Communique 19

DEPARTNMENT OF JOURNALISM KAMALA NEHRU COLLEGE DELHI UNIVERSITY CommuniquéEDITION XVI 12 PAGES FEBRUARY 2019 HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR PRIVILEGE TODAY? Shreya Bansal In November 2018, Aruna Sanghapali, the wom- ing caste-based discrimination on the platform.” of violence against dalits, we are failing to notice an behind the Twitter handle ‘Dalit women fight’ Amidst all the trolling it is important to note the acts of discrimination, deeply embedded in our metTwitter Co-Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey and Aruna’s effort to give dalit women an online day to day lives. According to Indian Statistical presented him with a poster with the words ‘Smash platform to raise their voice and convey that Institute, Delhi, metropolitan areas have the low- Brahmanical patriarchy’ written over it. In a round- they’re capable of sharing their own stories. est rate of inter-caste marriages among urban areas, table discussion, that included various women jour- Gender dynamics affect our interpretation of everyday while developed villages have a higher percentage. nalists, organisations and activists. Aruna attempted life and also shape the playing ground for our surviv- to share her reality of being a dalit woman on the al. A woman’s existence is a constant struggle to ne- The marginalisation of women by men, dalit wom- internet. As the creator of ‘Dalit women fight’ she en by dalit men, dalit women by upper class wom- aims to educate and inform people about oppressive en and non binary individuals by cis gendered in- caste and patriarchal structures. A photo of Dorsey dividuals are based on evident realities that play did rounds on the internet as he posed with the three out in our everyday life. As Brahmins continue to words that soon started a stur in the online space. be at the top of the pyramid in terms of affluence The meeting was held to shed light on the relevance and stature,the dalit women are the worst hit by of twitter in India. The poster was an effort to draw both patriarchy and castism As Aruna held, “Pa- attention towards the need for making Twitter sensi- triarchy is not general in nature, in India, it’s Brah- tive to the issues of indian cultural society, especial- manical”. Even feminist movements have been con- ly those relating to caste and gender discrimination. trolled by brahmin and upper caste individuals and However, the poster became viral in a scenario consciously excluded dalit and bahujan women. where any attempt to resist patriarchy equals man As dalit women try reclaiming public spaces that hating and resisting the caste system is equated with have been denied to them for generations, it is only being anti-Brahmin and anti hindu. Many on the Source : scroll.in fair that they will resist similar efforts that aim to internet took offence to the poster and Aruna and gotiate with patriarchal institutions and relationships. de-platform them from online spaces. The discus- Dorsey alike faced backlash.Aruna was bombard- This reality has become much more evident on sion with Dorsey can be considered to be a step ed with sexist remarks and casteist slurs, effectively spaces like twitter. Caste is another phenomenon forward in making a platform like Twitter more proving her point.She clarified in a statement to ‘The intrinsic in determining one’s identity in the indian sensitive to their needs. “Dialoguing would help Wire’, that “it wasn’t meant to be the statement it has society. In a country where atrocities towards dal- Twitter’s team understand the context of Indian become” further explaining that “the photo they’d its and bahujans have only increased, it would be users. However, while Twitter has been an “essen- taken was meant to be a private one. And the poster, imprudent to think that caste is external to our ex- tial platform” for their voices, it doesn’t mean they made by Thenmozhi (Dalit Diva on Instagram and istence. It would be further ignorant to suggest that will stick on if the platform chooses to be complicit Twitter), a US-based artist, was given to Dorsey in caste based discrimination is restricted to rural In- in a system of oppression.” Aruna told The Wire. an effort to drive home the importance of address- dia. As urban Indians are busy skipping through acts ARE YOU DALIT OR ARE YOU QUEER? Shreya Bansal The LGBTQI movement and Dalit, anti caste India has had a long history of dealing space be for Dalit queer individual whose caste movement in India are movements that have with issues of class discrimination and bias. impacts their day to life as much as their sexuality? grown out of considerable struggle and effort. The LGBTQ community on the other hand, was for Would a non-English speaking youth be as accept- Both these groups have time and again tried to a very long time underrepresented because it was ed as any other English-Speaking millennial? As challenge brahmanical and heteronormative felt that not enough people identify with the com- we ask heterosexual folks to understand their priv- traditions on their own respective platforms. munity and that it was a notion of the western world. ilege have we in fact forgotten to let go off our privilege that allows us to paint our faces in rainbows? With more and more people coming out to share their stories and experiences, the movement The experiences of a person, belonging to a caste has gained considerable momentum. Safe spac- that is discriminated against, as an LGBTQIA individual will be very different from someone who has to pay a negligible price for their opinions and activism. It does little justice for us to appropriate how each and every experience is shared and felt. The discrimination of an individual identifying with the LGBTQI community, has for a long time come from the state, through it’s criminalization of article 377. es have emerged that have seen the participa- Even after the supreme court of India decriminal- tion of many LGBTQ individuals as well as allies. ized section 377 this discrimination comes in the However, the caste inclusiveness of these form of social ridicule and segregation, unavailabil- spaces has been in question constantly. ity of jobs and safe and inclusive educational spaces. The discrimination on the basis of caste, on the As pride is being celebrated in more and more Our hashtags, social media marketing, slam po- other hand has always come from the societal no- cities, its solidarity with the anti-caste movement etry events in expensive cafes and of course, tions of caste and the state has only been implicitly, is still very fragile. While dealing with one form of parades are enough to cause a revolution but and lately explicitly, discriminatory in its lack of ac- discrimination, have we sidelined another import- it’s essential to ask if each and every Dalit-Ba- tion in protecting individuals on the ground level. ant form of discrimination? How safe would a safe hujan queer finds a space in this revolution. 2 We’re queer, We’re here will raj ever meet his rahul? Vasundhara Singh Bollywood has become a staple part of our everyday lives, almost like minds of the audience that an alternative point of view seems impossible. a cup of tea in the morning. You’re not sure if you actually want to con- When we talk of the representation of lesbian characters or the lack there- sume it but you have no option as it is present everywhere and hence, be- of, the situation only gets more disappointing. There is less than 2% rep- comes unavoidable. For most people of our country, LGBTQ+ people resentation of healthy lesbian relationships in Bollywood movies. They are don’t exist and that is not only a result of wilful ignorance but also of the not misrepresented or laughed at because for the Indian filmmakers, they cage that has hidden the community from mainstream culture since times simply don’t exist. There are a few examples we have of lesbian charac- immemorial. We have grown up watching and admiring toxic characters such as the characters of Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das in Mira Nair’s ters such as Raj from DDLJ and Bunny from ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’. Fire, Kalki Koechlin’s character in Margarita with a Straw and Sarah Jane Dias’s character in Angry Indian Goddesses. There is a unfair similarity I wonder why the writers of DDLJ to these movies and it is not the fact that their charac- were so complacent in thinking that ters are all interested in women but the fact that none of Simran would be interested in Raj not the above films were viewed by a large number of peo- because he waved her bra in front of ple and have no place in the psyche of a common man. her face in one of the scenes but for In the recent years, the representation of LGBTQ+ the reason that Simran may have had characters in Indian cinema has become more just other sexual preferences. For Bolly- such as Fawad Khan’s character in Kapoor and wood, everyone is straight and the Sons or Manoj Bajpayee’s character in Aligarh. ones who aren’t are fashion designers. Bollywood’srepresentation- The representation of the third gender is sparse and of- of the LGBTQ+ commu- ten, derogatory. They are either there to make the audi- nity is outright insensitive. ence laugh or to be villains. In Sacred games, Cuckoo’s character has been applauded and praised for its ‘genu- Source: Pinterest The character of the dean played by Ri- shi Kapoor in ine’ portrayal of a transgender person.

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