Listening to the Call for Social Justice: On Ambedkarite Womenâ€™s Songs and Poetic Expressions from Maharashtra, India

Smita M. Patil

doi:10.32351/rca.v8.336

Authors

Smita M. Patil School of Gender and Development Studies, IGNOU, New Delhi, India https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0473-8152

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32351/rca.v8.336

Política de Crossmark DOI: https://doi.org/10.32351/politica-crossmark

Keywords:

Artistic activism, Caste, Gender, Culture, Maharashtra, Jalasa, Ambedkarite

Abstract

This paper attempts to engage with the artistic activism of Ambedkarite feminists from Maharashtra. It tries to analyze some of the modes of their artistic engagement within the other forms of activism of Dalits in Maharashtra in particular and India in general. Drawing on Marathi sources, one of the core interests of the paper is to delve into the social-political worlds of women activists that propagate Ambedkar’s core principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. At the same time, the ways in which Dalit women reflect on the questions of caste, gender and patriarchy will be analyzed in the context of the field of artistic (re)production of culture as a counter culture to the mainstream culture of India. Cultural practices of Maharashtra will be analyzed as a departure from the conventional folklore readings in order to differentiate its structured dispositions, bodily nuances and so on. Distinct art forms and poetic engagements among the marginalized sections will be subjected to close reading as well, especially the genres of Ovi, Powadas, Jalasa, Buddhageet and Bheemgeet. It thus turned into the weapons of the Dalits to unleash their political tirade against the Brahmanic culture. Hence it creates spaces for ontological and epistemic investigations within the rubric of Dalit culture. Thus, the primary and secondary sources and narratives will be deployed while researching artistic activism of Ambedkarite women in the context of songs and poetic expressions. This paper tries to explore the artistic activism of Ambedkarite feminists from Maharashtra.

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Author Biography

Smita M. Patil, School of Gender and Development Studies, IGNOU, New Delhi, India

Is currently an Assistant Professor in School of Gender & Development Studies, IGNOU, New Delhi, India. She earned her M.Phil and PhD from Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is recipient of International fellowship such as FUR Fellowships for Dalai Lama Studies,2022, Asia Leadership Fellowship Program, Japan, 2017, Research Excellence Program USC-India (PEIN) Fellowship, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 2014, the Australia-India Council Junior Fellowship at National Centre for Australian Studies of Monash University, Melbourne,2011-2012, as well as national fellowships like Dr. Avabai Wadia & Dr. Bomanji Khurshedji Wadia Archives for Women Fellowship, 2021, Doctoral Fellowship of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and Indian Council, of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Delhi. Her most recent publications are on Law of One`s Own? On Dalit Women`s Arduous Struggles for Social Justice Economic & Political Weekly, (Online), 2021, Gender Equity and COVID-19: Dalit Standpoints, Economic & Political Weekly, (Online), 2021, Class, Caste and Gender published in the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2016, Reading Caste, Gender and Sexuality in Dalit Writings in Journal, Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, 2014, Revitalising Dalit Feminism: Towards Reflexive, Anti-Caste Agency of Mang and Mahar Women in Maharashtra, Review of Women`s Studies, Economic & Political Weekly, 2013. Her areas of interest are women`s and gender studies, gender and law, political and social theory, caste and gender, identity politics and education.

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