Long live colonization, courtesy data.
What fancy terms will sociologists give this -being told how to live in 2009? being told you little beggars clean your mess we need to drive clean cars in our clean cities, we need our monuments a glistening! Neo-liberal scientific data-induced colonization?
This is not about rich countries imposing their will on poor countries, or of a class struggle between states. The goals that must be met are being dictated by scientific studies and assessments. Climate change has crowned a new absolute power: the power of science, whose findings are now determining the very existence of the world’s entire population.
Funny isn’t it? where and what is modern science? where is this data generated? its practioners with a voice in global affairs are in rich countries they uniformly are from and represent the upper classes. Some of these also come from developing countries like India, take our Copenhagen returning minister, an elite with super fancy degrees, who probably never had to sit in the middle of cracked parched land waiting for the rains, or waited in line for a pot of water.
We send such ministers to go tell the West to cut their consumption and take responsibility for the World mess they got us in. And what we get are ministers returning with a small money bag ($30 billion to be shared by all poor nations). Starving populations, drought wracked earth, water depleted tracts of agriculture and forest lands, disappearing coasts, submerging islands, send the marginalized and their progeny straight down a futureless future. And call it a good deal!!
India’s Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, has said, “India has a good deal” in the Climate Draft negotiated by US President Barack Obama with India, China, Brazil and South Africa (who are negotiating an international climate treaty as the BASIC group).
Indian officials noted that the US-brokered deal had addressed India’s concerns adequately, although some improvements could be made.
“What we said was that with regard to supported (climate) actions, that is those actions for which we are receiving financial resources or we are receiving technology, with respect to those actions, we have no difficulty with international scrutiny, including reporting measurement, verification,” Saran said.
But, as far as India’s “unsupported” or voluntary actions are concerned, it is ready to report them as part and parcel of its national communication to the UN Framework Convention on Climate (UNFCC).
Good deal Indeed!
I appreciate the honesty of this:
Developing countries expressed outrage that threats to the very existence of some nations were ignored. A session that carried into the early hours of this morning hit a low point when a Sudanese delegate compared the five-nation agreement to Holocaust, because it would leave small island nations at risk of being submerged by rising seas and that large swaths of Africa would be turned into agricultural wastelands as temperatures rise.
Image from here.
Category citizens
Wedded to the past? Really?
Usual response to caste system and atrocities by categories of Indian Citizens:
Category a) Literate, employed, salaried, insured persons in urban India:
“Caste system does not exist, untouchability is a bygone phenomenon, used by present day dalits to grab political and economic gains.”
Category a1) Indian academics, the same class of citizenry as above albeit with important sounding verbiage:
Category a2) NRI’s to some interested phirang’s curiosity to above article:
a2) “Perhaps, Chapra is not in our country!”
Phirang: “It says 70 km from Patna.”
a2) “Oh Patna, you mean Bihar? Oh that is not India!”
a1) Beloved academia’s take on the same:
Since all we ever hear is from a), a1) and a2) either in popular media or from academia, we could perhaps ask who exactly they are?
1) citizen a) are you a dalit?
2) citizen a1) are you a musahar?
3) citizen a2) are you a bangi?
What percentage of Indian citizens are likely to be a), a1) and a2) and positively affirm these questions?
To what percentage of a), a1) and Bihar visiting a2) does the state of Bihar not exist? What remote possibility of a), a1) and a2) dying the death of Manoj Kumar Majhi? If the answer is nil, does it mean the state exists for these categories?
Just who might you all be? In this caste less, atrocities punishable, equal opportunity providing, civilized human dignity guaranteeing, ancient-modern value laden country = Democratic, Socialist, Republic?
—-
Response to above article from non a) categories of citizens:
b) Landed, political-socio-economic controllers in rural India:
“Salle, Hope it is a lesson for the rest!”
c) The rest:
“What was Manoj Kumar Mahji thinking?”
This, my beloved country!
To free it for the rest of the citizens to breathe, to be human, to sit on a f**king chair without being bloody murdered, to be free of murderers, rapists, greed and power suffused self-glorifying organisms passing for humans -this makes sense “to be absolutely free of the past, requires total revolution, “
And to this bit of correctness: ”historical suffering and the experience of violence have ground claims to rights, recognition, and social redistribution“
Dear a1) maybe we want to cleanse our souls not with any damn recognition and redistribution at your hands but with blood, maybe this here below comes closer to how we feel.
“colonialism hinduism is not a thinking machine nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its most natural state … and will only yield when confronted with greater violence.”
Rise to learn and act
Rise to learn and Act
Weak and oppressed! Rise my brother
Come out of living in slavery.
Manu-follower Peshwas are dead and gone
Manu’s the one who barred us from education.
Givers of knowledge –the English have come
Learn, you’ve had no chance in a millennium.
We’ll teach our children and ourselves to learn
Receive knowledge, become wise to discern.
An upsurge of jealousy in my soul
Crying out for knowledge to be whole.
This festering wound, mark of caste
I’ll blot out from my life at last.
In Baliraja’s kingdom, let’s beware
Our glorious mast, unfurl and flare.
Let all say, “Misery go and kingdom come!”
Awake, arise and educate
Smash traditions-liberate!
We’ll come together and learn
Policy-righteousness-religion.
Slumber not but blow the trumpet
O Brahman, dare not you upset.
Give a war cry, rise fast
Rise, to learn and act.
+++
Sunil Sardar and Victor Paul have translated this poem along with four other poems for a chapter in a lovely new book titled: A forgotten liberator: The life and struggles of Savitribai Phule. These poems were translated from M.G. Mali’s original marathi collection Savitribai Phule Samagra Wangmaya.
This book is a first of its kind in English on the social reformer and first woman teacher of India Savitribai Phule, by independent authors.
Indian history is not just porous and one sided but is often a naked lie for and about the large majority of people who were once forbidden any formal education under the caste system. It would have us believe that this vast humanity produced no thoughts and actions worthy of mention in its pages. Occasionally stray strands do get woven into this brutally selective reading of the past like the 9th century Saint Nandanaar and 13th century Janabai. These are names that have escaped and appear in literature inadvertently; perhaps a rare occurrence of negligence in the maintenance of tightly clamped literary facilities. The hegemonic majority treats any acknowledgement of original, radical thoughts and actions emanating from the lower castes akin to radiation leaks. It has to be avoided at all costs and they use every single resource they command to do so. However, when such histories are far too powerful to fall into the usual traps of appropriation and co-option, they have the strategy of just saying and writing nothing about it. Stonily waiting for the collective memory to erase itself over generations.
In the last century a small group of people from within the lower castes have emerged to retell Indian history. This they do by finally claiming and owning the alphabet, taking us to the ones who made it possible; Savitribai Phule and her husband Jyotirao Phule, the visionary educators and social reformers. How cruel and effective a system we face, when this lady who in the mid-late 1800’s sought English as a liberating tool for the masses, only now in the year 2009 an independent well researched book on her life and achievements gets published in English!! This effort has been done by a group of dedicated scholars and researchers on their own steam. To the marginalized these efforts come as iridescent showers of enlightenment connecting us to the vibrant ancestors and their vision of an egalitarian society, their compassion and empathy rooting us firmly back to this soil. We stop feeling like ahistorical entities as we begin reading about the life and struggles of Savitribai Phule. A feeling of sudden awakening grips and removes the hovering disconnectedness for members of the oppressed communities, to whom she dedicated her life!
The startling strength and razor sharp intellect of this pioneer leader taking on society’s myriad evil and unquestioned practices of inequality among humans and between men and women is stunning in its forcefulness and sincerity. We receive this rare and fantastic effort of bringing out a book on Savitribai Phule like a sparkling oasis to quench the thirst of a million throats, charging us with fresh energy to continue on with her legacy.
I chose this poem of the five in this book as it brings us closer to the multifaceted personality of a reformer whose engaged poetry weaves her politics into her verses. In them one gets a glimpse of the mind of a woman completely dedicated to education of the downtrodden. Her impatience to see them empowered, her conviction that knowledge alone is the ingredient for salvation of people caught in unending cycles of servitude and destitution speaks volumes. Her revolutionary call to shake of the mantle of ignorance and fear of scriptures can be grasped only in the background of a time when her husband and she were ostracized from their family and home as they feared a backlash against the couple’s move to educate women and untouchables.
The undisputed place Savthribai Phule holds as the pioneer in women and human rights movements in India at a glance below:
| Events | Year |
| Birth of SavitriBai.(Naigaon,Tha. Khandala Dist. Satara) Father’s name- Khandoji Nevse, Mother’s name- Laxmi. | 3rd Jan.1831 |
| Marriage with Jotirao Phule. | 1840 |
| Education started. | 1841 |
| Passed third and fourth year examination from Normal school. | 1846-47 |
| Started school with Sagunabai in Maharwada. | 1847 |
| Country’s first school for girls was started at Bhide’s wada in Pune and Savitribai was nominated as the first head mistress of the school. | 1 Jan.1848 |
| School for adults was started at UsmanSheikh’s wada in Pune. Left home with Jotirao for educating Shudra and ati Shudra’s . | 1849 |
| First public Til-Gul programme was arranged by Mahila Seva Mandal. | 14 Jan.1852 |
| Phule family was honoured by British government for their works in the field of education and Savtribai was declared as the best teacher. | 16 Nov.1852 |
| Infanticide prohibition home was started. | 28 Jan.1853 |
| Prize giving ceremony was arranged under the chairmanship of Major Candy. | 12 Feb.1853 |
| “Kavya Phule”-the first collection of poems was published. | 1854 |
| A night school for agriculturist and labourers was started. | 1855 |
| ‘Lecture’s of Jyotiba’ was published. | 25 Dec.1856 |
| Orphanage was started. | 1863 |
| Opened the well to untouchables. | 1868 |
| Adopted son of Kashibai, a Brahmin Widow’s Child. | 1874 |
| Done important work in famine and started 52 free food hostels in Maharashatra. | 1876 to 1877 |
| Adopted son, Dr.Yashwant was married to the daughter of Sasane. | 4 Feb.1889 |
| Death of her husband Jotirao Phule . | 28 Nov. 1890 |
| Chairperson of Satya Shodhak Samaj Conference at Saswad. | 1893 |
| Again famine in Maharashtra. Forced government to start relief work. | 1896 |
| Plague epidemic in Pune.Had done social work during this hour. | 1897 |
| Died while serving the Plague paitents during plague epidemic. | 10 March 1897 |
| Centenary year in Maharashtra and National honour. | 10 March 1997 to 98 |
| Government of India honored her by publishing a postage stamp. | 10 March 1998 |
=============
Source: A forgotten liberator: The life and struggles of Savthribai Phule. Page 66.
Edited by
Braj Ranjan Mani
Pamela Sardar.
Update: A earlier NCERT book on the life of Savithribai Phule is also available.
Melanin rich Dalits
This conversation here reminded me of this first post i had written, it is one of the posts that is most regularly read for some odd reason, readers use the tag ‘dark indian girl’ to reach here, i wonder about it sometimes 
.
Valli’s Beauty
Not the Tamil God’s tribal consort, but just someone known to me. Valli, husband and young son arrived in Bangalore as migrants. What they sought? What they got? Interesting line of inquiry, but, here, I want only to share few stories that I heard from Valli.
Valli did not land in the usual receptacles meant for poor villagers fleeing drought and other nasties, i.e, the sprawling slums of Bangalore city. Instead, she got housing within the grounds of a regal bungalow owned by an elite Anglo-Indian family, thanks to husband’s green fingers. He was hired as the resident gardener. Valli, got into the bungalow routine. Thus, knew the tea-making, serving and other genteel stuff.
Valli as I remember her then, was in her late thirties, around 5′2, very dark skinned, not the blotchy kind, but the uniform shade, with even facial features. She wore thick rimmed glasses, giving her the appearance of a stern professor with an exotic hairstyle. Wish I could draw, for describing that style is difficult. Hair was tucked in a way that had the ends of her tresses framed around her head in a fan shaped arrangement. Her gait was proud and erect. Her form was slender.
Death of the aging patrons, brought Valli and family to the slums. A reluctant Valli started as housemaid and baby sitter to families in the neighborhood. She gained the reputation of being a loyal but fastidious worker. In the meantime, the extended family from the village kept coming into the city, in a steady stream. As the drought did not go away, the elections always got over, with it, promises of better rural life, while other nasties just got nastier. Valli kept track of the in coming clan members, doing her best to keep the men from succumbing to alcohol, and women from prostitution.
Valli and husband, could never do enough for their only son. The story of her becoming a mother after many years of marriage, was recounted in great detail, every moment of motherhood was magnified for Valli. Poor eyesight had always plagued her. She would tear up while recalling near total blindness, for the first three years of her son’s life. The way she traced her baby’s features and kept him safe from danger, always transfixed her listeners. Herbal medicines and glasses helped her regain her sight to some extent.
When it was time to find a bride for the beloved son, Valli was teased by other women, where will you find the perfect girl? Are you going to find him a fair one? No, was the prompt reply. “Amman pola”, meaning dark like the village goddess, she said. She was dead serious and would explain in her clear voice, that in her community pale skinned girls were not sought after. Beauty is dark. Period.
Take home messages for me from Valli’s anecdotes came in handy at different points.
It took me a long time to realize that girls like me in School were not part of any cultural activities (read on-stage), not because we lacked grace in our movements, or articulation in our voices, but simply because we had little too much melanin. Did not do too much harm to my psyche, though (I am dark and thick skinned, I guess).
A sometime Sunday activity by girls in my hostel, was reading aloud the Hindu matrimonial ads, each girl would pick her community section and read it out, to the sneering rest. We concluded, here within the pages of Hindu matrimonial ads was the sign that Indians were indeed unified. No matter what caste, profession, age, or whatever, they all sought a FAIR girl.
As I follow arguments all over the world about objectifying women’s bodies and its effects, the manner in which Valli objectified, her would be daughter-in-law, always amuses me. For the sheer counterpoint it brings to the prevailing notion of a Nation obsessed with light skin. Then again, Valli spoke about her community, probably there are more Indians out there who are not terrified of the ‘pigment’. Just that their voices are not in all the noise that gets heard.
Bleeding out in the thirties
Attended the book reading of ‘Mathematics of sex’.
The book ought to be valuable for all interested in the gender question though the data is specific to the US, issues dealt within it should be relevant anywhere. Definitely contains lots of thinking material for parents with girls.
The review goes something like this:
Nearly half of all physicians and biologists are females, as are the majority of new psychologists, veterinarians, and dentists, suggesting that women have achieved equality with men in the workforce. But the ranks of professionals in math-intensive careers remain lopsidedly male; up to 93% of tenure-track academic positions in some of the most mathematically-oriented fields are held by men. Three main explanations have been advanced to explain the dearth of women in math-intensive careers, and in The Mathematics of Sex, Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams describe and dissect the evidence for each. The first explanation involves innate ability--male brains are physiologically optimized to perform advanced mathematical and spatial operations; the second is that social and cultural biases inhibit females' training and success in mathematical fields; the third alleges that women are less interested in math-intensive careers than are men, preferring people-oriented pursuits. Drawing on research in endocrinology, economics, sociology, education, genetics, and psychology to arrive at their own unique, evidence-based conclusion, the authors argue that the problem is due to certain choices that women (but not men) are compelled to make in our society; that women tend not to favor math-intensive careers for certain reasons, and that sex differences in math and spatial ability cannot adequately explain the scarcity of women in these fields. The Mathematics of Sex represents the first time such a thorough synthesis of data has been carried out to solve the puzzle of women's underrepresentation in math-intensive careers.
------
Here, I am trying to put down the highlights of the more interesting part of the reading -the Q and A session with authors Stephen and Wendy.
Audience: Maybe two men and many women and girls who don’t need a book or statistics to tell them what they live through as most came from math intensive departments. They were there to confirm or contest the major observations in the book.
Wendy: It is a non issue with lopsided numbers in any area as long as it was because women made an informed decision about not being in those careers, however it has to be analyzed and rectified if the numbers reflect some unconscious and conscious biases towards making and sticking it out with these careers.
Stephen emphasized that girls were better or equal mathematicians right through school, and the first drop in numbers begins in the choice they make for undergraduate courses, the ones who persist and opt for math intensive graduate courses continue performing just as well as the boys. After Ph.D, females are still on par with their male colleagues in job placements, renumeration, publishing, advancements etc. However, in their thirties a major bleeding out of females from math intensive careers happens.
Wendy took over to say, the need for having a family and unwillingness to relegate childrearing to third party (nannies) is one of the big reasons for this age/stage specific drop out. Analyzing this it is evident that women cannot postpone their decision to bear children if they want to avoid infertility issues with older age. However, this period also critically co-incides with the time when high productivity is expected of young faculty and women take the drastic decision to drop out of careers that they had invested and excelled in all along. Usually never to get back to the system.
Is this an individual loss or loss to the country? The country has invested equally heavily in the training of these women and just when they are about to make a contribution, they reach this impasse. The female attrition is a big loss to the country just as it is to the personal.
Responses that I recall which were interesting, amusing and insightful:
1) A girl from math dept: is there data to show fall in female representation as one goes higher in heiarchy of elite institutes? if the usual explanations don’t account for this, would it indicate sexism is more prevalent in these places?
Others from the same dept : “Of course !”
2) What about non math-intensive careers, why is there no drastic fall there, the biology and early to mid-career demands for high productivity must exist for say law? How have the women overcome this?
Authors answer: Those careers are equally demanding and one does see a fall in the highest levels and few women make it partners, yet such jobs seem to be a little more friendlier to decisions of family and work. And Wendy wondered if it has also to do with female preference for careers that provide an interface with people, making it bearable to hang on in tough times, unlike math-intensive careers which can be isolating.
(I found the answers unsatisfactory. None of this explains 93% male domination.)
3) Another student from math dept, detailed how she started to see fewer and fewer females as she went into higher levels. And contested the data in the book that there were equal number of females at the graduate level. She said in her experience she found herself usually among the very few or sometimes the only one.
Response from a much older faculty: “Looks like little has changed from my time ” to the younger women’s chuckling and sound of weary laughter at all these revelations!!
4) A male student: How come motherhood becomes so important that women take such decisions, the man is the parent too, why does he not have the same response?
Authors: It is changing to some extent.
A mother of 1 year old: “Have to run to pick up my baby (it was after 5.30pm), but want to say my bit, something happens post childbirth, maybe hormones or something that clicks into the mother not the father.”
Student to this:” Really? Interesting! what hormones does one need to clean the bathroom?”
Wendy: When women give up the decision to have families/children then they are exactly like their male colleagues, so none of theories on brain apititute, biases etc are needed.
5) Question: In the 6% of women who have managed to remain in their careers and reach the top positions, is there data on how many of them chose not to have families and how many have families?
Authors: No clear data, but most of these women are non American, immigrants from European countries, where math ed. is always a push. So, once identified as good in math, the entire system gets them to focus only to enhance their aptitude in it.
Response to this: How does that explain the US having lower numbers of women excelling in math?
Wendy: That is a paradox, one would expect women from more patriarchal societies (Turkey), with lesser freedom to make choices would lead to them not taking up math-intensive careers but the data shows otherwise. One wonders if when presented with choice, women inherently choose what is more satisfying of their need to be in non-isolating careers?
Indicators of solutions (from random reading over the years):
Studying department structures and cultures-
Departmental attrition data from one state show that the difference between male and female rates of undergraduate attrition from computer science varies by institution. This analysis suggests that departmental factors are important in attrition from CS. Some CS departments inhibit female persistence at the undergraduate level while other departments promote persistence. The observed variation encourages research that compares departmental characteristics such as structure and culture, and relates them to departmental outcomes. Shifting the research focus to departmental characteristics and outcomes will identify effective methods for retaining women.
By taking a hard look at work-family policies-
Employee Assistance Plans, dependent care flexible spending accounts, and emergency child care are associated with increases in the percentage of associates who are female. Second, these policies are linked to reductions in the turnover rates of associates. This, combined with the first finding, indicates that work-family policies help retain female employees. Overall, these findings suggest that firm provision of work-family policies can play an important role in retaining female employees without hurting firm profitability.
Additional useful material is here
Jani
I wrote a post for Pavada about Sant Janabai. This however is not Janabai’s portrait . I just like it.
I didn’t find many images of this Maharashtrain poet from the 13th century. But a few translations of her abhangs are available online, this is how i read her now, quite sure it will change as time goes by and i hope to find some more reference material on her, a few though are heading my way from inter library loans. Here is one of her reprimands to God for neglecting her:
O you Vithya Vithya
nasty brat of the original illusion,
your widow has become a whore
and wears bangles of Savitri,
your corpse has been carried away,
seeing it, even death cries.
standing in her courtyard
Jani curses you!
Elsewhere she tells him:
O God I have lost your love
and will not serve you again
there is nothing special about you
your vanity turns me away.
why should I fear your anger?
your strength depends on me.
—-
Source: Janabai and Kanhopatra: A study of two women sants. Sarah Sellergen.
Images of Maharashtrian women in literature and religion. Anne Feldhaus.
UN begins to move on caste discrimination
“The most widespread, pernicious and intractable form of discrimination on EARTH”. Pay attention to the very last bit on religion. Every word is worth its weight in gold, or may be platinum.
(i listened to this short speech the second time with my eyes closed, the two ladies are beautifully distracting )
Translating the body inside the head
While reading this if there are some kannada speaking ones, please let me know what you think of this vacana. I love listening to it, but cannot fathom it at all.
This one below is a lot easier.
—–
Lord, if you will listen, listen;
If you won’t, don’t—
I can’t bear to live without singing of you.
If you will look, look;
If you won’t, don’t—
I can’t bear life unless I look at you and be happy.
If you will agree, agree;
If you won’t, don’t—
I can’t bear life unless I embrace you.
If you will be pleased, be pleased,
If you won’t, don’t—
I can’t bear life unless I worship you.
O Channamallikarjuna, jasmine-tender,
Offering you worship, I will play
On the swing of happiness. [Chaitanya, p. 33] (This sounds like this in kannada.)
—–
So simple to translate, or is it? I have two colleagues taking a go at it, one in Spanish and the other in Hebrew for Pavada, both believe that they will be able to do a fairly good job of it. I am very curious though to know how they read and interpret it. Of course like me their grounding is biology, so God, worship etc is hmmmm. But Akkamahadevi’s vacanas is not godliness as much as spiritual in content. Which I am using as a start of sorts to understand how Indian women perceive their bodies and all that it entails, my first attempt is here on Pavada blog. If you are wondering what it has to do with this blog? The dalit world, is all about control of the mind via control over our bodies by the oppressor, be it in labor exploitation -mostly manual comprising both genders or in sexual exploitation -largely women. For long I believed that scientific/biological awareness of the body would help in loosening the tightly wound coils of physical and hence psychological oppression. But then if the educated women (all castes/classes) knew the biological significance of menstruation, would they still be having notions of impurity associated with it? The body can be explained through biology, but it will still clash with the inherited understanding of the body, that we receive from our cultural-historical milieu. It leads to what we do so well, partition our brains into modern and pre-modern/ logical and illogical selfs. So an attempt to understand the other non biological bodies in our heads is necessary, at least to me.
Source: Songs for Shiva. Vacanas of Akka Mahadevi. Translated by Vinaya Chaitanya.
Videos: Youtube.
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