Stories from the Subverse

This episode concludes the Water and Caste series, which has been conceptualised, scripted, and hosted by Dr. Swati Kamble, an anti-caste intersectional feminist researcher activist.

In part two, Swati speaks with four remarkable Ambedkarite anti-caste creators on how Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Mahad march inspired and shaped their lives, artistic journeys, and creative repertoires. We are introduced to Madhubani artist Malvika Raj, Padma Shri awardee and photojournalist Sudharak Olwe, artist Rajyashri Goody, and folk artist Shahir Nandesh Umap. All four guests discuss using art for resistance, how to archive and retell forgotten and often erased stories of anti-caste resistance, and how to retain these events in collective memory.

These conversations revolve around three key questions: What are the sources of inspiration for their art? What are their personal histories and stories around the Mahad march and other historical events? What are the processes they employ in their craft?

Malvika Raj, who was born and raised in Bihar, talks about how she was inspired by her father. In her subversive art, she tries to remedy the erasure of Buddhist narratives from the Madhubani art form. She paints stories of anti-caste revolutionaries and describes in detail some of her paintings, including Waiting for a Visa, which is based on Ambedkar’s autobiographical collection of essays. She speaks powerfully of her own journey, her father’s stories that she heard as a child, their experiences with untouchability and caste discrimination, and her hopes to inspire new generations of artists within the anti-caste space who can take up the mantle of exploring Buddhist themes and Babasaheb Ambedkar’s stories.

Swati’s conversation with Padma Shri Sudharak Olwe touches upon a range of topics. In a photo documentary centred around access to water in urban areas, Olwe recorded the contemporary struggles that Dalits face, such as the high prices that must be paid for access to water by communities living in poverty, especially compared to people living in affluent urban high rises. His work encompasses the stories of municipal workers (the majority of whom are from Dalit and manual scavenger communities), the hereditary relations that frame this work, and caste and gender-based divisions of labour. Wielding his camera as a metaphorical weapon, Olwe talks about witnessing the atrocities meted out to Dalits, and ongoing fights for justice in the face of impossible odds.

Rajyashri Goody, whose artwork explores everyday and historic instances of Dalit resistance speaks of hearing the story of the Mahad as a child. She discusses how this space, which symbolises access to water, has become a socio-political pilgrimage for the Dalit community and why people celebrate its anniversary. In What is the Caste of Water, 2017, she created a piece using 108 glass tumblers containing dried and diluted panchagavya (a mixture of cow dung, cow urine, milk, ghee, and curd). This was to evoke the so-called purification of the Chavdar tank after the Mahad march.

In 2022, in Is the water chavdar, she created a body of work bringing together ceramics, printmaking, and paper pulp. These mounds or stupas were a personal homage to the 10,000 people whose stories are unknown, and who journeyed for days to reach Chavdar. She also delves into the complexities of another related project Manu (2017-ongoing), which involves shredding and pulping a copy of the Manusmriti, in remembrance of the public burning of the book on 25 December 1927, six months after the Mahad march.

Finally, we hear from Shahir Nandesh Umap, who performs part of his powada, a well-known genre of war ballads from Maharashtra, and talks about his inspiration for creating a song about the Mahad march. One of the major topics of discussion is the folk artist’s role as a torchbearer, spreading the message of humanity and love.

Shahiri jalsa are folk performances made to raise awareness among masses, and within this tradition, Ambedkari jalsa disseminated Dr. Ambedkar’s legacy through poetry and songs. This has played a major role in creating awareness about the battle for the annihilation of caste. Shahiri, a century-old performative act of singing a story and street theatre, was transformed through giving a voice to oppression in music by Dalit Shahirs. Jalsa was created using folk music in a simple manner using the dialect of the common people.

Babasaheb Ambedkar famously said that one poem of a Shahir is enough to convey the message of ten of his speeches. These poems and songs evoke memories of historical events for the caste oppressed communities. Powadas present these historical events with emotion, conveying the fervour, angst, and rage against caste oppression, and make an appeal for people to revolt against injustice, and reject caste slavery.

This story was produced for us by Vaaka Media. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram, as well as on their website.

For this episode, we commissioned Shrujana N Shridhar to create another original artwork for us.

Part one of this series has been conceptualised, scripted, and hosted by Swati Kamble, an anti-caste intersectional feminist researcher-activist. Her research broadly focuses on human rights and social justice movements, decolonisation, and intersectionality. In Part one, Swati guides us through the history of Mahad Satyagraha, the march for equality, dignity, and access to water, led by anti-caste leader and statesman, Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar on 20th March 1927.This history is mired in the history of untouchability and caste apartheid as the foundational characteristics of the caste system. Strict endogamy and prohibition of social interaction sustained various historical practices and some that continue well into the 21^st century such as prohibiting the former ‘untouchables’ (caste oppressed) from drawing water from a public water source. There is also a strong history of resistance and many milestones, including from 1869, when revolutionaries Jyotirao and Savitri Phule opened their private wells for ‘untouchable’ communities. What precipitated the march to the Chavdar tank in Mahad in 1927 was the following. On August 4, 1923, the Bombay Legislative Council adopted a resolution by S.K Bole, which recommended that ‘untouchables’ be given access to all public water bodies. The Mahad Municipality, which was then part of the erstwhile Bombay presidency reaffirmed this in 1924 but this law was not implemented due to upper class protest.

Swati then provides the backdrop in which water and caste overlap and entwine, through forms of social control, flouting of legal norms and continuing caste atrocities. She introduces us to her grandfather, who followed a caste occupation, one of the many inhumane traditions that caste oppressed communities were tied to, called potraj. He joined the Mahad march and that changed his life forever, and by extension hers, setting her on course for the work she does for social justice.

Two conversations underpin this story, one with advocate Disha Wadekar who provides legal and historical perspectives on how the Mahad Satyagraha influenced the anti-caste movement and played a pivotal role in the making of the Indian Constitution. Disha expertly leads us through the denial of water, access to public spaces, resources or the commons, and how the framing of Articles 15 and 17 of the Constitution was grounded in the people’s struggle to have equal access to water.

She also takes us through the events preceding the Mahad Satyagraha and the anti-caste march to implement already codified laws, then speaks eloquently on the Southborough Franchise Committee (1918-1919), Government of India Acts and the Second Round Table conference (1931) to discuss constitutional reforms and how the rights to equal citizenship were core concerns. Disha emphasises that civilizational struggles around water are about power relations, and that citizenship is not an abstract idea, but is crucial to reclaiming human dignity for those deemed untouchable and posited as lower classes.

The second conversation is with Hira Kanoje, or Grandma Hira as Swati calls her. Swati grew up listening to Hira’s fierce speeches delivered on the birth anniversaries of anti-caste revolutionaries at the labourers’ colony in Mumbai where they both lived, as neighbours. In this moving conversation, Hira ajji narrates her experiences as a young child who experienced untouchability but defiantly fought against it. Whether it was by drinking water from a forbidden pot at school or sneakily entering a village temple, she and her cousins were silent revolutionaries, whose stories remain undocumented.  By including her narrative, we seek to honour her, and the unsung feminists and anti-caste activists like her.

See Swati’s, Disha’s and Hira ajji’s bios below.

This story was produced for us by Vaaka Media. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram, as well as on their website.

For this story, we commissioned Shrujana N Shridhar to create original artwork for us (see bio below).

In accompaniment to this audio story, on 4th and 12th March 2023, Vyaktitva Learning Labs, a media literacy initiative, conducted a two- part session for children on Water for All in Navi Mumbai, India which features artworks by the children.

In this story we listen to Yuvan Aves—naturalist, educator, and writer—who is certain to transport you, at least briefly, to Chennai’s beaches. Painting a vivid portrait of what a meaningful education should be, Aves is convincing in his point of view of why it’s crucial for a child’s learning to be rooted in real-world engagement and lived experiences.

Having been a nature educator for a decade now, Yuvan speaks eloquently about the need to design learning in such a way that it allows children to connect to their natural environment, and make their own discoveries. He reminds us of how important it is for schools to tap into children’s innate sense of curiosity, and keen sense of observation, which the dominant classroom in India has unfortunately failed to do. Acknowledging his own past traumas, Aves makes a strong case for nature’s ability to heal, and instill in us a deeper sense of empathy.

At the heart of education should be ecological and human values, states Aves, who was awarded the Green Teacher Award (2021) by Sanctuary Nature Foundation. Join him on his shore walk to get a taste of his school of thinking, and listen to children’s gleeful reactions as they spot creatures in their outdoor classroom.

The story was produced for us by Anupama Chandrasekharan. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Further links :

• Towards a Curriculum for Belonging
• Learning to be Detritivores
• The Ecosystem of Learning