Sabab, 7th Volume, 2023

Merton, Thomas, and Naomi B. Stone. 1985. Love and Living. Edited by Patrick Hart and Naomi B. Stone. N.p.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Ormiston, Alice. 2004. Preface. In Love and Politics Re-Interpreting Hegel. Albany: State University of New York Press. Perkins, Helen E. 2010. “Measuring love and care for nature.” Journal of Environmental Psychology 30 (IV): 455-463. Popova, Maria. 2015. “Philosopher Alain Badiou on Why We Fall and How We Stay in Love.” The Marginalian. https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/10/26/ alain-badiou-in-praise-of-love/ Popova, Maria. 2021. “The Antidote to the Irreversibility of Life: Hannah Arendt on What Forgiveness Really Means.” The Marginalian. https://www.themarginalian.org/2021/07/14/ hannah-arendt-forgiveness/. Salami, Minna. 2020. Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone. N.p.: Bloomsbury Publishing. Singh, Laitonjam M. 2008. “Political Morality and Ethics in Indian Polity.” The Indian Journal of Political Science 69 (2): 301-12. Sperring, Katie, and Felicia Hu. 2020. “A strategy for sensuousness: the practice of love in politics — Pi Media.” Pi Media. https://uclpimedia.com/online/a-strategy-forsensuousness-the-practice-of-love-in-politics. Ahmed, Sara. 2014. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. N.p.: Edinburgh University Press. Fromm, Erich. 1962. The Art of Loving. N.p.: Harper & Row. Harris, Max. 2016. “A RADICAL POLITICS OF LOVE. In a time of Trump, an age of fear… | by Max Harris | Perspectiva.”Medium. https://medium.com/perspectiva-institute/aradical-politics-of-love-fbe259170646. Harris, Max, and Nigel Warburton. 2017. “It is time for love to become a radical force in politics.” Aeon. https://aeon.co/essays/itis-time-for-love-to-become-a-radical-forcein-politics. Hooks, Bell. 2000. All about love : new visions. N.p.: HarperCollins. Irigaray, Luce. 2016. I Love to You: Sketch of a Possible Felicity in History. N.p.: Taylor & Francis Group. Lanas, Maija, and Zembylas. 2014. “Towards a Transformational Political Concept of Love in Critical Education.” Studies in Philosophy and Education, (April). Lorde, Audre. 2021. Sister Outsider: Essays. N.p.: Carl Hanser Verlag. McKibbin, Philip. 2017. “It is time to imagine our entire politics in loving terms | Philip McKibbin.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre e/2017/jun/05/it-is-time-to-imagine-ourentire-politics-in-loving-terms. Denouncing The Vilification Of Love | 89 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 References

"The phenomenological realisation alludes to a reversal of consciousness, which has allowed the persona to realise their place in the phenomenological process" 90 | VIII

Abstract Ramanujan’s corpus of poetry keeps reflecting the question of situating the self in the world, while the poet seems to try and find his own self in his poems. The human body, self, and their relation to nature are recurrent themes that are mentioned in Ramanujan’s work. The same is no less true for ‘Highway Stripper’, published in The Second Sight. In fact, this particular piece presents before the reader a curious question of self, body, perception, and gender. It presents an alternative to a heterosexual matrix and reveals within it the process of questioning the norm. This is precisely what the essay investigates through a phenomenological lens, using the work of Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty as well as Judith Butler as a reference to understand gender as a ‘phenomenon.’ It attempts to show that the body is merely an instrument of gender and, hence, the embodied self. The tentative title for the piece is ‘In a World without Places? Towards a Phenomenological Understanding of Highway Stripper. The same is a play on the last lines of the text, which show the need to embody, contextualise, and situate the self. The essay attempts to first situate the self of the poet, i.e., Ramanujan, by looking at his own work and his diary entries. It investigates Ramanujan’s poems to understand how his poetry reflects a recurring theme of reevaluation of the self and the way the self interacts with objects. It contextualises Ramanujan’s provenance as a postcolonial Indian author writing poems in English and a trained linguist. It looks at how Ramanujan deals with the question of self and the ‘natural world’ and his engagement with questions on gender. Having situated Ramanujan, the essay situates the poet persona in The Highway Stripper and the phenomenological realisation that dawns on this self. This alternative reading attempts to offer an understanding where a phenomenological lens is used to deconstruct the illusion of gendering someone. Instead, it understands gender as a ‘phenomenon’ in dialogue with a dispositif and a process in play. Keywords: A. K. Ramanujan, self and other, phenomenology, epistemic perspectivism, gender, dialogism In a World without Places? Towards a Phenomenological Understanding of Highway Stripper Mayukhi Ghosh B.A (Hons) History St. Stephen’s College Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 | 91

This alternative reading attempts to offer an understanding where a phenomenological lens is used to deconstruct the illusion of gendering someone. Instead, it understands gender as ‘phenomenon’ in dialogue with a dispositif and a process in play. In a diary entry in November 1978, Ramanujan questions, “This is what I've been struggling with, to escape one's indeterminacy, and not being able to escape or accept it; my lack of faith or interest in a "higher" or "truer" self or anything "beyond" the known self. (Ramanujan 2019, 207)” However, his poems are an active investigation into his self or rather what he terms his ‘known self.’ This comes into being with the common theme of an abstraction in his poems that draws from nature or the reality that is being perceived by Ramanujan. He qualifies this himself in an interview with Chirantan Kulshresthra. Commenting on the nature of the Tamil poetry he translates and whether that has any affinity with his own, Ramanujan says of Tamil poetry: “Their attention is not to create the ‘object’ of the Imagist, but the object enacting human experience; the scene always a part of the human scene, the poetry of objects always a part of the human perception of self and others. (Ramanujan 2005, “Interview”)” Ramanujan’s corpus of poetry keeps going back to the question of situating the self in the world whilst the poet seems to try and find his self in his poems. The human body, self and their relation to nature are recurrent themes that find mention in Ramanujan’s work. The same is true for ‘Highway Stripper’, published in The Second Sight. In fact, this particular piece presents before the reader a curious questioning of self, body, perception and gender. It not only presents an alternative to a heterosexual matrix; it reveals within it the process of questioning the norm. This is precisely what the essay investigates through a phenomenological lens using the work of Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty as well as Judith Butler as reference to understand gender as ‘phenomenon.’ It attempts to show that the body is merely an instrument of gender and hence, the embodied self. The essay attempts to situate, and later establish the self of the poet i.e. Ramanujan by looking at his own work and his diary entries posthumously collated by Rodriguez and his son Krishna Ramanujan. It investigates Ramanujan’s poems to understand how his poetry reflects a recurring theme of reevaluation of self and the way the self interacts with objects. It contextualises Ramanujan’s provenance as a postcolonial Indian author writing poems in English and a trained linguist. It looks at how Ramanujan deals with the question of self and the ‘natural world’ and his engagement with questions on gender. Having situated Ramanujan, the essay situates the poet persona in The Highway Stripper and the phenomenological realisation that dawns on this self. In a World without Places? | 92 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Investigating Ramanujan’s Self

2 2 Ramanujan’s own poetry in English begins to reflect this: the objects are not objects for themselves, rather those experienced by the human perception. This is especially important because The Second Sight was published after Ramanujan moved to Chicago, finding himself an immigrant in a new country dealing with the colonial aftermath and negotiating the ‘metonymy of presence.’ The practice of hybridity and constant negotiation of the locus of self becomes very apparent. Vinay Dharwadker accounts that Ramanujan was born into a Tamil Srivaisnava Brahman home, grew up with English and Sanskrit in his astronomer father's study upstairs, spoke Tamil and Kannada, as an adult, broke all the taboos of brahmans, ate meat, went to America, married a Syrian Christian and even considered taking on Buddhism. In Dharwadker’s words, Ramanujan was working with a ‘web of shifting, unessentializable multivalences, which he called his "ironies" and "ambiguities”(93).’ This is in keeping with Ramanujan’s identity as a ‘postcolonial’ poet. Homi K. Bhabha in his collection titled The Location of Culture draws attention to the ambiguities and hybridities the postcolonial world brings forth (85-92) and Ramanujan’s constant questioning of his known self in relation to the material reality where he finds himself can be categorised as the result of the interstitial space where he is situated. Dharwadker posits that Ramanujan displayed a kind of ‘constructive cosmopolitanism,’ seeking to rebuild the nation. He fitted in perfectly as the hyphen in Indo-American; he was the ‘transitive punctuation mark, a modest, indispensable bridge between two unmapped continents of thought and reality’ (97, 98). However, Shulman, in the obituary he wrote for Ramanujan, identified how he was always in-between in thought; spaces and time. He spoke of the influence of akam and puram (the interior and exterior), the inner and outer spaces, mother-tongues and fathertongues, folktales and myths, etc. (1049). American scholar Jahan Ramazani, in the essay ‘Metaphor and Postcoloniality: A.K. Ramanujan’s Poetry,’ establishes that translation was a metaphor with regards to displacement, transfer, and migration in the postcolonial world (27–53). However, translation was certainly not the only means through which this negotiation played out. Patke posits that the relationship of his poems in English to the translated work is ‘antithetical and complementary’ (Patke 2001). Surya Nath Pandey presents the argument that Ramanujan’s poetic universe was ‘sustained by the complex configurations of tensions,’ where he looks at the role of conflict between East and West, translations, and the author’s personal life (Pandey qtd. in Rodriguez 2016, “Writing on Ramanujan”). So in the case of Ramanujan, the above analyses have not managed to situate the self of the poet but have rather illuminated the negotiating self of the poet. Was Ramanujan aware of this process of negotiation? In a famous essay titled ‘Where Mirrors are Windows,’ Ramanujan talks about the different kinds of reflexivity, one of which is the self-reflexivity of Indian folklore. He describes reflexivity as follows: 93 | In a World without Places? Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

Written shortly after his arrival in America, this poem reflects the reality of the poet persona, making him cognizant of his alienation. Rodriguez writes that even the poem 'The Striders' shows a sway between ‘a self-conscious reflecting and the capturing of a moment of grace’. It is the flux of these two that allows poetry to happen (Rodríguez in Ramanujan 2005, “Introduction II”). Ramanujan also pays attention to the way that he is perceived. In ‘Connect!’ he writes, ‘But my watchers are silent as if/ they knew my truth is in fragments’ (Ramanujan, The Oxford 178) in agony that his self appears to be in fragments. Ramanujan’s poet self is therefore a reflexive, conscious, and negotiating self. In the Introduction to The Striders Vinay Dharwadker states that an omnipresent theme in Ramanujan’s works happens to be ‘What is a displaced/dissociated/alien man to do in any place at a given time?’ Ramanujan is cognizant that reality presents itself in myriad ways. Because only the self is capable of perceiving objects, the self interacts with space and time in order to create materiality for itself. In a diary entry from 1971, he writes, ‘Is it because I've attended too much to the solid unchanging structure of' reality', and not its changefulness, as I'm doing in my mind?’ (Ramanujan 2019, 150). Albeit under the influence of mescalin, Ramanujan puts forth eloquently that it is perception that may have the effect of altering our reality. This would be a recurring aspect of his work from now on. While The Striders poses a view of the body, nature, and self as being Reflexivity takes many forms: awareness of self and others, mirroring, distorted mirroring, parody, family resemblances and rebels, dialectic, antistructure, utopias and dystopias, the many ironies connected with these responses, and so on. (Ramanujan, “Where Mirrors are Windows”) Arguably, the same reflexivity is a trend throughout his work, which became increasingly apparent in his own poetry and diary entries, where one can see the poet at work trying to improve himself. Rodriguez writes, “Poetry became, for him, a central way of looking at the world, a personal attitude, and an aesthetic means of selfassessment and self-expression” (Rodriguez, “Watching Birds and the Watcher”). The best example of this is through a poem that Ramanujan himself liked to read aloud at events; published in The Striders, 1966, he writes in the appropriately titled ‘Self Portrait.’ " I resemble everyone but myself, and sometimes see in shop-windows despite the well-known laws of optics, the portrait of a stranger, date unknown, often signed in a corner by my father. " (Ramanujan, The Oxford India Ramanujan 24) In a World without Places? | 94 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Ramanujan’s Reflexive Self in the Material World

2 2 ‘coextensive,’ The Second Sight shows a more abstract look at the relations between the body, nature, and self. In ‘One More on a Deathless Theme,’ published in The Black Hen, he writes, ‘This body I sometimes call me,/ sometimes mine,/as if I’m someone else/ owning and informing this body/ that affects me most, when it affects another by look, // touch, odour and pulse…’ (Ramanujan 2005, 209). Here, the poet persona reflects a disconnect with the body. The Cartesian dualism hence posited is nuanced by the fact that the body not only serves the crucial function of informing his self but also affecting the other. Therefore, the process of perception (Wahrnehmung) in this particular piece was a duality of sense perception of another and also a perception of oneself. In ‘The Watchers,’ published in The Second Sight, Dharwadker draws attention to a number of ‘elusive selves’ housed in the body, showing multiple layers of consciousness (Dharwadker in Ramanujan 2005, “Introduction”). In a Husserlian understanding, it shows an awareness of the body as Körper (a spatial body) and as Leib (a lived body), where the self is able to distinguish between these two understandings of the body (Husserl, Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität).Husserl in Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie I sets the body aside to achieve what is called a reines Bewußtsein (pure consciousness) (55–56); a consciousness that is aware of the natural world as well as how it presents itself to the body. It is this consciousness of awareness that manifests the self. The essay shall look at Highway Stripper in the context of the poet persona’s engagement with self, consciousness, and the apparent materiality of the body to understand gender. Dharwadker comments that Ramanujan’s engagement with gender was usually more personal than ‘political’ (Dharwadker in Ramanujan, 2005 “Introduction”). This statement is unfortunately not qualified much further. He draws attention to poems like ‘The Guru’ or ‘Love 5,’ which do not quite explore ‘gender’ as much as they would challenge social stereotypes. Rodriguez shares how Ramanujan looked at the role of ‘gender’ through studies on the role of Indian women in society (Rodriguez, “Living Among ‘Relations’”). This is a reductive approach, viewing gender as the inclusion of women. An exploration of gender would involve a dive into identity, selfhood, its relation to the body and materiality, and the performance of gender. In the context of this essay, gender is a locus of identity. Gender, even if viewed just as a social construct, cannot be reduced to a mere questioning of stereotypes. Curiously, ‘Highway Stripper’ found no mention in this argument. His diary entry in March 1978 reads, AZ's story about riding with someone who looked and talked like a man but was a woman; couldn’t decide as she talked to call him/her; got nightmarish, even saw a bristle under his/her chin; was later told by a laughing friend, ‘It’s a man undergoing a sexchange.’ (Ramanujan 2019, 199) 95 | In a World without Places? Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Ramanujan on the question of Gender

self where he asks if it was a man shedding a woman or whether it was him shedding old vestiges which rushed towards a ‘perfect coupling’ in ‘a world without places’ (Ramanujan 2005, 163) Places, objects, and nature are vividly described in the poetry of Ramanujan. They are the reference through which he views his ‘known self.’ Interestingly, time is often absent. His poetry provides glimpses into ‘moments’ of his life, but a clear narrative is often absent. Following this trend, he consciously avoids situating ‘Highway Stripper’ in time. Mikhail Bakhtin opines that the chronotope in literature has a generic significance. In his words, time itself ‘thickens’ and ‘takes on flesh’ (Bakhtin 2007, 182-187). Ramanujan does not focus on providing an external chronotope, as one would in a biographical narrative. However, an internal chronotope that traces the ‘metamorphosis’ of the protagonist is unavoidable. The self that sees the ‘woman’s hand’ is not the same questioning self that asks whether it is ‘shedding vestiges.’ It would appear that a change has taken place that has led the self to ‘question’. This is what Hegelians would describe as an Umkehrung des Bewußtseins, or reversal of consciousness. For him, that realisation is the first step towards becoming a student of Phenomenology. If time, an internal chronotope in the case of the persona in ‘Highway Stripper,’ is crucial to informing the narrative of the poem, then one is forced to ask how time affects the self. Perhaps the most groundbreaking work on this would be Heiddegger’s Being and Time. Heiddegger nuances Husserl’s conception of the subject This was the basis for ‘Highway Stripper,’ which was written shortly thereafter. As is evident, Ramanujan struggles to find the words to ‘address’ this person who is the topic of discussion; his short notes show an ambiguity in perceiving this person. The short entry in a diary where Ramanujan seems to be overwhelmed with words is testament to the fact that Ramanujan could not place his emotions in words or was struggling to find the right ones. Note how Ramanujan keeps the entry in the third person and does not implicate himself. ‘Highway Stripper’ is an attempt to contextualise some of these feelings. The poem is thus unquestionably linked to issues of gender, identity, perception, and body. ‘Highway Stripper’ begins with a first-person narrative where Ramanujan describes his experience on a highway to Mexico. Before his vehicle was a battered, once blue Mustang, and what caught his attention was a ‘woman’s hand’ with a wrist watch on it. This was only the first of a series of objects that would enter the poet’s line of sight. Soon, articles of clothing such as a straw hat, a pleated skirt, a bra, and underwear were flung onto the road. Ramanujan’s clear implicit gendering of the clothes was in for a rude awakening. Upon closer inspection, when his vehicle was adjacent to the Mustang in this ‘hell of voyeurs,’ he saw a forty-year-old man listening to the football radio. This encounter is clearly a cause for tumult for Ramanujan, whose absoluteness of judgement has been questioned. The last bit witnesses a philosophical questioning of In a World without Places? | 96 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 A Phenomenological Reading of ‘Highway Stripper’ 1

2 2 as an object of perception. For Husserl, the self has a stream of consciousness that functions by perceiving the flow of time in its temporal extension (Zahavi 2008, 55–58). Heidegger pioneers a ‘radical phenomenology’ where the situated self is not just an object of perception but assumes subjectivity. This goes against the central tenet of Husserl outlined in the Introduction to the Second Volume of Logische Untersuchungen; it is about returning to the object itself (Es gelte, auf die Sache selbst zurückzugehen). Heidegger draws attention to the subjectivity of the self by situating its Dasein in a state of temporal ecstasy. Therefore, despite the apparent lack of chronotope that enables the abstraction to take place at the end of the poem, it may be argued that temporality and spatiality are essential to the Dasein of the poet persona and central to it realising what Ramanujan terms his ‘known self.’ Having hence commented on the self and time as a narrative in the apparent timelessness of ‘Highway Stripper’, one can look at the act of perception that occurs for the poet persona. Hume famously refuted Descartian mind-body dualism and the view of an ‘I’ as an immaterial substance. He put forth the idea of a ‘bundle theory of self,’ where the ‘I’ is the product of the bundle of one’s perceptions through their sense organs that enable one to perceive the world around them, thereby linking the worlds of the mind and body. It is through the act of perception that one may understand the Fürsichsein (being-forness) of any phenomenon in Kantian terms. Therefore, what is perceived is how the thing appears to me, not an objective truth. Even Husserl in Ideen I adds that one may infer only the essence (Wesen), and that essence too is an experience (Wesenserfahrung), which allows one to conceive of Eidos or ideate in other words (13–14). The poet persona is quick to infer that they saw a ‘woman’s hand.’ The poem challenges the givenness of this statement in itself. This challenge rests on perception. The absoluteness of the ‘woman’s hand’ and the speculation stemming from this predetermine the person ahead as ‘woman.’ Therefore, it is the perception of the person ahead that genders them. Brentano opines that space and time do not bear the qualities that sensibly appear to us. In perception, the sense organ receives the ‘form‘ of a sensible thing. He implied the notion that perceiving can be understood as a reference to what putatively exists beyond the mind rather than an immediate awareness (Brentano qtd in Siewert 2005, 137). This, in Husserl’s understanding, became an internationalist view of perception. Husserl approached perception via the investigation of the a priori possibility of knowledge. MerleauPonty in Phenomenology of Perception draws attention to the fact that something perceived and something judged are not one and the same. In his words, ‘We construct the illusion. We do not understand it’ (41). He states that there is a difference between the self that perceives and the self that analyses perception, but in the act of reflection, this distance is abolished (50). Charles Taylor explains that in MerleauPonty’s understanding, the body and the world are conceptually two sides of the same coin, i.e., the world and ‘I’ are intelligible to 97 | In a World without Places? Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 2 3 4 5

Gender Constitution’ gender is a performance (519–531). Using MerleauPonty’s work, one can view the subject as an embodied subject; therefore, the body becomes the instrument of gender’s performance. The clothes, namely the bright red pants and the off-white bra, that were flung out of the car reflect the agency of the ‘other’ that is perceived by the poet persona. Clothes in and of themselves are not gendered entities; the human subject genders them. This is a dual process. The ‘other’ chooses to wear or, in this instance, strip themselves of certain articles of clothing that they might have worn to reflect a gender construct within the heterosexual matrix or subvert that construct. The poet persona, not having seen the biologically assigned sex of the ‘other’ perceives it as a woman’s clothing, informed by the heterosexual matrix and its earlier assumption of a ‘woman’s hand.’ A similar process takes place when they see ‘a man/ about forty. // A spectacled profile/ looking only/ at the road/ beyond the nose of his Mustang,/ with a football/ radio on’ (Ramanujan 2005, 165). The above-outlined dual process gives the persona the sense of certainty that it saw a ‘man.’ Hence, one situates gender not just as performance or perception but as that which lies between—a phenomenon. It occurs in dialogue with an ineluctable heterosexual matrix but actively subverts/conforms to it. Gender lies not in the object but in a dialogue between the performer, the perceiver, and the discourse. This dialogism shapes how gender occurs, and the realisation of this gender is what the poem outlines. Charles Taylor explains that in MerleauPonty’s understanding, the body and the world are conceptually two sides of the same coin, i.e., the world and ‘I’ are intelligible to each other only in light of each other (68). For Merleau-Ponty, perception draws from one’s perception of one’s own body (235– 240). Zahavi puts it as follows: ‘In other words, it is because I am not a pure disembodied interiority but an incarnated being in the world that I am capable of encountering and understanding others who exist in the same way’ (161). This way, Merleau-Ponty frees the dichotomy of Fürsichsein and Ansichsein. Kelly writes that in this view of phenomenology, even the ‘hidden’ or obscured part of the object is perceived, but the perception is informed by norms (100). It wasn't that the poet persona couldn't tell which gender the hand belonged to; rather, it was that norms influenced how it perceived the hand. Judith Butler in Gender Trouble used this to reveal the ‘heterosexual matrix’ that colours this world and perhaps informed the poet persona too. Thus far, the perception on the part of the poet persona has been looked at, allowing it to gender the ‘other’ in the Ford Mustang ahead. Apart from the heterosexual matrix informing the perception of the poet persona, one must ask what specifically influenced them to gender the ‘other’ as either extreme of a binary. Herein one can explore the Selbstsichzeigen, or self-showingitself, aspect of Heiddegger’s theory. In such a conception, one can assume that even that which is being perceived has a degree of agency. In the context of gender, this manifests if one views gender as an act. In Butler’s essay ‘Performance Acts and In a World without Places? | 98 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 6

2 2 The last stanza of the poem sees a ‘questioning attitude’ in the poet persona. Given that the essay has established a questioning of self and reflexive attitude in the self of A. K. Ramanujan, this poet persona could very well show the ‘selfreflection’ of Ramanujan as well. To quote the poem, ‘or was it me/ moulting, shedding/ vestiges, /old investments, /rushing forever/ towards a perfect/ coupling/ with naked nothing/in a world/ without places’ (Ramanujan, The Oxford 166). The experience and the shock of discovering what seemed to the persona to be a man in the car when it was clearly eagerly anticipating a woman after having women's articles flung onto the road culminate in a reevaluation of the poet persona. The persona evaluates itself, prompted by what this essay shall refer to as a phenomenological realisation. This phenomenological realisation alludes to a reversal of consciousness, which has allowed the persona to realise their place in the phenomenological process. It is this realisation that they are within the heterosexual matrix that is the first step in subverting that matrix. This phenomenological process has caused the persona to abandon its ‘old investments and vestiges,’ which could earlier not see beyond a ‘perfect’ heterosexual coupling. Earlier, the world was without places; however, the phenomenological realisation forced the persona to realise their temporo-spatiality within a heterosexual matrix. Therefore, the world would no longer be without places. 1. I shall hereonwards refer to the ‘I’ in the poem as the poet persona and use ‘it’ to allude to the persona in the third person. The person in the Ford Mustang I shall refer to using the pronouns ‘they/them.’ 2. Husserl calls perceptions Aktgegenständlichkeit or an act-object. Every person is thus constituted in time as an object. Heidegger challenges this by imbuing subjectivity through his work, where phenomena are characterised by the Selbstsichzeigen, or self-showing itself. 3. For Heiddegger, the essence (Wesen) of an entity lies in its ‘to be’ (Zusein). Therefore, what the entity is can only be conceived of in its being. Given that existentia (Vorhandensein) carries an objective moment in time reference implicit in the term Dasein, it is used since it implies an entity that is, was, and will be. Therefore, Das Wesen des Daseins liegt in seiner Existenz, or the essence of the Dasein lies in its existence. 4. Heidegger writes, ‘Seinsverständnis ist selbst eine Seinsbestimmtheit des Daseins’ (The understanding of the self affirms the self). Existence in the world and the understanding of worldliness or Weltlichkeit) make Dasein possible. Due to the givenness of the Dasein it is an ontological entity. Dasein, or literal being-there, is tied to spatio-temporal relations in that there is a distinctive sense of what was and will be. In his words, ‘Der Sinn des Daseins ist die Zeitlichkeit.’ Merleau-Ponty in The 99 | In a World without Places? Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Endnotes 7

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 2007. “Epic and Novel.” In The Bakhtin Reader: Selected Writings of Bakhtin, Medvedvev, Voloshinov, edited by Pam Morris. N.p.: Blackwell Publishers. Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge. Butler, Judith. 1998. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (December): 519- 531. Butler, Judith. 2006. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge. Carman, Taylor, and Mark B. N. Hansen, eds. 2005. The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty. New York: Cambridge University Press. Dharwadker, Vinay. 1994. “Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism: A Note on A.K. Ramanujan’s Theory and Practice of Criticism and Translation.” Indian Literature 37 (2 (160)): 91-97. Hegel, G. W. F. n.d. “Enzyklopädie Der Philosophischen Wissenschaften Im Grundrisse / ... / B. Phänomenologie Des Geistes. Das Bewußtsein.” hegel.de. Accessed July 11, 2022. https://hegel.de/werke_frei/hw108127.htm. Heidegger, Martin. 1967. Sein und Zeit. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. Phenomenology of Perception explains this temporality as a ‘succession of instances of now.’ 5. Whilst Kant speaks of ‘Things for things’ (Ding an sich selbst), Hegel in Enzyklopädie says that since all things derive their quality via negativa or through the act of negation, the existence (here used in the loose sense of the term) of the quality of things always existing in relation to this othering is Ansichsein, or being-for-itself. The unity of determinations is used by Hegel to propound a ‘concrete universal.’ 6. Merleau-Ponty puts this as follows: ‘to look at an object is to inhabit it, and from this habitation to grasp all things in terms of the aspect which they present to it. But in so far as I see those things too, they remain abodes open to my gaze, and, being potentially lodged in them, I already perceive from various angles the central object of my present vision. Thus every object is the mirror of all others.’ This alludes to the fact that one cannot view an object in isolation; an object like the subject must be situated. The subject’s perception of it also gets coloured by the situation of the object. 7. ‘Women’s’ as gendered by the persona, established by the preceding paragraph. In a World without Places? | 100 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 References

2 2 Husserl, Edmund. 1950. Ideen Zu Einer Reinen Phänomenologie Und Phänomenologischen Philosophie / Buch 1. Allgemeine Einführung in Die Reine Phänomenologie. Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. Husserl, Edmund. 1973. Zur Phanomenologie Der Intersubjektivitat : Texte Aus Dem Nachlass. Edited by Iso Kern. Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1945. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Colin Smith. New York: Routledge. Patke, Rajeev S. 2001. “The Ambivalence of Poetic Self-Exile: The Case of A. K. Ramanujan.” Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies 5, no. 2 (Winter). https://legacy.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert/v5i2/rs patk.htm. Ramanujan, A. K. 2004. The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan. Edited by Vinay Dharwadker. New Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press. Ramanujan, A. K. 2005. The Oxford India Ramanujan. Edited by Molly DanielsRamanujan. Translated by A. K. Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Ramanujan, A. K. 2019. Journeys: A Poet's Diary. Edited by Krishna Ramanujan and Guillermo Rodríguez. N.p.: Penguin Random House. Ramazani, Jahan. 1998. “Metaphor and Postcoloniality: The Poetry of A. K. Ramanujan.” Contemporary Literature 39 (1): 27-53. https://doi.org/10.2307/1208920. Rodríguez, Guillermo. 2016. When Mirrors are Windows: A View of A.K. Ramanujan's Poetics. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Shulman, David. 1994. “Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan (1929–1993).” The Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 3 (August): 1048-50. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021911800032186. Siewert, Charles. 2005. “Phenomenological Approaches.” In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Perception, edited by Mohan Matten. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zahavi, Dan. 2005. Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-person Perspective. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. 101 | In a World without Places? Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

102 | IX "The synthesis of the yardstick of masculinity has detrimental ef ects on the men who fail to meet the ‘socially devised qualifications’ of being a man."

Abstract Patriarchy is a deplorable concept of suppression and subversion which has existed since society first began structuring itself. The atrocities and complexities of this concept, though embedded deep in society, are deprived of extensive understanding from the point of view of men. While much ink has flown over the effects of patriarchy on women, this paper seeks to investigate the latent effects of patriarchy on men. It is crucial to understand the plight of men who are constrained by the concept of "masculinity" under a patriarchal mindset that forces them to adhere to unrealistic ideals and exacting standards of how they should behave and act. Cinematic works of art such as Fight Club (Fincher 1999) and Dead Poets Society (Weir 1989) offer new insights into these ideals of regressive, aggressive and saturated standards of masculinity. It is through such works of art, as well as their many parallels seen in real-world examples, that this paper shall attempt to problematise patriarchy’s overlooked impact on men. For the purpose of examining the nuances of the relationship between this aspect of patriarchy with the larger feminist movements, we shall also opt for a philosophical and historical lens to look at and historical understanding of the concept of patriarchy distilled and dissected through the Hegelian dialect of the ‘thesis, antithesis and synthesis,’ i.e. Thesis of Patriarchy, which is countered by the popular anti-thesis of Feminism, and conflated in the synthesis of Transformative Masculinity and Catharsistic Masculinity will form a significant part of this examination. Keywords: Patriarchy, Transformative Masculinity, Hegemonic Masculinity, Hegelian Dialect, Feminism The Other Side Of Patriarchy Varun Manda and Ishani Garg B.A. Hons (Political Science) and BAP Kirori Mal College Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 | 103

Tracing The Emergence of Patriarchy The two key foundational concepts that are germane for understanding the arguments presented in the paper are, namely, feminism and Patriarchy. Tracing the emergence of patriarchy as a concept and institution that entraps all of us become paramount in understanding whether patriarchy is inevitable or an invention. Society is divided according to gender, among other factors. Gender, as John Zerzan writes in his book, ‘Patriarchy, Civilisation and the Origins of Gender’, is not the same as the differences and distinctions between the sexes but is rather a “cultural categorisation and ranking grounded in a sexual division of labour that may be the single cultural form of greatest significance.” It is therefore inferable that gender does legitimise inequality and domination. With the purportedly continued increment in the bifurcation of both genders, the segmentation gained a definitive form, culminating in the birth of patriarchy. Hence, the Origins of patriarchy are closely knitted with gender roles. The pestilential concept of patriarchy initially took root at a time when human civilisation was first synthesising itself into society. As Gerda Lerner explains in her book ‘The Creation of Patriarchy’, the origins of patriarchy started with the first brush of division of labour that began in the second millennium BC in Babylon. The modes of production and regulation of relations during these times were such that men were able to enjoy a certain level of influence over women. Gerda Lerner expands on this point, writing: “The development of agriculture in the Neolithic The question that gave birth to this paper was something that was obviated from the discourse of patriarchy, consciously or unconsciously, which is another exploration, but what piqued our minds was how patriarchy, which Engels calls “the world historical defeat of the female sex,” has impacted the male sex. We have based the paper on a critical appraisal of various studies on patriarchy, feminism, and masculinity. The thought process behind doing so was recognition of the fact that there have been numerous qualitative as well as quantitative studies on feminism and patriarchy; however, the field of studies on the effects of patriarchy on men seems parched. This field is up for irrigation in the paper. Another reason for the adopted methodology was the constraints of the circumstances within which this study was carried out. An in-depth analysis of multiple relevant works satiates the lack of on-field in-person interviews, as the works that were assessed during our research were those that used inperson interviewing. Critical appraisal of studies is further desired, as the field of academia must stand objective in the analysis of history. In order to achieve this objectivity, all angles of any given concept must be identified, and this paper is one such attempt at viewing history with an objective lens. The Other Side Of Patriarchy | 104 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Methodology Introduction

2 2 period fostered the inter-tribal ‘exchange of women’, not only as a means of avoiding incessant warfare by the cementing of marriage alliances but also because societies with more women could produce more children. In contrast to the economic needs of hunting and gathering societies, agriculturists could use the labour of children to increase production and accumulate surpluses.” Before the 19th century, conversations regarding the origin of patriarchy were dominated by the theological explanation that deemed patriarchy a “natural order”. A biological explanation for the emanation of patriarchy surfaced with the line of thought called Social Darwinism. In 1973, Goldberg published ‘The Inevitability of Patriarchy’, which advanced a biological interpretation of male dominance. Goldberg argued that male dominance is a universal human trait due to our biological makeup. One evolutionary sociobiological theory for the origin of patriarchy begins with the view that females almost always invest more energy into producing offspring than males, and, as a result, females are a resource over which males compete. This theory is called Bateman’s principle. However, Dr. Gerda Lerner views the establishment of patriarchy as a historical process that developed from 3100 B.C. to 600 B.C. in the Near East. Patriarchy, she believes, arose partly from the practice of intertribal exchanges of women for marriage, “in which women acquiesced because it was functional for the tribe.” She believes that in its inception, “patriarchy was not an evil conspiracy of men.” In her book ‘The Creation of Patriarchy,’ she argues that this is a system created by men and women inadvertently, with unforeseen consequences. “Patriarchy is not based on a biological difference” between men and women, Dr. Lerner said, “but on a stage of human development when women had to nurse babies all the time.” Thanks to changes involving longevity and mortality, “Freud's statement that anatomy is destiny is wrong,” she said. The discourse concerning the origin of patriarchy is omnibus. Multiple narratives present multiple explanations. A conscious, stricken appraisal of history with an educated lens that takes into account the history, geography, economy, and socio-cultural constructs of epochs lends veracity to Dr. Lerner’s narrative over the ones that deem patriarchy as an inevitable or ‘god-given’ concept. Almost everything that existed in Neolithic times has changed since then, with the exception of the feeling of subversion that women experience. In the initial stages, women acquiesced to flagging their identities with the ancillary work of tribes, i.e., reproductive labour, for two important reasons: survival and sustenance. The time with which this argument concerns itself was one where warfare was incessant; this is a point to which almost no narrative objects. Sporadic episodes of invasion meant that the larger a tribe's population, the stronger its chances of survival. A larger population meant, firstly, increased resistance to an invader and, secondly, an increased workforce to aggrandise the nascent, discovered practice of agriculture. Unfortunately, what started as a sacrifice by women for the survival of the men around them eventually soured into subversion by 105 | The Other Side Of Patriarchy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

men, but selective men; the gendered division of labour drew sharp margins on the canvas of individual identities. The socioeconomic nuances of the time that this division was based on meant that those who excelled in the work that fell under the purview of their gender would receive more respect from society. Women were to reproduce for the tribe, and men were to reserve that tribe. This onus of preservation meant being able to combat the invaders, who presented the main challenge to any tribe at that time. This in turn meant that the stronger a man was, the better he was at this physically demanding responsibility, and the better he was at this responsibility, the better the image he incurred. Thus, under the idea of patriarchy, a set of traits were desired in men, such as a strong build, a stoic mind, and a stern demeanour. These desired traits constituted the yardstick for measuring men as ‘more masculine’ or ‘less masculine’. Consequently, the ‘more masculine’ a man was, the more societal respect he garnered. Given the sensitivity of the issue, we deem it necessary to guard ourselves against a ‘false’ trivialisation of the negative effects of patriarchy on women or even the idea that we by any means argue that the effects of patriarchy have been the same for men and women forever. That is not an argument to which we aspire; what we aspire to is a contemporary appraisal of patriarchy in men. The synthesis of the yardstick of masculinity had detrimental effects on the men who did not or could not, meet the ‘socially devised qualifications’ of being a man. The torment of these men was nowhere compared to that of women under patriarchy, but in the fight against the same men. As humanity trod the path of development, it rode in tandem with patriarchy. Mankind, in its excited march towards modernisation, forgot to attend to the women, who, by the sacrifice of their identities, enabled mankind to make this march in the first place. This unscrupulous mistake was first noticed and voiced in the late 19th century. Scholars and activists began voicing their complaints about the pervasive discrimination against women, where they were considered ‘less able’ than men. Over the next century and some, much progress has been made. At first, women acquired legal rights but still felt socially stifled. Slowly but steadily, society had walked its path towards the rightful rehabilitation of women. Today, as we write this paper, the concept of patriarchy stands in the most diluted form it has ever taken since it first took birth. Today, women are in a better place socially than their predecessors were. The fight against patriarchy is going on and must go on, for the concept is, in all totality, deplorable and unjust. However, the word patriarchy has often been synonymised with men. This is a fallacious point to raise. Patriarchy did elevate men over women, and it did privilege men at the expense of women, but the men it favoured were men of particular traits. The concept valued certain ‘traits’ over others. In its genesis, the concept was not devised based on the explicit bifurcation of men and women; rather, it was based on the social elevation of individuals who characterised certain traits. These traits dominated the The Other Side Of Patriarchy | 106 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Patriarchy, Masculinity and ‘Men’

2 2 patriarchy, these men need to be attended to too. The ideas of rehabilitation must prevail over those of retribution so that society can be salvaged from patriarchy as a whole. Masculinity under patriarchy is a concept conspicuously missing from, or if present, highly diluted, in most scholarly works on the issue. The Hegelian dialect with which this paper identifies itself is an effective apparatus to extend the research and discourse on patriarchy as it extends the debate to men in a way that aims to nullify the ideas of ‘toxic masculinity’ and allows men to embrace their identities and thus, in turn, reinforce the feminist movement. In extending the debate to men, it is important to track the debate first. A thorough analysis of several revered scholarly works on the issues of feminism and patriarchy presents us with the epiphany that the distinction between patriarchy, masculinity, and men is not a common theme. Kumkum Roy, in her book ‘The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power’, provides a comprehensive account of the roots of patriarchy in Indian culture. Citing examples from Manusmriti and other ancient Sanskrit texts, Roy makes a pressing argument but fails to dissect the idea of ‘masculinity’. However, not all scholars make this error. I. Sivakumar and K. Manimekalai, in their paper titled ‘Masculinity and Challenges for Women in Indian Culture’ highlight, “Men in the society are expected to become “protectors” of and “providers” for their families. Society implicitly and often explicitly requires men to be strong, aggressive, and without emotions. Of course, not all men or masculinities are the same.” Canadian author Elizabeth Plank most recently reinforced this argument in her book ‘For the Love of Men’. Plank makes the case that what we consider masculine traits are socially determined rather than innate and that men at this point in time may be more limited by gender expectations than women are. Plank uses an example to emphasise how urgent it is to take note of this observation. She suggests that women are beginning to feel free to express anger, while men are less apt to express fear or sadness. Women can comfortably wear the kind of clothing traditionally reserved for men, while men don't have the luxury of wearing women's clothing without comment. At the heart of the male dilemma, writes the author, is the “male shame spiral,” in which men feel guilty about not being able to live up to the traditional macho ideal and then feel increasingly ashamed because they have to hide their feelings. British psychologist David Morgan uses a catchy phrase to highlight the effects of this ignorance of men's masculinity. He speaks of a new ‘laddism.’ He goes on to describe this phenomenon as a codification of backlash by male students as they face a crisis of identity. These male students struggle to identify with the traditional societal concept of masculinity; however, any digression from that concept, even in volition, invites social ridicule. This crisis of identity is what Plank describes in her book when she writes, “We updated what it means to be a woman, but we didn't update what it means to be a man.” Men face a quandary; while they do not necessarily object to women redeeming their undue identity, they do express discomfort over the supposed loss of theirs. James A. Lorello, in his paper, ‘Disrupting Masculinity and Patriarchy: Stories of Men 107 | The Other Side Of Patriarchy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 A Problem That Has No Name

of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty create the notion that a kiss (or any form of physical touch) without consent is acceptable behaviour for a man towards a woman. She defines the normalization of this behaviour as a form of toxic masculinity targeted at children. This conception of toxic masculinity extends to movies and TV shows. The character of Nate Jacobs in Euphoria, which is a teen drama produced by HBO, portrays how a man in his late teens suffers and, in turn, afflicts pain on others in his quest to fit himself within the traditional definitions of what it means to be a man. The two most resounding media works on the conception of masculinity in modern society are Fight Club and Dead Poets Society. Fight Club does a phenomenal job of highlighting how men find themselves lost in modern society. The protagonist suffers from an identity disorder; his actual self is the self shaped by corporate America and the modern world. This self is suffocating because he has no agency to choose who he wants to be. He finds his materialistic possessions, such as his apartment, the furniture, and his wardrobe, owning him. He finds that his identity is an extension of the things he owns. He owns these things because the conception of masculinity that society pushes is one in which men, through the possession of these things, are moderate and balanced. The central theme is how, even after being successful by societal standards, the narrator (the protagonist with no name) finds himself unhappy. Transforming’, speaks of an ‘unspoken pressure’ that men find themselves under. This is strikingly similar to the concept of the ‘problem that has no name,’ which was put forward by Betty Friedman. Friedman was a popular author of the second wave of feminism. She presented the case that even after having acquired legal rights, women suffered an identity crisis. Drawing from the interaction of one of the interviews he conducted during his study, Morgan writes, “Robert also described a “pressure to act a certain way” from a young age. He felt that his parents very much valued compassion and kindness and let him express those traits, but the outside world didn’t believe in those same traits for men. Robert described “being a very nice, young kid” which was sometimes met with cynicism and what he felt was “masculine policing”. The pith and perpetuation of any idea vacillate depending on how cinema and television approach and portray it. The shades of toxic masculinity are present in different hues in media works of all categories, such as movies, cartoons, books, TV shows, etc. Plank posits that toxic masculinity, specific to the idea of male dominance, reveals itself in Disney cartoons such as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty. She argues that childhood exposure to cartoons that frequently depict men as the saviours of women establish the idea that women need to be saved and protected by men. Additionally, she mentions that the endings The Other Side Of Patriarchy | 108 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Tracing Toxic Masculinity Through Cinema and Television

2 2 He finds himself at a loss for self-expression. In order to seek emotional fulfilment, he goes on to further buy his way into the societal metrics of masculinity, but the spiral only worsens. The character of Tyler Durden stands in opposition to this portrayal of societally idealised but oppressive masculinity. Tyler is the complete opposite of the narrator. He wears shabby clothes and lives in a dismal house. However, he is in complete control of how he wishes to portray himself. The interesting observation is how a lot of men eulogise Tyler. Although in complete contradiction to societal standards of masculinity, Tyler is celebrated by fans because he is what they wish to be. The Narrator is the masculinity that is perfect for society but suffocating for the man who owns it, whereas the masculinity of Tyler Durden is one that, although decadent by societal standards, is found to be relatable and equitable to emancipation by many men. Fight Club insinuates that men are not talked about enough because they are suffocated by the expectations of masculinity. In the movie, these suffocated men find their way of expression in fighting and vandalism. The idea that the movie pushes is how close society teeters to the precipice of revolt because it doesn't address the issues of these men. The solutions offered by Tyler Durden in Fight Club are wrong, but his complaints are valid. The film's cult classic status guarantees its validity. The wrong solution is an innuendo about how bad ignorance is and how desperate these men are to redeem themselves. Dead Poets Society is a less aggressive manifestation of the same idea. The movie involves a group of school students who discover, through their professor, the importance of rebellion and self-expression in a society that is despotic in defining metrics of behaviour. The movie highlights the importance of self-expression through art and poetry. Although, from a cursory perspective, Fight Club and Dead Poets Society appear completely polar, they conflate on the point that they are the only major works of media on the importance of masculine expression and how society limits it. The common theme is present in the recognition that there is an emotional side to men that needs to be redressed. Men in both of these movies appear in contrast to the general conception of what a man is supposed to look like and how men are otherwise portrayed generally in cinema and media works. However, the cult status these two movies enjoy highlights how they tap into an element of masculinity that, although rare, is found relatable by many men. Media representation of masculinity is paramount, as the general conception of any idea or phenomenon is largely shaped by how it is portrayed by the media. The narrative that is pushed, in proportion, determines the way an idea is perceived by the common masses. Any discussion is futile without the mention of ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’ while deliberating on the interaction between masculine identity and social norms. It forms the core theme in the academic literature on understanding men and gender. The concept finds its roots in Gramsci's concept of hegemony, which effectively means the domination of one social group 109 | The Other Side Of Patriarchy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 NOT ALL MEN: The Idea Of Hegemony Masculinity

which developed an interesting analysis of the oppression of men as well as oppression by men. This led to the emergence of the idea of the ‘Hierarchy of Masculinities,’ which this paper attempts to reinstate: that men are, if not equally, significant victims of patriarchy, and the complexities of gender construction for men have somehow been diluted from both academia and routine life. For instance, the concept of Homophobia originated in the 1970s and was attributed to the “conventional male role”. In his work, Connell makes an important point that corroborates the thesis of this paper: hegemonic masculinity was not assumed to be normal in the statistical sense; only a minority of men could enact it. The exploration of this paper compelled and brought to the surface an invigorating question about the emergence of the concept of masculinity, which is now being increasingly challenged. Simply put, the questions that trouble the discourse around Patriarchy and gender norms are: Who decides what’s feminine and what’s masculine, the association of clothes, body language, speech, expression, choices, occupation, and their indignant association with gender, and the essentialization of masculine and feminine behaviour? These discursive templates of identity have harmed the harmonious coexistence of both sexes. It is this paper’s aim and regret that attention to the burden of being masculine or man-like is sidelined when we talk about the interplay between bodies and social processes. This attention is imperative to over another where the subordinate group “consents” to being dominated as a result of social “superstructures” that define the world of the subordinate groups. The concept functions when the dominant group, through amassing its power and influence, creates and reinforces its dominant position by structuring a society (its institutions, education and values, political, and cultural practices) in such a way that normalises and requires the maintenance of group hierarchy for proper social functioning. A conspicuous translation of hegemony in society is the subordination of the female sex by the historically dominant male sex; however, this concept, to our understanding, is dangerously convoluted, and this ambiguity is seconded by R. W. Connell and James W. Messerschmidt in their work, Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept. The concept of Hegemonic masculinity, by definition, not only subordinates the female sex but also includes social ridicule and the ousting of non-hegemonic masculinities. One of the pressing critiques of Hegemonic masculinity is that it uniformly demonises all expressions of masculinity. It is the overwhelming uni-focused discussions that have overpowered the discourse around gender and oppression that have blurred the understanding that masculinity is sometimes not a choice, it’s enculturation. Connell sheds light on the fact that power comes with a difference—that is, there exists a gradation in the power hierarchy. He says that Power and difference form the core concept of the gay liberation movement, The Other Side Of Patriarchy | 110 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 ensuring the efficacy of the eradication of patriarchy. When men find themselves struggling to gain social recognition, they stand apathetic to concepts like patriarchy as they themselves experience emotional delirium. However, any social recognition a man gains is when he confirms this ideal of hegemonic masculinity in some magnitude. This essentially means that men, like any other individual, only gather cognizance of patriarchy or any other social construct once they themselves have a sense of identity, which they can then direct towards the cause they believe in. The paradox is that in the search for this identity, men realise they are dressed under the ideal of ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’, which itself is the major inimical in the idea of patriarchy eradication. Thus, this paper aims to not only emancipate men from a construct they suffer under without any recognition but also extend the efficiency of the global fight against patriarchy. The paper takes a deep dive into concepts like Masculinity, the crisis in Masculine identity, and discursive templates of social norms and attempts to take the reader to the “Other side of Patriarchy”. The paper tries to shed light and bring the various hues of the discourse to the forefront. Patriarchy as a concept of societal structural oppression entails within itself a form of silent suppression called ‘hegemonic masculinity,’ which is nascent in academic exploration. Although insinuations of this idea exist and are interacted with by many scholars, what is exclusive to this paper is the approach it draws, wherein it becomes important to attend to men and liberate them from the shackles of hegemonic masculinity in order to increase efficacy in the emancipatory battle against patriarchy. The agency of selfexpression is important for men to have a cogent identity of who they believe themselves to be and then contribute to causes like the fight against patriarchy. It is important to realise that a generalisation cannot be drawn that reduces patriarchy to a battle between women who want their equality of liberty against men who staunchly desire their oppression. Patriarchy is a concept that compartmentalises not only the two genders but also hierarchies within each gender. In the end, we advocate the idea of Transformative Masculinity. The foundational values of this Transformative Masculinity are based on seeking gender justice through the conduit of a gender justice model founded on the principle of equal well-being and equality for all human beings. The paper is a smidgen in the larger paraphernalia, but it aims to escort an understanding where men are also considered prisoners of patriarchy and consciously included in the deliberations. Chakravarti, Uma. 2011. “Review of Bringing Gender into History: Women, Property and Reproduction, by Kumkum Roy.” Economic and Political Weekly 46 (33): 39-41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23017845. Collins, Glenn. 1989. “Patriarchy: Is It Invention or Inevitable?” The New York Times, April 28, 1989, 4. https://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/28/style/p atriarchy-is-it-invention-or-inevitable.html. 111 | The Other Side Of Patriarchy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Conclusion References

UNESCO New Delhi, Christopher Coley, Christie M. Gressel, and Rao R. Bhavani. 2021. Transforming ‘MEN’talities: Gender Equality and Masculinities in India. New Delhi: UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office. Connell, R. W., and James W. Messerschmidt. 2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender and Society 19 (6): 829–59. Jayakumar, Kirthi. 2015. “Origins of Patriarchy.” Sayfty. https://sayfty.com/origins-of-patriarchy/. LibreTexts. 2021. “11.4B: The Origins of Patriarchy - Social Sci LibreTexts.” LibreTexts Social Sciences. https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/S ociology/Introduction_to_Sociology/Book% 3A_Sociology_(Boundless)/11%3A_Gender_ Stratification_and_Inequality/11.04%3A_W omen_as_a_Minority/11.4B%3A_The_Origi ns_of_Patriarchy. Lorello, James A. 2019. Disrupting Masculinity and Patriarchy: Stories of Men Transforming. N.p.: Greensboro. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/345089339. pdf. Morgan, David. 2006. “Crisis In Masculinity.” In Handbook of Gender and Women's Studies, edited by Kathy Davis, Mary Evans, and Judith Lorber, 109-125. London: SAGE. Sivakumar, I., and K. Manimekalai. 2021. “Masculinity and Challenges for Women in Indian Culture.” Journal of International Women's Studies 22 (5): 427-436. https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=2461&context=jiws. The Other Side Of Patriarchy | 112 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

113 | X "This symbolic violence is more intense than physical violence, as it remains a classical example of an entrenched naturalisation of dif erence as inferiority"

Debrahmanised India: An Impossible Utopia Srivarsha Bhukya B.A. (Programme) Political Science & History Lady Shri Ram College for Women | 114 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Abstract It would have never occurred to the brightest minds that the arrival of Aryans into the Indian subcontinent in the second millennium BCE would change the civilisation’s course forever. It led to the most dehumanising and disuniting society under the umbrella of Brahmanism. It divided the society into dominant and subordinate classes. Subordination does not exist in a vacuum. Counter resistance to Brahmanism emerged as early as the emergence of the latter ideology. Then how does this anti-egalitarian institution remain a defining identity and driving force of our country even today? This research paper is an effort to understand and critically analyse the reasons for the same. Our society, institutions, traditions, literature, nationalist movement and even our lifestyles are deeply entrenched by Brahmanical ideologies of domination and subordination. The term Brahmanism has been synonymous with the debilitating practice of casteism adept to Indians. It eventually became the founding stone for communalism, patriarchy and minority scapegoating. Can all this be undone? The answer is a positive no. The lives of reformists like Jyotiba Phule, Dr B R Ambedkar, Periyar and the writings of Braj Ranjan Mani, and Kancha Ilaiah have been dedicated to reforming and debrahmanising institutions in India. However, it remains a far-fetched reality and an impossible utopia to achieve. This is because Brahmanism will never allow the subalterns to establish a new order based on nonBrahmanical conduct. Through this paper, the author tries to analyse and simplify the reasons why there cannot exist an alternative to the master narratives woven by the dominant and fascist Brahmanical historiography/reality. Keywords: Brahmanism, domination, debrahmanising institutions, alternative, subaltern

sections of society, whereas dark-skinned people are always associated with people emerging from the lower strata. The Indian obsession with fair skin has more to do with this than the colonial ages. Since Vedic times, the fair-skinned were most soughtafter as lords and masters, while the darkskinned were termed dasas," who were considered non-human, and thus, all inhuman behaviour towards them was justified (Indradeva, 1985). And this idea manifests even today, where dark-skinned lower strata are destined to take up manual scavenging, working in the crematorium, and other degenerating tasks. Most of the successes attributed to the Aryans were achieved through ‘myths and metaphysics’. These two channels of theory have no reality-based basis. Thus emerged the supremacy of the primaeval myth of Purusha Sukta and the metaphysical doctrine of Karma. These both were adopted when the Aryans realised that physical features were not the sole requirements to achieve social superiority. The Purusha Sukta is an “organismic analogy” that legitimises functions of man based on births and roles based on deeds of past lives (karma) and has been widely accepted by the masses. So, ritual practices and ritual purity were added along with physical attributes. These notions of ritual and racial purity took the form of marriages where hypogamy and hypergamy were not accepted. This idea emerged from myths such as the tale of Yimu and Yimuk from the Rig Veda (Indradeva, 1985). Such marriages, which question the purity of race, are avoided in the country. The result of all this is a society filled with endogamous and It has been 3500 years since the Aryans came to the subcontinent. Their coming has manifested into various phases of Aryan and Brahmanical manifestation over centuries. All this has been entrenched into the very essence of Indian livelihoods, so much so that any deviation from it is considered anomalistic to the extent of being termed anti-national. There were attempts spanning several centuries to oppose upper-class ideology and bring in an alternative to this vicious Brahmanical cycle. Through this research paper, the author tries to present the various attempts and their failures to bring about an alternative to this sealed arrangement. To have a better understanding of the washout of opposition to Brahmanism, it is conducive to break down various phases and sections of receptivity and resistance to Brahmanism. The age of the Rig Veda is the foundation stone for the emergence of structured inequality based on birth, gender, access to resources, rituals, customs, and lifestyles. The hordes of Aryans found it beneficial for them to assign the indigenous people a low position and exploit them in society. This brought in the first degenerating separation based on people’s colour, complexion, and physical features. They classified fairskinned people as being better off than the dark-complexioned indigenous population. They attributed physical features to themselves as masters and "others'' as their subordinates. This is not all in the past. This seed of colour-based potential continues to this day. India’s caste system is based on the serious leverage of people’s complexions. Fair-skinned people are deemed to be Brahmans and those belonging to the upper Debrahmanised India | 115 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 hereditary groups. In the later Samhitas, it was seen that hypergamy was permissible. This meant that Aryan men could marry Shudra women because the child born to them both would carry their father’s descent and thus belong to the upper strata. This is one of the founding stones of the initiation of patriarchal descent and the idea of a patriarchal society. Language was the next significant area where Brahmanism predominated. Sacred status was granted to the language of Sanskrit because access to "Devavani" (the language of the gods) was restricted only to those who were "pure". As an extension of it, the people who knew and learned Sanskrit were given a soaring status. This language was considered the language of the elite. This trend is visible even today, where the subject of Sanskrit is viewed as the "ancestral professional preserves" of the educated elites of society to such a degree that professors belonging to lower strata in colleges and universities are despised when they learn and can teach Sanskrit. They are not preferred to teach such theoretical and grammatical subjects that emerge from the Vedic times. All the above-mentioned events boil down to the debilitating practice of today’s casteism. Language is an important means of expressing that reality, and as M. S. S. Pandian states, there are "two sets of languages for the play of identities in the public sphere". One is the language of the people for whom "caste always belongs to someone else; it is somewhere else; it is another time" (Pandian 2002). The other language is that of those for whom their caste is their entire identity. The first language is that of the people who perpetrated this system and took the main lead in presenting history from their point of view, while on the other hand, historiography from below never saw the face of acceptance. The former lens has dominated language and literature up to this point. This elitist literature hardly took ordinary people as its subjects. This was contested with the coming of Dalit literature in modern times, whose significance lies in its disagreement with Brahmanical Hinduism. This genre of writing is based on the remembrance and critique of the past. This articulation helps introduce an alternative to the history conferred to date. The next focus for encompassing society through the dominant dogma is through its customs and rituals. The first aspect of this is lordship and overlordship. Since time immemorial, these concepts have been integrated into Indian society, and this rhetoric is “markedly gendered”. Brahmanical texts such as the Vedas and Smritis have always presented the lord as a male (the Purusha). He is commanding and enveloping in practical and cosmological senses, while his realm or jurisdiction is a female (his Prakriti), who is confined and reliant on him (Aktor 2000). This covert form of patriarchy is another one that this dominant order has induced. This is relevant even today, where major Brahmanical deities are male and female deities are represented as their consorts. This serves to underline the requirement that a woman's male partner always act as her advocate. And since religion and prayer are such an intrinsic part of our lives, this concept has been imbibed since childhood. The other observance is through food practices and customs. 116 | Debrahmanised India Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

All the expressions of subordination mentioned above boil down to the evolved practice of untouchability. Untouchability should not be understood in a parochial sense. The categories of “untouchables” are many. The standard groups include the Chandalas, who belong to the permanent group of untouchables; the women in confinement after childbirth (Sutaka); menstruating women (Udakya Rajasvala); the corpse; and the toucher of the corpse (Sava and Savaprstin), as mentioned during the Rig Vedic times. This has not left society, even in contemporary times where women are untouched or allowed to enter temples or practice rituals during menstruation, which is seen as the negation of a woman’s fertility and after childbirth. Based on this segregation of untouchables, the male asserts his dominance in the domestic sphere, where he is seen as the master of the household and everybody else, including the women, children, and servants, is subordinate to him. The efforts to question these practices emerged essentially during mediaeval times. One major event under this is the emergence of the Bhakti Movement, which reached its peak during the 15th and 17th centuries. Social reformers who vehemently opposed Brahmanical practices include Kabir, Guru Nanak, and others. Their ideas criticise these practices and this largely attracts people from the lower sections of society. Their efforts made these people conscious of their position in society. But these attempts failed because of the Hinduisation of these social reformers or saints by the 17th century by including them in Vaishnava texts and sects. One major illustration of this is Kabir’s transition into the Vaishnava sect in the 17th It is found that maintaining caste integrity is correlated with the consumption of food and water, the way food is cooked, and by whom it is handled. During the Vedic and PostVedic times, food was given to Chandalas in such a way that there was no exchange of food vessels. And if this rule was broken, severe punishments were provided in the Smritis and Vedas. The Manusmriti states several ways in which food practices have to be restricted. Garlic, leeks, onions, and mushrooms were forbidden to be eaten by the “pure,” and if the food was eaten after receiving it or exchanging it from an outcaste, the Brahmana was equal to the former. This concept of “purity” and “pollution” is striking even today. ‘Dalit food’, or food eaten by the lower strata, was developed out of economic necessity because of their limited sources and food choices. Limited agricultural produce and restrictions have been vital in the development of nonvegetarian food habits in the lower classes, like Rati (coagulated goat blood fried with onions), Chunchuni (cooked with preserved pig fat), etc., eaten by many tribals and outcastes in the country. Even the names assigned to certain groups were based on the food they were left with to eat. A primary example of this is the community of Mahars, also called ‘Mrutuharis’, meaning those who eat dead animals. Even today, houses in the rural upper classes enjoy fine grains, whereas mota chawal is found predominantly in the houses of the distressed classes. This bigotry is also visible in how food and water are handled. In states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, ‘the Two Glass/Tumbler System’ is largely followed, where water is given in two different glasses or vessels that are separated to serve the upper and lower classes distinctly. Debrahmanised India | 117 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 century. Vaishnava hagiographers like Nabhadas and Anantadas wrote Bhaktamal and Parachais, respectively, where Kabir was portrayed as a Vaishnava saint. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the lives of saints like Kabir and Raidas who belonged to the lower classes had become a popular subject among the Vaishnava hagiographers. They were subsumed into the ultimate Brahmanical tradition, thereby cancelling out any opposition to them. This opposition once again took centre stage with the emergence of social reformers during the 19th and 20th centuries like Jyotiba Phule, Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (Periyar), and Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. All of them vouched for an egalitarian society. Temple entry, access to public places, and women’s empowerment were all aimed at opposing Brahmanical dominance. But their movements eventually faded into the background and showed the light of Dalitcentricity instead of their efforts to make the nation egalitarian. Along these lines, it was seen that these agitations could never gain an audience or popularity among the classes at the top. All the above-mentioned challenges took a back seat with the onset of the Nationalist movement during the 19th and 20th centuries. People from all walks of life came together to ask for what rightfully belonged to them—their nation and its sovereignty. There were protests, rebellions, and movements organised, but what one overlooks is the people responsible for organising them and where they come from. It becomes important to focus on the origin and background of these leaders because their vision is what is reflected in the nation’s vision. They become the torchbearers of the country’s vision. During India’s independence movement, leaders emerged from the upper classes who had their origins in the Aryan sections. They were the mobilisers who portrayed themselves as the messiahs who could make the whole nation stand as a whole, while the remaining vast sections of society represented the lower classes, who were depicted as “inadequate” citizens in the making. When there were instances of lower-class leadership coming up, the existing leaders deemed it a colonial strategy of ‘divide and rule,’ and thus, the story of the nationalistic viewpoint of the subalterns like Periyar and BR Ambedkar always remained as “collaborators” with the British (Pandian 2002). This can be clearly seen from some prominent historical moments, like the unsuccessful struggle for separate electorates as championed by Ambedkar when it was christened as the East India Company’s strategy to rule the nation based on its divisions and make it its strength. During the same time period, there was a growing tendency among the Indian population to evolve into the ‘westernised intelligentsia’ and walk on the path towards modernity. But even along these lines, there appears to be a stark absence of the names of those who tried to cultivate this modernity for the mobilisation of the subordinates. Thus, “Indian modern” silently evolved to be upper caste in nature, while the subalterns are termed the “other”. With India's accession as an independent nation, there were several changes to the demographics of the country. The Indian Constitution became the redeemer of the subalterns, as they could lawfully educate themselves and fight for their rights. As a result of this, several scholars emerged from 118 | Debrahmanised India Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

and thus, for centuries, the bearers of Brahmanical ideology restrained themselves from taking up such work. There are several other professions similar to this that the latter view as having dignity. They restricted themselves to temples, offices, and those that did not predominantly include physical labour. Professor Ilaiah is of the strong belief that only when this changes and labour is taken up by the upper-caste population can society be re-humanised. The articulation of history by such subaltern writers sowed the seeds of an “alternative future imagination” of history by the oppressed (Kumar 2018). This genre also brought in female Dalit writers who brazenly addressed the truth of their marginalisation and exploitation of their bodies. Their work was a blatant opposition to patriarchy, as perpetrated since Vedic times. But the alternative presented by this movement of Dalit literature has not been successful enough because of its dominant opponent. It has been limited to being just a genre that stirs the emotions of the reader until the narrative goes on. The dogmatic Brahmanical ideology took the form of a fanatical and extremist Hindutva outlook during the twentieth century, which took the worst shape in the form of communal violence. Unscrupulous incidents such as the aftermath of the Mandal Commission and the tearing down of the Babri Masjid in the second half of the 20th century are clear examples of the rise of religious fundamentalism based on the values carried by the extremist version of Brahmanism. There have been increasing incidents of minority scapegoating in recent times targeted at the groups whose the backward sections of society who chose literature to be their means of expressing their identity and role in the nation’s history. One prominent genre of this literature was the emergence of ‘Dalit literature’ in the second half of the twentieth century. As several prominent scholars argue, it is indisputable that the Dalit literary phenomenon was the struggle of the Dalit masses and other working classes to help build a society with ideologies and values that rejected the downgrading elitist perspective of “superior” humankind. The importance of this literary phenomenon underlies the “ideological contestation” with Brahmanical dogma that upholds inhumanity towards the “dispossessed” groups (Kumar 2018). This genre was a successful effort in grasping attention to the lives at the peripheries of society and the history of injustice and cruelty perpetrated against them. It brought in an excluded perspective of history authored by the “inferiors''. They challenged the elitist aesthetic that failed to include the lives and struggles of the masses. Labour and production by the masses were the major subjects they dealt with rather than the parasitic lives of the “masters''. For a better understanding of the legacy these authors left, I had the privilege of interviewing one such prominent Dalit literature scholar, Professor Kancha Ilaiah. Discussing one of his works, ‘Why I am not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture, and Political Economy,’ he divulged into the question of production and how it becomes an important aspect to systematically break down the dogma of impurity. The Shudras, those labouring masses who till the land and deal with agriculture, were viewed as impure, Debrahmanised India | 119 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 “economic and political influence had grown (in recent times), namely Muslims and the lower castes” (Basu 2000). Along with several inhuman practices, this prominent dogma also takes centre stage in the identity formation of the country’s population. The Brahmanical culture speaks for the entire nation, where the culture of the majority is presented as the same as that of the nation in the global order. According to MN Srinivas, there has been an increasing trend of Brahmanization or Sanskritization of the lower castes in order to fit into the popular culture of the country. This brings in the complete Brahmanical hegemony of Indian culture while erasing the heterogeneous nature of our nation. Tribals, outcastes, and Bahujans are keen on adopting Brahmanical gods, rituals, practices, customs, and their way of life to fit into the mainstream order. A prominent example of this growing dogmatic metamorphosis is the shift of the tribal god Puri Jagannath of Orissa into the prominent Hindu cult of Lord Krishna. All this is seen as helping the downtrodden go higher up the ladder of Brahmanical hierarchy if they adopt their ways. According to several Marxist scholars, reproduction and production are the center of life. Caste-based identities based on birth have already engulfed reproduction. And the sphere of production has equally been dominated since ancient times, when sources for production were under the control of the “masters,” while the “subordinates” only had the occupation of serving the former. This is relevant even today because this hierarchy still decides who holds agricultural land and other resources. The latest Land and Livestock Holdings of Households and Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households Survey Report of the National Survey Organisation (NSO) released in September 2021 shows a jagged distinction of land distribution predominantly based on caste groups. The data reveals that the dominant social groups have greater access to these resources. According to the report, the average land holding for SC households (0.52 hectares) was half the average ownership of those by ‘other’ (forward caste) households (1.05 hectares). It was also declared that only a mere 10% of ST households have access to more than two hectares of land (D’Souza 2022). This kind of unequal access to land leads to an unequal variation in income and thus produces inequitable social identities. In the absence of these resources like land, wages, and entitlements, poverty and powerlessness emerge, leading to most of the atrocities faced by the disadvantaged population. Structural violence is the most common and permanent reality that is directly or indirectly embedded in society’s social, political, and economic spheres. This indirect violence physically, mentally, and psychologically tortures the victims. Structural violence is perpetrated through the caste system and patriarchy-induced gendered violence. This symbolic violence is more intense than physical violence, as it remains a classical example of an “entrenched naturalisation of difference as inferiority” (Murmu 2019). Maroona Murmu, an associate professor at the Jadavpur University of Kolkata asserts that the degree of this violence is internalised and 120 | Debrahmanised India Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

does the same. It has a claim over the structure and functioning of every sphere and institution of society, with ultimate submission to the powerholders. And I believe there is no alternative to this, where it is a rare case of fascism spanning several centuries and constantly adapting and evolving to engulf everything in the nation under its umbrella. Not just the nation, but the Aryan philosophy of pure race has cost the lives of six million Jews in genocide grounded in fascist Hitler’s extreme jingoism. Even today, despite the efforts of several leaders and scholars, a society based on equal identities is not possible. But I do not aim to paint a picture of doom with my work. Just because I believe that there exists an alternate order does not mean I disregard the achievements of change. The battles and accomplishments of leaders, writers, and reformers who championed change are the reason why this paper has the chance of being published today. It shows that people want to acknowledge and accept changes in society and get away from despotic ideals that are no longer relevant. Professor Ilaiah stated during my consultation with him, "The post-Mandal era has eventually put in the ideas of opposing this order, and historical conditionality is being confronted time and again.” There needs to exist a theoretical and empirical framework for bringing about change in the real world, and the endeavour of 20th-century reformers and scholars has presented us with one. It has made a difference. In the process of making a difference in a thousand-year-old system, even a single stride is an accomplishment. The fundamental ideas of social mobility “accepted as unchangeable and a deserving destiny”. Thus, any effort to mobilise against the dominant order becomes unthinkable. Just because there is an ambient amount of structural violence does not mean archaic ways of violence have gone backstage. A ‘The Hindu’ report of 2019 stated an incident of 200 people attacking a small group of Dalits for swimming in the Bhadra river in Karnataka that was claimed to belong to the “upper castes” (Bhargava 2019), which shows how the ideology of resource-owning “masters” and subordination as presented hundreds of years ago still takes centre stage even in acquiring basic necessities and resources. Debrahmanisation does not mean going “anti-Brahmin” or against the community of Brahmins. This research paper deals with the sophisticated ideology in which inhuman and anti-egalitarian Brahmanical values occupy the highest position in all the realms of society. I tried to present how questioning against this tyrannical order has been time and again subsumed, and despite the failure to create an alternate egalitarian order, it is still essential to challenge the status quo conservatism carried by the ideology. Elitist power and privilege need to be questioned. People belonging to Brahmanical dogma need not belong to only one community because every highly placed individual who clings to the notion of superiority over the lower strata based on birth, resources, and opportunities is a perpetrator of this system. Based on my research, I came to the conclusion that this ideology is fascist in nature. Just as fascism aims at encompassing the entire society and transforming it based on abstract fanaticism, I believe this dogma Debrahmanised India | 121 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 based on birth and individual freedom are changing. The Indian Constitution is the guardian and redeemer of this development. And “every individual who adheres to the principles of the constitution is automatically anti-Brahmanical” and thus is challenging the despotism it encompasses (Bhargava 2019). Aktor, Mikael. 2000. “Rules of untouchability in ancient and medieval law books: Householders, competence, and inauspiciousness.” In Invented Identities: The Interplay of Gender, Religion and Politics in India, edited by Mary McGee and Julia Leslie. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Basu, Amrita. 2000. “Review of Engendering Communal Violence: Men as Victims, Women as Agents.” In Invented Identities: The Interplay of Gender, Religion and Politics in India, edited by Mary McGee and Julia Leslie. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Bhargava, Rajeev. 2019. “What does it mean to oppose Brahmanism?” The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/oped/what-does-it-mean-to-opposebrahmanism/article28658412.ece. D'Souza, Sonal A., and Sunit Arora. 2022. “Caste still decides who holds agri land, and how much.” Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/opinion /panorama/caste-still-decides-who-holdsagri-land-and-how-much-1130718.html. Indradeva, Shrirama. 1985. “Shaping of the Traditional Pattern of Stratification in India: An Analysis of Processes Through the Ages.” Diogenes 33, no. 130 (April): 12-40. https://doi.org/10.1177/039219218503313002 . Kumar, Ravi S. 2018. “The politics of Dalit literature.” In Dalit Literatures in India: With a New Introduction, edited by Joshil K. Abraham and Judith Misrahi-Barak. 2nd ed. India: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Murmu, Maroona. 2019. “Structural Violence of Casteism.” The India Forum. https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/structu ral-violence-casteism. Pandian, M. S. S. 2002. “One Step Outside Modernity: Caste, Identity Politics and Public Sphere.” Economic and Political Weekly 37 (18): 1735-41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4412071. 122 | Debrahmanised India Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 References

123 | XI "The language of morality works with a surveillance apparatus that takes dif erent forms"

A review of ‘Why Loiter?’ by Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade Book Review: Imagining the Flâneur as a Woman Jyotika Tomar B.A. (Hons) History Lady Shri Ram College for Women Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s ‘Sultana’s Dream’ imagines a feminist utopia called ‘Ladyland’, where the city is brought to life by women, made possible by the complete inversion of gender roles (Hossain 1905). Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’ offers the sage advice that states, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write poetry” (Woolf 1957 [c1929]). ‘City Girls’, a short film by The Third Eye Social, documents the adventures of Umra and Kulsum, two young women from Banda in Uttar Pradesh who imagine and build freedoms after their migration to New Delhi (Thuvassery 2022). Central to all of these is the question of women in public space. A foundational text on gender, violence, and urban space in the Indian metropolitan context by the sociologist Shilpa Phadke, the journalist and researcher Sameera Khan, and the architect and researcher Shilpa Ranade, ‘Why Loiter?’ makes for a distinctly accessible and crisp yet comprehensive read. It combines theory with the findings from a three-year-long research project conducted by the authors under the ‘Gender and Space’ project in Mumbai in which they studied fourteen different areas in the city across geographical location, class and religious affiliations, and usage, using techniques including locality studies, ethnography, and mapping. Additionally, the tools they used include interviews, focus group discussions, participant observation, architecturalmapping, city planning data, seminars, round table discussions, advocacy, secondary sources in the media, and scholarly literature. The book begins with an audacious invitation to the reader to imagine an Indian city with street corners full of women - “chatting, laughing, breast-feeding, exchanging corporate notes or planning protest meetings. Imagine footpaths spilling over with old and young women watching the world go by as they sip tea, and discuss love, cricket and the latest blockbuster. Imagine women in saris, jeans, salwars and skirts sitting at the nukkad reflecting on world politics and dissecting the rising sensex” - claiming that if they can imagine this, they’re imagining a radically different city. Control Societies In The Age Of Consumer Capitalism | 124 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 1 2 3

metaphorically (Bourdieu 1984). While women do covertly resist these norms away from their authority figures and attempt to ‘manufacture’ safety and freedom for themselves, it comes with the responsibility of playing the ‘good, respectable woman’ in front of them, thus reinforcing these sexist ideas. The chapters ‘The Unbelongers’ and ‘Narrating Risk’ draw from the work of urban geographers Don Mitchell (2000) and Richard Sennett (1996) to argue that urban spaces are built upon the exclusion of the ‘Other’, manifested through systematic disenfranchisement, dehumanisation, discrimination, and denial of any legitimate claim to space or identity as a citizen of said space. To illustrate this, they trace the roots of the gradual compartmentalisation and consolidation of exclusion in the spatial geography of the city and the violence thus enacted upon Muslims, Dalit Bahujan communities, migrants, poor working class people, North-Easterners, queer people, the elderly, and women, among others who are forced against belonging. Further, they argue that the patriarchal obsession with maintaining women’s safety through moral policing and restrictions rests on unfounded notions that operate through the erasure of the violence meted out to women in the supposedly safe private sphere, within their homes. The language of morality works with a surveillance apparatus that takes different forms - “parental protection, fraternal affection, husbandly possessiveness, neighbourly nosiness, or even the more formal structures of the community (sharia jamaats, khap-panchayats and jati panchayats) and state (constitutional laws They then introduce the first section of the book called ‘City Limits’, where they lay down their central arguments and extensively contextualise gender, safety, risk, and citizenship, locating these against the histories and geographies of exclusion in the city. In ‘Why Mumbai?’, ‘Good Little Women’ and ‘Lines of Control’, the authors argue that women are structurally deprived of unbridled access to public space under patriarchy and sexist moral anxieties about their safety, which surreptitiously operate as a means of policing their sexuality. This is further complicated along the lines of identity based on caste, class, ethnicity, religion, place of birth/origin, ability, sexual orientation, and linguistic background, among others. The notion of ‘respectability’ as a pre-condition to women’s (conditional) presence in public space comes with a burden to prove the legitimacy of this presence, demonstrate piety, and draw a distinction between themselves and ‘nonrespectable’ women (read: working class women, particularly sex workers, bar dancers, etc.). They borrow from Michel Foucault’s (1995) theorisation of ‘disciplined bodies’ and Sandra Bartky’s (1997) gendered analysis of this idea to argue that the constant surveillance and subjugation women experience becomes an intrinsic part of their body and psyche, or what Pierre Bourdieu calls the ‘habitus’ - a lowered gaze, an obedient posture, a demure stance, the usage of religious or heterosexual matrimonial symbolism to indicate their respectability, a refusal to take up space, literally and Imagining the Flâneur as a Woman | 125 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 and police acts)”. The other tool in the modus operandi of this project is the creation of the myth of the ‘Dangerous Man’, which undertakes the dehumanisation and oversexualisation of the Dalit man, the Muslim man, the poor man, and the Kashmiri man—all seen as out to get the ‘respectable, good, docile, pure’ (upper caste and class) women, also imagined as an allegory of the nation—and the myth of ‘bad areas’, which are usually spaces inhabited by these communities. This then leads to an individualisation of incidents of gender based violence towards women and normalises and even encourages bloodthirsty public discourse in support of carceral state responses (see: calls to ‘hang the rapist’ after any incident of sexual violence that receives media attention), without any effort to address the structural causes of the creation of a culture that enables this kind of violence to begin with. The authors then trace the history of the women’s movement and ‘governance feminism’ (Kotiswaran 2017) in India to argue that feminist demands for the expansion of rights were met with judicialisation and paternalist state intervention, through more policing, family courts, women’s courts, legal aid cells, vigilance committees, and so on. In this context, the right to lay a political claim to pleasure or risk in terms of accessing public space by subverting societal burdens of respectability, piety, and compromise and occupying vocabularies of pleasure and possibility was never considered a priority, also because of the capitalist obsession with constant ‘productivity’, making a discussion of this kind an anomaly. The next section of the book, ‘Everyday Spaces’, undertakes an analysis of the systemic exclusion of women from public space through extensive ethnographic surveys of public infrastructure and facilities in Mumbai, which forms the prerequisite for any possibility of women exercising this right to pleasure and risk. The chapters on ‘Public Space’ and ‘Commuting’ invoke the French Marxist thinker Henri Lefebvre’s idea of moving away from a technical, architectural understanding of the term ‘space’ to perceive it as the canvas upon which socio-spatial constructs manifest in the production and reproduction of social relations (Lefebvre 1991). With irresponsible urban planning that disregards gendered concerns and constructs public infrastructure for the upper class, Hindu, upper caste, able-bodied and heterosexual men under the guise of the ‘neutral user,’ and the shrinking of accessible public space as a result of privatisation, the authors argue that women find it immensely difficult to navigate the public space in the absence of functional and adequate infrastructure such as good roads, foot-over bridges, signage, street lighting, and public transport. ‘Peeing’ offers an extensive juxtaposition of the inadequacies of women’s toilets with those of men; the corresponding consequences on health, hygiene, and dignity; and an analysis of the anxieties of purity and pollution (Douglas 1966) in relation to the female body and excretion, which lie at the root of the issue. ‘Playing’ addresses the lack of free and accessible public recreational spaces for women, which lays bare the interplay of poor urban planning, conservative ideas about morality and control, and the 126 | Imagining the Flâneur as a Woman Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

undertaking a thematic analysis of various categories of women and questioning their possibilities for fun and pleasure. The discussion entails the specific histories, politics, spatial negotiations, and intimacies of Muslim women, disabled women, queer women, women in slums, working class women, rich upper caste women, sex workers, and elderly women - addressing themes such as state sponsored Islamophobia, ghettoisation, communalism, ableism, queerphobia, classism, casteism, and ageism, among others, and the struggles for freedom under these circumstances. The book concludes with a chapter that shares the name of the book and traces the history and connotations around the idea of loitering - conviction under the Bombay Police Act 1951—and the synonymy with derogatory terms like ‘lukkha’, ‘lafanga’, ‘tapori’, ‘bekaar’ - thus an exercise meant usually for ‘good-for-nothing’ lower class men and an entirely unsuitable pursuit for women. The authors then summarise the book’s idea by arguing that it is not the threat of sexual violence but the danger of losing their right to access pleasure, fun, and risk by loitering in public space that is the worst consequence of patriarchal morality, operating behind the scarcely hidden garb of protection. Loitering becomes a radical political act when it pioneers the process of inclusion and mobilises resources, time, and energies towards constructing public space that is accommodative of the most vulnerable and marginalised, thus making it accessible to all - an imagination of a world where “hip collegians and sex workers, dalit professors and lesbian lawyers, nursing mothers and taporis, Muslim journalists and increased privatisation of public spaces, which turn pleasure into a commodity to be bought and be jealously guarded by those privileged by caste, class, religion, etc - to the exclusion of those who are not. Ravish Kumar’s ‘Ishq mein Shahar Hona/A City Happens in Love’ offers a reflection on the imposition of patriarchal morality to determine the order of the city through constant surveillance and policing, by saying, “Ghabrahat mein dono itni tezi se uthe ki paas ki jhaadiyon mein bhi halchal mach gayi - premiyon ko laga ki pulis aa gayi hai aur uska kaha yaad raha, ‘Yeh kaisa shahar hai, har waqt shareer ka peecha karta rehta hai?’” (Kumar 2015): The lovers thought the police had come; their sudden movement set the bushes in motion. He remembered what she said - ‘What kind of a city is this? Always chasing the body!’ Where this leaves vulnerable communities is the coercion to compromise and undergo multiple layers of discrimination in order to access public spaces, which prevents them from participating as full citizens. In the next section called ‘In Search of Pleasure’, the authors invoke Asef Bayat’s (2007) description of ‘fun’ as “… an array of ad hoc, non-routine, and joyful conducts— ranging from playing games, joking, dancing, and social drinking, to involvement in playful art, music, sex, and sport, to particular ways of speaking, laughing, appearing, or carrying oneself—where individuals break free temporarily from the disciplined constraints of daily life, normative obligations, and organized power”. Using this framework, they spend the next few chapters Imagining the Flâneur as a Woman | 127 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 north Indian taxi drivers, visually-challenged management professionals and street hawkers, garbage collectors and heterosexual, brahmin bureaucrats” all claim the streets as their own. With the recognition that it was published a decade ago and has contributed immensely to the conversation and mobilisation for feminist urbanism, the theoretical framework the book offers equips us to ask a multitude of questions that demand to be addressed now, and its foregrounding of the urban upper class Hindu woman makes new perspectives necessary for this. For instance, how do we negotiate the concerns of queer and trans people who clearly articulate that it is cis women across backgrounds who are most actively engaged in making spaces unaccommodative and hostile? Where do the rights of working class women stand under the creation of sanitised and gated ‘islands of freedom’ built specifically to exclude them? How do Muslim women claim space when the fascist state machinery is determined to utilise every weapon in its institutional apparatus to dehumanise and disenfranchise them (Maktoob Media 2022)? How do Kashmiri women imagine freedom in a historical context of militarisation and denial of the right to self-determination (Zia 2019)? How do we imagine ‘ women’s’ issues given the significant participation of women in the Hindu Right’s project for the delegitimisation of all democratic sensibilities (Butalia and Sarkar 1995)? These, among many other articulations and demands, are worthy of serious attention if we are to commit to the political choice of expanding freedoms for all. 128 | Imagining the Flâneur as a Woman Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 1. ‘Flâneur’ is a French word used to describe a ‘stroller’, ‘idler’, ‘walker’ who could access public space without being questioned, particularly in the context of nineteenth century Paris and necessarily a man. 2. The title is borrowed from a piece by the same name by Elfriede Dreyer and Estelle McDowall Dreyer, Elfriede and Estelle McDowall. 2012. “Imagining the flâneur as a woman.” Communicatio 38 (1): 30-44. 3. “Gender and Space Project.” Pukar, March 13, 2019. https://pukar.org.in/portfolio/gender-andspace-project/ Bartky, Sandra L. 1997. “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power.” In Feminist Social Thought: A Reader, edited by Diana T. Meyers. New York: Taylor & Francis Group. Bayat, Asef. 2007. “Islamism and the Politics of Fun.” Public Culture 19, no. 3 (September): 433–459. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2007-004. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Endnotes References

Mitchell, Donald. 2000. Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Ranade, Shilpa, Shilpa Phadke, and Sameera Khan. 2011. Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets. India: Penguin Books. Sennett, Richard. 1996. Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization. 1st ed. New York: W. W. Norton. Thuvassery, Priya, dir. 2022. City Girls. The Third Eye, Nirantar Trust. https://thethirdeyeportal.in/nirantarvideo/city-girls/. Woolf, Virginia. 1957 [c1929]. A Room of One's Own. N.p.: New York; London, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Zia, Ather. 2019. Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation and Women’s Activism in Kashmir. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Butalia, Urvashi, and Tanika Sarkar, eds. 1995. Women and the Hindu Right: A Collection of Essays. New Delhi: Kali for Women. Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Praeger. Dreyer, Elfriede, and Estelle McDowall. 2012. “Imagining the flâneur as a woman.” Communicatio 38 (1): 30-44. Foucault, Michel. 1995. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books. Hossain, Rokeya Sakhawat. 1905. “Sultana's Dream.” The Indian Ladies Magazine (Madras), September, 1905, 82– 86. Kotiswaran, Prabha. 2017. “Governance Feminism's Others: Sex Workers and India's Rape Law Reforms (Introduction).” King's College London Law School Research Paper No. 2018-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3075186. Kumar, Ravish. 2015. Ishq Mein Shahar Hona. New Delhi: Rajkamal Publishers. Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The Production of Space. Oxford, England: Blackwell. Maktoob Media. 2022. “"They can't break us" | Afreen Fatima on demolition of her house and incarceration of her father.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=BODxQRVvtUI. Imagining the Flâneur as a Woman | 129 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

" Alternatives are a critique of the belief systems that inform our collective acceptance of societal standards. They provide platforms for ideas and opinions that have been deliberately ostracised to sustain the structures. Alternatives are also a provocation, a form of resistance in the face of dominant strands of thoughts and realities."