Human Rights as Practice: Dalit Women’s Collective Action to Secure Livelihood Entitlements in rural South India Mensenrechten als dagelijkse praktijk: Collectieve actie van Dalit vrouwen voor basisrechten in ruraal Zuid India (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 20 juni 2012 des middags te 12.45 uur door Jayshree Priyadarshani Mangubhai geboren op 30 oktober 1976 te Suva, Fiji-eilanden Promotoren: Prof. dr. B. de Gaay Fortman Prof. dr. J.E. Goldschmidt Co-promotor: Dr. L.S. Nencel This thesis was accomplished with financial support from Cordaid, the Netherlands. Acknowledgements If there is one point which has been reinforced for me during the course of my PhD, it is that research is as much about the topic as it is about the relationships you build throughout the process. The topic came to me through my work with the Dalit community across India for a number of years and the relationships I have forged along the way. These make India home to me and the Dalit cause my cause. What has continually struck me is how, despite an intolerable context of social exclusion, deprivation and violence, Dalit women often are at the forefront of their community’s struggles for basic livelihood resources and opportunities. Yet their voices are often not heard, nor their perspectives and opinions solicited outside the discourse of victimhood. This research was born out of a perceived need to fill that gap, to understand and expose the ‘other side’ of their story. It is a series of relationships that then brought me to the Netherlands to undertake this PhD and sustained me throughout the challenging process of doing inter-disciplinary research and ethnographic fieldwork. The seeds of the idea to obtain a PhD were planted by my research colleague, mentor and friend Aloysius Irudayam SJ, Head of the Advocacy Research and Human Rights Education Department at the Institute of Development Education, Action and Studies (IDEAS) in Madurai. He is an inspiring figure to aim for academic excellence and knowledge. Through his connections I came to know Prof. Bas de Gaay Fortman and had a chance to discuss my tentative ideas on a research topic with him in the Netherlands in November 2006. My deep gratitude lies with Prof. Fortman for his encouragement and sharing of his insightful perspectives and ideas, as well as his agreement to be my PhD supervisor. All this was instrumental to my taking the plunge and sending my PhD application to Utrecht University. I must also thank Prof. Paul Gready, Director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, Dr Rachel Kurian, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Social Studies, the Hague, Dr Kirrily Pells, then PhD candidate at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, and my father, Assoc. Prof. Francis Mangubhai, University of Southern Queensland (now retired) for kindly going through my PhD proposal and giving their comments and suggestions. Through Prof. Fortman I also acquired my second supervisor, Prof. Jenny Goldschmidt, Director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM). Prof. Goldschmidt’s welcome on my arrival in SIM in June 2008 and her enthusiasm and both practical and academic advice for my research made me feel very much supported as I entered the research process. The support of Profs. Fortman and Goldschmidt included allowing me to find another supervisor outside of the law school who could guide me with my fieldwork. My special thanks thus go to Dr Lorraine Nencel, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Free University of Amsterdam, who kindly accepted to be my co-supervisor. The lifeworld of a law student is so different from that of an anthropology student, and Dr Nencel became my essential ‘knowledge broker’ to understand ethnographic research, translate my ideas into a workable fieldwork plan, carry out my fieldwork and then synthesise and craft my mounds of data into coherent thesis chapters. More than this, she constantly challenged my ideas and normative understandings, making me more self-aware of my position and responsibilities in writing about the lives of others. It has been a pleasure to work with my three supervisors, with each bringing in their own areas of expertise from their different disciplines and constructive advice and guidance to bear on my research. I appreciate the considerable time they have given to discussing and suggesting ways to improve my writing. They have helped fulfil the primary purpose for which I undertook this PhD, to challenge and expand my knowledge and understandings so as to strengthen the contribution I can make in the field of human rights and development in future. The other, major contribution to my learning process has come from the Dalit women in the villages in Tamil Nadu. I cannot express enough my thanks to them for allowing me into their lives, to get to know them, to ask my endless questions and participate in the daily flow of their lives as well as functions and events. Gandhi from Vettriyur village asked me when I first interviewed her, ‘What can you learn from us? We only can learn from you.’ And in this she was mistaken, as time spent with these women showed me that knowledge from experience, from sufferings and joys that come in taking collective action to change a situation of exclusion, has as much value as knowledge gained from formal education. Understanding their lives brings me that one step closer to understanding human rights as practice suited to local contexts, and my role in that practice. I am also deeply indebted to A.M. Veronnika, Director, Vidiyal Mahalir Membāttu Sangam, D. Kalvikkarasi, Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement member, N. Fatima Burnad, Coordinator, Society for Rural Education and Development, and A. Magimai, Coordinator, Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement for the sharing of their rich experiences working with Dalit women and for all their help with the logistics of fieldwork in my chosen villages. I especially thank Veronnika and Fatima Burnad for generously allowing me to use their staff to undertake the quantitative survey part of my research. In addition, my gratitude goes to all the Dalit men, other caste villagers, government officials and social activists and movement leaders who gave time to me for interviews and discussions. There are too many others to thank for making my fieldwork possible in different ways, from logistics to information to contacts to reflections and suggestions. Special thanks again must go to Aloysius Irudayam SJ, who was my fieldwork guide, and who supported me both academically, emotionally and practically during the months in and out of the villages. I also could not have done this fieldwork without the help of all my translators – A.E. Anushiya, P. Jeevitha, Jenifer Fercy, S. Jaya Sophia, M. Shalini and R. Thilagam – who became my companions throughout the many days spent in the villages and the long hours of patiently transcribing interviews. The Jesuit fathers in IDEAS also never failed to welcome me to have breaks from the fieldwork, to interact and to work through my data. They also generously allowed me to stay in IDEAS for the latter part of writing up my PhD thesis, providing me with an open and warm atmosphere to write. Crossing the oceans back to the Netherlands, my colleagues in SIM have been invaluable for sharing their academic and other stories, knowledge and ideas, as well as relaxing days away from the desk. My special thanks go to Ramona Biholar, Yanqing Hong, Diana Contreras Garduño and René Rouwette whose companionship and discussions made days in the attic of Drift 15 fly by. I am also indebted to Esther Heldenbergh, Marcella Kiel and Hanneke van Denderen for helping me negotiate the administrative details involved in doing research in the Netherlands and always being available for my many questions. Landing up in the Netherlands was made all the smoother by the familiar faces of friends, who helped me to set up home and negotiate living in Europe for the first time. Special thanks go to Tony Fernandes for his constant support and advice, and also to Friederycke Haijer and Marijn Peperkamp for good times and introducing me to Dutch life in both Den Haag and Utrecht. I am also grateful to Justitia et Pax for giving me an opportunity to work with them in my first year in Den Haag. Indian Masters students and PhD candidate C. Sathyamala in the Institute of Social Studies also offered me the instant closeness, relaxation and warmth of home away from home. I want to express my deep gratitude to Cordaid for providing me with the financial support during my PhD programme, and ultimately making it possible for me to study in the Netherlands. My thanks also go to my Ph.D. Reading Committee members for examining my thesis and sharing their comments and suggestions: Professor of Social Anthropology David Mosse, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London; Honorary Professor of Human Rights Cees Flinterman, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights; Professor of Legal Theory Titia Loenen, Utrecht University; Professor at Law Barbara Oomen, Utrecht University; Dr Rachel Kurian, Senior Lecturer in International Labour Economics, Institute of Social Studies; and Associate Professor Maarten Bavinck, Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam. I am extremely grateful to my father and Joel G. Lee, PhD candidate at Columbia University, USA for generously giving their time to go through my draft chapters.