Abstract
One of the liveliest debates in women’s studies concerns the extent to which feminist theory and practice derive solely from the experiences of white, Western, largely middle class women. The emergence of women’s movements in the Third World has undoubtedly challenged the association of Western with feminist. However, the problem is not so easily resolved; at least in South Asia, women’s movements are located precisely among the Westernized urban middle classes.
Unite all you workers and brothers,
Get rid of your liquor,
Oh workers and brothers,
Get rid of your gambling. . .
composed and sung by Tribal women in Dhulia district,
Maharashtra
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Notes
The term tribal has been rightly criticized for its racist, evolutionary Darwinian implications, its usage to readily identify groups so defined in different parts of the world and its assumption that tribals were or continue to be autochthonous, isolated groups which eschewed slash-and-burn agriculture in favor of settled agricultural production. Research dispels these assumptions and shows that Indian tribals cannot be identified with any one form of economic production, religious belief or racial origin include S. C. Dube, “Introduction,” in S. C. Dube ed., Tribal Heritage of India, vol. I (New Delhi: 1977), p. 2; N. K. Bose, Tribal Life in India (New Delhi: OUP, 1987), p. 4; and David Hardiman, The Coming of the Devi: Adivasi Assertion in Western India (Delhi: OUP, 1987), pp. 11–15. The term “adivasi,” which literally means first settlers, suffers from some of the same misleading assumptions as tribal. (On this point see Gail Omvedt, “Are Adivasis Subaltern?” Economic and Political Weekly, Sept. 24, 1988, p. 2001. Although it is assumed to be indigenous, the term was coined by a Hindu social worker in the 1930s. Like “tribal,” the term “adivasi” lumps together diverse groups. However, unlike “tribal,” “adivasi” is used by the Bhils to describe themselves and does not carry pejorative connotations. As Hardiman notes, it calls attention to a sense of collective identity which has emerged over the past century as a result of exploitation by outside groups.
Research for this project was conducted in Maharashtra, first from December 1978-March 1980, and then between January and March 1985 and in January 1987. Unless other sources are cited, all comments by Shramik Sangathana activists, government officials and village men and women are drawn from interviews I conducted during these visits. This paper constitutes a part of a larger comparative analysis of agrarian protest in West Bengal and Maharashtra. My findings are elaborated in a book entitled Why Indian Peasant Women Protest (University of California Press, 1993).
K. D. Erskine, Rajputana Gazetteers, vol IIA, (Ajmer: Scottish Mission Industries, 1908) p. 228.
I rely here on accounts by Erskine, in Rajputana Gazetteers, and James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970).
P. V. Paranjape, “Kulaks and Adivasis: The Formation of Classes in Maharashtra,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, vol.. 13, no. 1, Jan.-Mar. (1981), p. 7.
Gazetteer of India, Maharashtra State, Dhulia District, (revised edition), (Bombay, 1974), p. 154.
Sulabha Brahme and Ashok Upadhyaya, A Critical Analysis of the Social Formation and Peasant Resistance in Maharashtra (Pune: Shankar Brahme Samajvidyanana Granthalaya, November 1979), p. 433.
In 1980, the GSS had fifty part-time, unpaid youth committee members: twenty men and thirty women from forty villages. It had twelve full time activists: eleven men and one woman—Chaya Suratvanti, Ambersingh’s widow, who remained loyal to the GSS after the split. Although Chaya Suratvanti has organized a few women’s training camps, the GSS has not organized women extensively. The GSS, which relies on government assistance, mainly performs charitable social work.
Brahme and Upadhyaya, “A Critical Analysis of the Social Formation and Peasant Resistance in Maharashtra,” pp. 436–437. According to Brahme and Upadhyaya, the Sarvodaya found that Hindu cultivators had illegally appropriated ten thousand acres of land from tribals in fifty-seven villages in Shahada and Toloda talkukas.
These were the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code and Tenancy Laws (Amendment) Act 1974 (Act No. 35 of 1974) which came into force Oh July 6, 1974, and the Maharashtra Restoration of Land to Scheduled Tribes Act 1974 (Act No. 14 of 1975) which came into force on November 1, 1975.
In 1971, the Maharashtrian government appointed a committee headed by V. S, Paige to study employment conditions of agricultural laborers. In March 1974, the government decided to implement the committee’s recommendations and thus to fix statutory minimum wages in Dhulia district for the first time. It increased minimum wages to 4.50 rupees in October 1975. However, the government lacked both the ability and the will to ensure that employers paid minimum wages.
Sharad Patil, “Government’s War on Adivasis,” Economic and Political Weekly, 9 (October 1974), p. 1809.
The Navashakti, September 18, 1978 (translated from Marathi).
McKim Marriott, “The Feast of Love,” in Milton Singer ed., Krishna: Myths, Rites and Rituals, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968).
Ibid., p. 206.
Ibid., p. 212.
The scheme, which Patil described in a letter to selected landlords and government officials, called for the employment of 1200 watchmen, 100 “sergeants,” and a number of armed “commanders” and “majors.” The “Purshottam Sena” would involve a capital expenditure of 422,000 rupees and a recurring annual expenditure of 1,900,000 rupees and would cover a total cultivated area of 474,000 acres. The scheme is discussed by Sandeep Pendse, “Repression Against the Shramik Sangathana,” Magova (Bombay), June 1972, Brahame and Upadhyaya, “A Critical Analysis of the Social Formation and Peasant Resistance in Maharashtra,” p. 446, and Daryl D’Monte, “Dhulia Peasant Movement Faces Stiff Resistance,” Times of India, July-August 1974.
In the 1979 elections, Vaharu received 6,000 votes from the Taloda-Aldralkuwa constituency; Bhuribai, 3,000 votes from the Shahada constituency.
In the 1977 elections for example, the Shramik Sangathana spent only about 3,000 rupees on the two candidates. They devoted less than a month to campaigning.
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Basu, A. (1998). Indigenous Feminism, Tribal Radicalism and Grassroots Mobilization in India. In: Diamond, M.J. (eds) Women and Revolution: Global Expressions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9072-3_12
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