy on Water Is Ignored’, Scroll.in (14 April 2017) [https://scroll.in/article/834435/observing-water-day-on-ambedkars-birthday-is-a-hollow-exercise-if-his-legacy-on-water-is-ignored, accessed 30 April 2020].

48. Dhaval Desai, ‘282 Deaths in Last 4 Years: How Swachh Bharat Mission Failed India’s Manual Scavengers’, ThePrint.in (27 Jan. 2020) [https://theprint.in/india/282-deaths-in-last-4-years-how-swachh-bharat-mission-failed-indias-manual-scavengers/354116/, accessed 11 Jan. 2021].

49. Siddharthya Swapan Roy, ‘The Lake of Liberation’, in Outlook (18 April 2016), pp. 38–9 [https://magazine.outlookindia.com/story/the-lake-of-liberation/296954, accessed 11 Jan. 2021].

50. Jalais, ‘Dwelling on Morichjhanpi’, pp. 1757–62.

51. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 52.

52. Ibid., p. 54.

53. ‘Sri Ram, his consort Sita and his brother Lakshman had gone on a 14-year van vaas (stay in forest) to honour Dasharath’s promise to Kaikeyi. One day, Ram stepped out of his hut to get hold of the deer spotted by Sita. After waiting for hours, an anxious Sita asked Lakshman to go in search of Ram. Lakshman agreed to obey her command but on the condition that Sita wouldn’t step out of the house until he returns with Ram. He drew a rekha (line) around the house and asked her not to cross it. The line drawn by him was meant to shield her from a possible threat’. In modern India, a Lakshman rekha therefore refers to a strict convention or rule that must never be broken: see Times Now Digital, ‘COVID-19: This Chapter from Ramayan a Will Tell You Why You Must Not Cross the Lakshman Rekha’, Times Now News (last updated 4 April 2020) [https://www.timesnownews.com/spiritual/religion/article/covid-19-this-chapter-from-ramayana-will-tell-you-why-you-must-not-cross-the-lakshman-rekha/573388, accessed 24 Nov. 2020].

54. Huggan and Tiffin, Postcolonial Ecocriticism, p. 4.

55. Bama, Karukku, p. 7.

56. Gail Omvedt, Understanding Caste: From Buddha to Ambedkar and Beyond (Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2011), p. 53.

57. Huggan and Tiffin, Postcolonial Ecocriticism, p. 52.

58. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. xix.

59. Sharma, ‘The Making of Moral Authority’, p. 1984.

60. Ibid., p. 1986.

61. Sunita Narain, Why I Should Be Tolerant (Delhi: Centre for Science and Environment, 2016), p. 42.

62. Huggan and Tiffin, Postcolonial Ecocriticism, p. 5.

63. Val Plumwood, Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason (New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 138.

64. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 18.

65. Jalais, ‘Dwelling on Morichjhanpi’, pp. 1757–62.

66. Bama, Karukku, p. 25.

67. Ibid., p. 26.

68. Ibid., p. 28.

69. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 75.

70. Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai, The Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Experience and Theory (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 100.

71. Ibid., p. 98.

72. In his Ramcharitmanas, Tulsi Das wrote: ‘Dhol Ganwar Shudra Pashu Nari Sakal Taadana Ke Adhikari’, which can be translated as ‘Drums, the illiterate, lower caste, animals and women deserve a beating to straighten up and get their acts together’: Tulsi Das, Ramcharitmanas (Geeta Press, 2015), TR. 5, Sundar Kand, Ch. 59.3.

73. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 98. The culprit behind these acts was usually none other than the sasu (mother-in-law); as Kamble further notes: ‘It’s because of the sasu, who would poison her son’s mind. These sasus ruined the lives of innocent women forever’: ibid.

74. Sinha et al., ‘The “New Traditionalist” Discourse of Indian Environmentalism’, pp. 79–80.

75. Bama, Karukku, p. 16.

76. Huggan and Tiffin, Postcolonial Ecocriticism, p. 57.

77. Indira Chowdhury, ‘Book Review: Environmental Issues in India: A Reader’, in Conservation and Society, Vol. 6, no. 3 (2007), pp. 271–2.

78. Rede Jatra was celebrated in Maharashtra by lower-caste people such as Mahars (Dalits), which is why it is not often mentioned in mainstream history. Kamble writes: ‘Rede Jatra was an extremely important event, considered to be a gift the Mahars had received directly from Indra, the king of the gods’: Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 30. A buffalo was therefore offered to Indra at Rede Jatra.

79. Kancha Ilaiah, Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2019).

80. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 104. ‘Mayavel’, a Gujarati Dalit folk song, describes the sacrifice of Maya, a Dalit, in order to bring water to a cursed and dry pond: ‘Brahmanas recited ved mantras and poured offerings / And then, arrived the time for the final sacrifice / And, then, Maya’s head was served (sic) and offered… / Whose blood had turned into water / In that water bathed shavati, bathed the Brahmins…’: quoted in Sharma, In Caste and Nature, pp. xiii–xiv

81. Sharma, Caste and Nature, pp. 90–1.

82. Sharankumar Limbale, Akkarmashi: The Outcaste, Santosh Bhoomkar (trans.) (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 50.

83. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 70.

84. Sunita Narain, ‘First, Justify Jallikattu?’, DownToEarth.org.in [https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/wildlife-biodiversity/first-justify-jallikattu–56880, accessed 20 Mar. 2020].

85. Bama, Karukku, p. 59.

86. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 91.

87. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. xii.

88. Bama, Karukku, p. 55.

89. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 61.

90. Jotiba Phule, Gulamgiri (Slavery), M.G. Bhagat (trans.) (New Delhi: Samyak Prakashan, 2019 [1873]), p. 30.

91. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 39.

92. Bama, Karukku, p. 72.

93. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 94.

94. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 38.

95. Ibid., pp. 43–4.

96. Kancha Ilaiah, Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economy (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2019), p. 16.

97. Bama, Karukku, p. 48.

98. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 49.

99. Akhila Naik, Bheda, Raj Kumar (trans.) (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017).

100. Jayanta Bandyopadhyay and Vandana Shiva, ‘Ecological Sciences—A Response to Ecological Crises’, in Jayanta Bandyopadhyay (ed), India's Environment: Crises and Responses (Dehradun: Natraj Publishers, 1985), pp. 198–211 [201].

101. Naik, Bheda, p. 41.

102. Ashish Kothari and Anuprita Patel, Environment and Human Rights: An Introductory Essay and Essential Readings (New Delhi: National Human Rights Commission, 2006), p. 12.

103. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 212.

104. Ravikumar, Venomous Touch: Notes on Caste, Culture and Politics, R. Azhagarasan (trans.) (Kolkata: Samya, 2007), p. 246.

105. Dashrath Manjhi (1929–2007) was a Musahar, a Kabirpanthi (follower of Kabir) and a kamia (bonded labourer), and was known as the Mountain Man. He single-handedly excavated a hill 360 feet long and 25 feet high to create a sixteen-foot pass in place of the almost impenetrable naturally hilly space: Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 230.

106. Bama, Karukku, p. 52.

107. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 105.

108. Sharma, Caste and Nature, p. 248.

109. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 86.

110. Ibid., p. 110.

111. M. Rangarajan, Environmental Issues in India: A Reader (New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2007), p. 40.

112. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 104.

113. Mark Juergensmeyer, Religious Rebels in the Punjab: The Ad Dharm Challenge to Caste (New Delhi: Navayana Publication, 2009), p. 51.

114. Kamble, The Prisons We Broke, p. 119.

115. Kancha Ilaiah, Post-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution (New Delhi: Sage, 2009).