An Unclaimed Terrain, a Thousand Plateaus.

“साहित्य समाज का दर्पण है”

- Munshi Premchand

In this term paper, we conceptualize caste as a specific particularity of a drive to stratification. We locate this general urge as an outcome of a phenomenological orientation against ‘the real’ and map the specific manifestation to ways in which caste is performed and constituted. Within this field, we consider the specific experiences of producing caste. We focus on three parts of this experience, namely hate, apathy and self-monitoring which we then understand through an interpretive and stylistic analysis of the works Ijjat by Narayan Gangopadhyay, Kafan by Premchand and Nayi Reet by Ajay Navaria. 

Stratification

In this section we try to understand a psychological movement that can be seen as a contributor and also an abstraction to caste - stratification and the forming of hierarchies. 

While many psychologists have debated over essentialist claims such as whether dominance hierarchies are an essential offshoot of human biological and cultural organization or not [1][2], here we rest on the following weaker claims:

1. Hierarchies have been an important part of human sociological organization.

2. The values that define the ordering within the hierarchy have evolved as the bio-techno-sociological structures surrounding them have evolved. 

We further claim that an important utility of a hierarchy is a way to quantify that which is qualitatively different. Such a view has been taken in marxist literature [3], often questioning the metric for such a quantification and ranking - given the fact that it is often seen to build around the hegemonic values of the dominant class. One of the consequences of such a reduction of qualitative difference to a value based ordering corresponds to reducing a subject to an object - be it a person, an activity or a culture.

We focus on understanding this encounter with the subjectivity of pure qualitative difference as an encounter with “the real” (the term being used as in psychoanalysis) [4]. As the previously referenced work notes, such an encounter has been understood to be traumatic and unsettling to the degree that a significant portion of the psychological life of a human may be seen as an escape from this. This inquiry thus reveals the utility of hierarchy in a psychoanalytic framework - a technology for capturing and categorizing, that makes pure difference bearable. A phenomenological orientation towards managing “the real”.

From a mechanistic perspective this leads us to understanding why hierarchies have a tendency to stratify i.e. become fixed. If neurologically a hierarchy is simply a coarse graining mechanism induced by the values we choose to prioritize, and we account for the brain’s tendency to be in the path of least resistance [5] - this would imply that we are wired to leave our values and the corresponding hierarchies unquestioned; because of the sociological and psycho-physical costs required in a labour that questions them as explored in the previous paper. 

Therefore, we have demonstrated how hierarchies are an important part of the human experience but also hide an inherent danger within them to get stratified because of our unwillingness to be in conversation with the values that inform them. 

Caste as Stratification

In this section, we first steelman caste and then compare such a conception to its harrowing lived reality. 

At the danger of abstracting it away to the point that it's so detached from its actual sociological consequences that the comparison is almost meaningless, the varna system can be steelmanned as an expression of the division of labour [6]. A system of such stratified communities allowing the apprentice-master relationships to be connected to the familial relationship makes knowledge transfer extremely efficient. In a socioeconomics structured mostly around a close knit community such as a village this can engender trust, reliability and efficient organization. However, as [7] sharply critiques, caste is not merely a division of labour but a “division of labourers,” wherein occupational identity becomes hereditary and enforced through social exclusion. It is not within the scope of this paper to give a mechanistic account of why the stratification of caste occurs. Here, we simply note two important features closely related to such stratification. 

Firstly, we consider colonialism and the hegemonic structures of power and capital that continued in its wake. Scholars such as [8] have argued that colonial administrative practices significantly hardened and codified caste identities, while access to education and bureaucratic power disproportionately accumulated among upper-caste groups, especially Brahmins. This is not unrelated to the second, deeper reason -what Dharmic traditions call dvesha, or aversion. In Buddhist and Yogic traditions, dvesha refers to a repulsion toward that which we perceive as impure or unpleasant [9]. Such aversion manifests not merely intellectually but materially and socially through practices of exclusion and disgust, producing what may metaphorically be understood through Jung’s notion of the “shadow” as the repression and externalization of socially disavowed aspects of the self [10]. We want to again emphasize that this is not merely theory, but remains a lived material reality, evident for example in the persistence of manual scavenging despite its legal prohibition. Reports by Human Rights Watch (2014) and the Safai Karamchari Andolan continue to document the ongoing exploitation of sanitation workers, the overwhelming majority of whom belong to Dalit communities.

Caste and its interaction with Indian society has been deeply studied [11]. We understand it as a pervasive, systemic and hegemonic structure that determines the sociological affordances in an institution even in being absent (For example scholars such as [12] note that “castlessness” is itself a savarna privilege). The interactions of such a system out of which one cannot “opt out” because of its systemic control of their access to education, networks, language etc. with the agency of those oppressed is an interesting line of inquiry within this subaltern literature.

We claim that the chosen pieces of literature show how the untouchable is required to perform caste to produce their own untouchability- the specific moment of such a performance the authors end up highlighting depends on a variety of factors ranging from the social context for the writer, to stylistic elements of style and narration to whether they are speaking for themselves or for the community. In the remainder of the paper, we trace a journey similar to Hegel’s slave dialectic [13] through these emotions which correspond to different flavours of revolution and their pitfalls.

Apathy - Kafan.

Munshi Premchand was a voracious writer for the Pragativad movement. His works were mostly circulated through Patrikas, to be read by the middle class often about the lived realities of villages. Kafan on its original release received significant criticism for its portrayal of lower caste characters - but in its distribution through this specific medium Kafan did a twofold work depending on the reader it interacted with.

Firstly, it spread awareness for a middle class about the realities of caste due to the naked juxtaposition of lifestyles between the reader and those marginalized by society. For a marginalized reader, such a criticism that can feel directed towards their community and being mobilized a sort of revolutionary spirit, thereby figuratively fighting against the apathy Premchand seeks to show in the characters of the work. There is a calculated avoidance burying a deep rooted anger and distrust that Premchand tries to hint at, playing with the risk of being infantilizing. 

Firstly, it is made clear from Ghisu and Madhav’s character that they are not meant to be sympathised with. We are told that they are lazy (p1). We are patronizingly informed of their alcoholic and chainsmoking habits (p1). We are told how they are utilitarian but not ambitious (p2) - how they just could not be motivated to work every day if food wasn’t scarce. Their sloth is a weaponization of disillusionment - an understanding that they probably have no chance of getting anywhere even if they do work.

The justification given for not buying a shroud, and the well scene (6:00) in the DD adaptation shown in class where Madhav justifies stealing the rope are emblematic of these traits in the characters. The self deception about their own lack of agency is repeatedly emphasized. That moment when they both come to an implicit understanding and deliberately or unintentionally end up at the wine house can be seen as their moment of confrontation and turning away from the reality of their existence.(p6)

This repeated exposition blatantly puts their debauchery into perspective until it cannot be ignored by the reader anymore. And then Premchand continues past that point, such as the scene in the winehouse where Ghisu and Madhav shamelessly explain their desire to keep exploiting Budhiya’s death and collapse in an inebriated mess (p7).  In the reader the initial lack of sympathy mixed with the continued series of bad choices and lack of intention to improve evokes a mix of pity and rage. The repeated contradictions blunts the pity until the reader’s belief in their lack of agency disappears.

Rage - Ijjat.

If Kafan inspires a sudden rage through the understanding of the sheer patheticness of the situation, Ijjat shows the value of that rage and hatred as a resource. Based in an isolated small Bangladeshi town with a largely illiterate populace, the rage and mobilization is one of the few resources the people can provide - “As they are the downtrodden in society, their attachment to religion is more punctilious" (p4).

But Ganghopadhyay is still an upper caste writer, telling the story of untouchables in a village. The rage he describes is not that of Navaria’s protagonist as we will consider later, but rather a scattered rage that doesn’t yet stand in solidarity. “A rage that hasn’t learnt to attack their enemy but only inflict wounds upon itself” (p11).

Habib Miyan is defined from the beginning in contradiction to the subsistence that defines the people of the village. He has an excess of wives, food, cloth (p6) - every single resource that Jagannath and Mantai struggle for. Even his smell, an important performance of caste, is distinguished by attar and betel leaves (p7). 

This contrast between lavishness and subsistence, is what ends up getting magnified and shows the people the arbitrariness of the other fault lines they are mobilized upon. The final moment with Habib Miyan and the crowd standing on the vantage point looking down is almost cinematic as the crowd which has been swirled into bloodlust again discovers its deified leaders doing the undignified task of digging up the grave. This is the moment where they are confronted with “the real”. A confrontation that brings their rage up into self consciousness.

Double Consciousness - Nayi Reet.

The first difference we immediately notice between Nayi Reet and the other stories is the first person account, instantly engendering more intimacy and understanding of the character’s experience. 

The second notable detail is the protagonist's internal critic. This can be seen as a deeply nuanced exploration of “Double Consciousness” that has been noted in other intersectionalist literature [14]. The protagonist has done everything to meet the internalized standards - he has been marked with a tika on his head like the brown dog from the story (p7)- become rich, articulate, fashionable. When the teastall owner calls him Darbar it makes him smile internally and think he has affected structural change through his relentless pursuit of meeting the critic’s standards.

The scathing critic that keeps parroting internalized standards is an acceptable consequence. Be it in his want to not appear bihari by wearing a muffler a certain way (p1), Or the scolding of his wife because of an obsession with cleanliness and purity, or thinking that his father was wrong and money could change things structurally.

His interactions with “the real” are different - the blaring of the smell as he steps back on to the bus stop (p44), the looming threat of violence that suddenly comes about when he is being forced to wash the glass and the shattering of that cup in the climax of the story (p51). 

All of these scrape against and finally break the internal critic that tries to convince him that this perfect image he has created can save him. The final remark towards Gandhi, in light of his views on separate electorates can be seen as the protagonist coming to understand that only in speaking for yourself can the whole complexity of your own self be determined and actualized. 

Conclusion: 

In this term paper, we first developed an understanding of caste as a specific form of stratification. We then situated the three given literature pieces within the felt experience of someone within caste and saw a specific performance is necessary to situate oneself within caste. Differentiating between the stylistic elements and interpretations, we followed a dialectic movement that culminated in a strong signal towards an understanding that the most faithful expression of complexities of emotions and the internal lived experience can only happen when the community speaks for itself.

REFERENCES

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2. Peterson, J. B. (1999). Maps of meaning: The architecture of belief. Routledge.

3. Lukács, G. (1971). History and class consciousness: Studies in Marxist dialectics (R. Livingstone, Trans.). MIT Press.

4. Evans, D. (1996). An introductory dictionary of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Routledge.

5. Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: A unified brain theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127–138. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2787

6. Dumont, L. (1980). Homo hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications (M. Sainsbury, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.

7. Ambedkar, B. R. (1936). Annihilation of caste.

8. Dirks, N. B. (2001). Castes of mind: Colonialism and the making of modern India. Princeton University Press.

9. Patanjali. (2009). The yoga sutras of Patanjali. Translated by Swami Vivekananda

10. Jung, C. G. (1968). The archetypes and the collective unconscious (2nd ed.). Princeton University Press.

11. Rao, A. (2009). The caste question: Dalits and the politics of modern India. University of California Press.

12. Deshpande, S. (2008). The problem of caste. Seminar, 633.

13. Hegel, G. W. F. (1977). Phenomenology of spirit (A. V. Miller, Trans.). Oxford University Press.

14. Fanon, F. (2008). Black skin, white masks (R. Philcox, Trans.). Grove Press. (Original work published 1952)

(done as a part of literature and the ethics of telling a story term paper 3)