Caste and Gender: Scrutiny to Society

Caste and Gender are inextricably related to each other. Both play a parallel part in scrutinizing the society. Although as an impact caste has wider impact on gender. Where on one hand we have Shri Rama Chandra as the one of the most prayed personality of Hindu’s, we on the other hand are denying the role of a patriarch he played in scrutinizing his wife’s life, by the exclamation of a washer man(lower caste) on her character. Despite of getting through with the ‘Agni Pariksha’, Sita was forced to go to exiles.

The role of caste in the above mentioned example is a type of direct impact on caste, where a King like Rama was forced to question her wife’s character just because a lower caste (washer man) had raised a question on Rama’s justice of accepting an abandoned once wife.

Although caste according to Dr. B.R Ambedkar is, “graded inequality arranged n order of decreasing contempt and increasing reverence”. The main issue in dealing with caste related issue is that, people who own the means of production, also own the ‘symbolic means of production’. This statement herein brings the picture of class in comparison to gender and caste.

Another feature of caste based discrimination is one that, those who suffer from caste based discrimination have not accepted their identities and have rather shifted from one of the identity, probably, to Buddhism.

Now the question claiming the Caste and Gender relationship deepens as the debate progresses. I would here like to state forward the discriminations, not from the caste point of view rather, from the caste upon gender (women) point of view. Any and every caste has some features to portray its dominance, in India, we have multiplicity of caste based dominations, somewhere it is Brahmins and somewhere it is the Maulvi’s ruling over the minds of people. But the impact these people make over gender is reflect of much dominant domination. Since the women are not the bread-owners in most of the Indian families, they suffer with the economic dependency upon their mates. This economic dependency indeed makes them the prey male dominated world, patriarchy.

Putting forward the discriminations, the inclination was firstly from the past old aged India, in which Patriarchal domination was carried on by the famous and most prayed, like Rama. Late in the contemporary India, the figures speak in favor of ‘Shahbano Case’. A case with implications of history and future both was said to be of a Muslim woman who demanded ‘alimony’ from her husband after divorce, but unfortunately her caste (being Muslim), debarred her from getting any financial help from her ex-husband, and according to Muslim code law, husband after giving ‘Talaq’ to her wife owes no responsibility of hers.

Secondly, the most wondered example of contemporary India is based on an effort of Kirori Mal College Lady professor, who claimed to have Mother’s name in the secondary school examination certificate, and she won the fight when CBSE in late 90’s issued a referendum stating that, there will be Mother’s name written in the secondary school examination certificate.

Relationship between ideology and production relations are also a reflection of caste and gender based relations. The monopoly of knowledge over the hands of Brahmanas and concomitant barring of knowledge to the lowest caste. Here the synchronization of gender and caste is that, women belonging to lower caste were not capable of gaining education but, even the women of upper caste were denied the right of knowledge. The role of women was made limited as home maker(S), and in case of lower caste women’s role was considered materially important as the source of labor. One of such reflection is of ‘Gargi’s question to Yagnavalkya’ in which Gargi being women intellectual was denied the right to speak and question from within the powers of her brain. Though she had gained education, but she being women cannot a great mind like Yagnavalkya.

Conclusion:

Women’s role in economy, which appears to have been highly valued, was enhanced by the importance attached to the reproductive role of women. The economic power to women can only seem to be the right pathway for recognition.