Weathering many storms, a flame burns bright

Dalit activist Manisha Mashaal calls for fight for dignity, self-respect, and identity. Urges to make people uncomfortable to talk of caste. Recalls her own struggle of facing discrimination in school. Calls for accepting challenges posed by society & respecting one another to bring social change.

‘Likha hai logon ne hamara yeh itihaas, likhna hai humko bhi hamara yeh itihaas...’ (People have written our history; we too want to write our history), sang Manisha Mashaal, activist and lawyer and founder of Swabhiman Society in Haryana, at the 17th national conference of the Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS) at Government College for Women, Vazhuthacaud, here on Thursday.

Ms. Mashaal, a powerful Dalit voice, spoke of discovering her Dalit identity first and then of a Mahadalit. The Dalit struggle was one for dignity, self-respect, and identity, and till that was achieved, their struggle would continue, she said.

She spoke of a Dalit woman’s struggle starting right from school up to university, even facing caste discrimination in buses and autos. “We know we have to fight for our rights, but how do we fight? Where is the space for that?” she said.

“The moment one talks of caste, people become uncomfortable. They wonder how dare a Dalit woman speak like this. But it is important to make them uncomfortable. We will continue to speak out, again and again. This is our fight.”

There was talk of women’s studies and gender studies but what about Dalit studies, she asks. “Who will study about our pain and write about us?”

She recalled that she did not know what caste she hailed from when she was very young. “One does not know which caste or religion they are born into. It is society that imposes these restrictions on us, tells us that if we are born into the so-called lower castes, we should remain there all our lives. It was my schoolteacher who told me I was a Dalit.”

The teacher, she recounts, wanted her to sit at the back of the class. “I had to face discrimination because I would sit in the front.”