Sitting in a classroom, being a Dalit girl: everyday resistance of a Girl Student

The social structure of India is built around caste oppressions. This caste structure affects the education, career, employment, economy, gender and self-esteem of the marginalised people. It prevents them at various levels from giving them their rights, opportunity, development, etc. This caste discrimination is still in practice even today. In this we interact with Mahalakshmi, a student from Marudham Nagar village in Tirunelveli district, who is currently studying B.A. second year English at St. Xavier’s College, who gives us a closer look into the everyday caste oppression in schools in southern Tamil Nadu, and the resilience of women students against them by sharing her experiences with us.

A Tamil film named ‘Karnan’ released in 2021, depicts the caste violence that took place in Kodiankulam, a village in nearby Thoothukudi district, in 1995. The film’s focus in particular is on the discrimination that Dalits face in accessing mobility. People of the dalit village, as depicted in the movie, struggle to have a bus stop for them and violence is orchestrated against them in the form of riots to oppress them. Some critics upon the release of the movie argued that the impact and riots that took place in 1995 needn’t be discussed now, as discrimination against Dalits at public spaces such as bus stops is a thing of the past, and such occurrences are in a fall.

But, according to Mahalakshmi all these problems still persist. Mahalakshmi belongs to a Dalit community village. There is no separate bus stop for her village. The closest bus stop is at a nearby dominant caste village called Munnerpallam. She has to board a bus from there to go to college every day. When she waited for the first time at the bus stop to go to college, she thought about sitting on the bus stop bench there. But before her, another girl from Dalit community sat on that bench. A man from Munnerpallam village questioned her with authority, “Don’t you know that people from Dalit community are not supposed to sit on the bench here; you should not sit here at all,” and shouted at the girl to get up from the bench. This instilled a sense of fear within Mahalakshmi. And because of this fear, till today she has never tried to sit on that bus stop bench. It can be felt that criticism like ‘Caste discrimination has disappeared nowadays, talking about caste again and again will only make it grow’, is a way to make oppression that Dalits face to be not known and normalised. Bringing it up at all levels to the people and discussing these oppressions will lead to an understanding of the problems of caste discrimination.

Mahalakshmi studied from her eighth to twelfth grade in an English-medium government school located in Munnerpallam village. No one from her village had ever joined that school. Only a couple of Dalit students have studied in that school. She had never faced any kind of oppression or problems in her previous school. When her village people heard that she was going to join her eighth grade in that school, the villagers asked her, ‘why are you going to join there?’ and they scared her by saying, ‘If you study in that village, you will face many problems. The students of that village will not let you study in peace. Don’t study in that school’. Hearing all these Mahalakshmi was surprised and scared at the same time. However, she joined that school. She shared with us about the problems she faced in that school. She said “Some of the students in that school had a dominant attitude. They won’t talk to me. The way they looked at me was scornful. Tolerating this kind of attitude, I spent two years in the same school and then I had a bitter experience that I will never forget. This school is located at a distance of three kilometres from my house. I used to go to school on foot. When I was in class 10, my father bought me a bicycle to go to school. The next day, after classes, I came to pick up my bicycle. But some students have broken my bicycle there. I was shocked to see the bicycle in broken condition. I came home crying and told my father to come to school and you ask them who broke my bicycle. My father also came to school and complained about what had happened. The school principal sent him away by saying that we don’t know who did this and we will investigate. However, the school administration has not taken any initiative in this regard. A few weeks later, the P.T. Master of that school came to me and said that we have found out who broke your bicycle, it was the students of class 7 who broke it, the administration will not take any action against them, you should be careful from now on. Hearing this, I did not understand anything. I haven’t seen anyone who broke my bicycle. Why can’t they tolerate that I bought a bicycle? What makes them so angry that they break my bicycle so brutally? I have been mentally affected by this incident till date”. When twelve-year-old students do this, it can be seen that caste vehemence is nurtured from a young age. Caste-dominant mentality starts from a family and home. This is what permeates the society and the country. It is this dominant tendency that prompts us to do any kind of action. People affected by these dominant actions suffer physically and mentally throughout their lives. It can be seen from this
that the purpose of their actions is to cause this fear and mental damage. Mahalakshmi is also mentally disturbed by thinking that her bicycle was broken. However, she did not back down after that incident. She continued and completed her studies in that school till class twelfth. She repaired her bicycle and brought it to school every day. She got good marks in school. She also made many friends. However, a few students continued to look at her scornfully and domineeringly. In the midst of those who hold the stance that Dalits should not study in a school, should not buy a bicycle and should not use anything, Mahalakshmi was elected as the leader of the school where the school leader recited the school’s pledge, followed by everyone else.

When asked about the current caste problems in Tirunelveli district schools, Mahalakshmi said, “Dominant caste students studying in Tirunelveli district schools wear caste symbolic identity ropes on their hands, marks caste symbolic identity dots (bindi) on their foreheads, often use intoxicants like cigarettes, gutka, ganja etc., and beat Dalit students for no reason. The school administration has not taken any steps to curb the tendencies of these dominant caste students”. She also added that, “It is common here for girls to get married soon after completing their twelfth standard. Even while studying in school, some girls are getting married and stop their studies midway. Some refuse to send girls to college after their school. The educational status of women is greatly affected here”.

Subsequently, she told about some incidents of caste violence that happened in her village and in Tirunelveli district. Last year, her village people received secret information from the police. It was the information that the people from Munnerpallam village spoke over the phone call that a Dalit youth in Marudham nagar should be hacked to death and that too should choose an only child family and this should happen soon. After knowing this, all her villagers stayed safe at home for a few days. By then Tirunelveli district was flooded due to heavy rains. As a result, no violence took place. Here, the police did not warn the villagers of Munnerpallam after getting the information. Instead, they advised the Dalit people to be safe. Indulging in such acts of violence and letting people know that violence is going to happen is to keep the Dalit people oppressed in fear. 

In August last year, a Scheduled Caste student and his younger sister were brutally hacked by dominant caste students at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district. Through this incident, it has been revealed how prevalent the caste vehemence is in the current Tamil society and among the students. When Mahalakshmi was asked about this incident, she said, “A 17-year-old student from the Dalit community living in Nanguneri was studying in a school in Valliyur. Most of the students in his class belong to the intermediate dominant community. Among them, some of the students were harassing this Dalit student in many ways like grabbing his belongings, money, food etc., cursing him with bad words, beating him and sending him to the shop to buy cigarettes and gutka. The affected Dalit student stopped going to school and started going to work. On discovering this, his mother asked him why he was not going to school and she found out what had happened. The distraught mother went to the school to complain about her son’s suffering. The school management also reprimanded those dominant caste students. Enraged by this, the dominant caste students threatened the Dalit student by saying how dare you file a complaint about us, see what we are doing to you. As they threatened, those students came to the Dalit student’s house and brutally hacked him. They have hacked so deep that the hands are all torn off. Seeing this, his 14- year-old sister was also hacked. And those students ran away by leaving them lying in a pool of blood. After that, both of them were treated at Tirunelveli Government Hospital. The police handed over the attackers and their associates to the Juvenile Justice Board. The Dalit student and his younger sister were not given any significant concessions till date”.

Many incidents of violence are happening continuously like the one happened in Nanguneri. The government should take constructive steps to prevent such caste violence and caste oppression. Every Dalit student has somehow faced oppression right from their school life. This vulnerability prevents the student from progressing in life and education. Due to the fear of these effects, some drop out of school and go to work, some are mentally debilitated, and some are afraid to go to college. But, Students should unite against such oppressions. Reading progressive books, discussing the issues, organizing student unions, fighting against violence and oppression etc., should be involved in their activities. By not getting afraid of the oppressions that happened in the school, Mahalakshmi is also involved in activities such as doing street plays and creating discourse against oppressions in her college. Currently, she is doing many activities in the Students’ Federation of India.