Learning to See 06: Looking Through Walls.
Caste, class and a divided city.
One of the first things a person walking the streets of Mumbai—or any Indian city, town, or village—will notice are the walls that divide the place.
A few years back, author Prayag Akbar used the walls in our cities and society to create a world set in a future where implicit divisions grow into a monstrous presence - the book is called Leila. There is a Netflix version of the same, which you should avoid. The people enforcing this divide, much like the caste rules imposed by oppressors, use the word: "Purity" and the slogan “Purity for All” to enforce segregation not unlike Apartheid. In the book, this slogan is wielded by a vigilante group. Though set in an imaginary future, the world in Akbar's book mirrors our present reality, which is rife with walls, divisions, and conflicts between castes, religions, and groups.
In India, the concept of "purity" requires no introduction. It is associated with food, restaurants, places, people, and communities. It is a tool used by patriarchy and the caste system to control members of an identity group or to impose hierarchy.
This world of divisions becomes vivid when you walk the streets of Indian cities, with or without a camera. This phenomenon may be true globally in the 21st century. Despite technology and cheaper transport reducing distances between people, we are building and strengthening walls that protect what is traditional, both real and imagined. Exposed to an overload of information and diverse thoughts, we increasingly seek the familiar and comfortable, fortifying our internal and external walls.
Prayag Akbar's book offers many insights into India's transformation, but the concept that stands out is "Purity." I spotted two pictures of ads on the streets, both emphasising purity. They are ordinary, everyday Indian ads, but depending on your perspective, they reflect a specific aspiration or fear.
These ads symbolise the everyday erection of walls, representing an inward-looking stance and a fear of others—the shepherding of people and profiting from the fears they manufcture. As we move forward, these ads seem like a step back, a glance over the shoulder at a past we cannot let go of, even as we walk into an uncertain future.
On the streets of Mumbai, walls take many forms: class, caste, and religion, often blending into a complex cocktail.
Learning to See - Caste
Today's images focus on caste. Almost everyone in mainland India is deeply aware of their caste, tribal, and class identity, regardless of religion. Ignoring this reality is a privilege or a blindness. Learning to see caste is not about recognising its existence but acknowledging its pervasive influence and one's place in the complex system.
This primarily applies to those of privileged or oppressive castes, as oppressed people are reminded of their place multiple times a day from birth to the afterlife. Maybe recognising one's privilege in a deeply unequal society can be a step towards creating a more equitable city or society.
The Open Street University of Mumbai.
From Ashoka’s edicts to WhatsApp uncles and their good morning messages, Indian men from privileged backgrounds have long been broadcasting their worldviews in public spaces. Notice boards with ‘good thoughts’ are placed outside party offices, temples, mosques, gurdwaras, buddha viharas, derasars, churches, newspaper reading stands, banners, wall slogans, and wall art in places of worship. Plastic flex messages are everywhere on the streets; reading them can be fun, enlightening, and sometimes unsettling. These messages are a form of the human peacock dance, a way to be noticed. Along with messages, other symbols such as statues, wall paintings, and decorations during festivals and celebrations convey messages or mark territory. The struggle of the oppressed also seeks expression in similar ways. The Dalits in Mumbai take education very seriously; it allows them to escape poverty and allows people to express themselves on the streets.
In fact, education levels in India are dictated by the caste structure. Education is one of the main pillars of resistance for the oppressed or Dalits. Because it was a right forcefully denied to them for centuries and continues to be restricted if one looks at the educational system in India. At the All India Depressed Classes conference in July 1942 in Nagpur, the struggle was expressed with the slogan "Educate, Agitate, Organise." This slogan guides the battle to this day in Mumbai's ghettos.
The following is a poster seeking justice for Rohit Vemula. Read through the list of demands, and if you look deeper into each of the demands, you can understand how caste oppression works in higher education and how people from oppressor caste backgrounds in positions of power push back against the historically marginalised.
To learn about the ongoing struggle, there is no better place than the streets of this divided city. In the crowded lanes where millions are forced to live in this expensive city, banners and boards celebrate every little Dalit victory and protest everyday injustices that are far too common around India, always with the underlying message: Educate, Agitate, Organise.
The Push Back to Dalit Expression.
Twice a year, on April 14th and December 6th, an almost carnival-like atmosphere spills out of the poorer neighbourhoods and finds expression in Shivaji Park and Dadar, where the elite reside. These days commemorate Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s birth and death anniversaries. One of the most interesting aspects of these events is the stories told on stage and in the streets through songs, and the large number of book stalls that sell Dalit literature, set up by publishers from Maharashtra and beyond.
Another day marked by the Dalit community in Mumbai and Maharashtra is the Battle of Bhima-Koregaon, fought on January 1st, 1818, between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy at Koregaon, near Pune. On January 1st, 2018, the Dalits in Mumbai and Maharashtra commemorated the two-hundredth anniversary of the Battle near Pune. In that battle, the Company Army, which had a sizeable number of soldiers from the Mahar community, an oppressed group, was instrumental in defeating the Peshwa's army. The Peshwas were proponents of a rigid and oppressive caste system that was the norm in the Deccan and not extraordinary for that age. For example, Travancore Kingdom in South India had similar and probably more oppressive apartheid rules and for much longer.
Thousands of Dalits from Mumbai travel to a commemorative obelisk at the site of the battle, and the 200th anniversary was a significant event. It was and remains largely unknown or unnoticed by people outside the Dalit communities. However, it didn’t go unnoticed by certain sections of the oppressor caste and their vigilante groups, who saw it as a challenge to their position in the caste hierarchy. Dalits visiting Bhima-Koregaon, as the place is popularly known, were attacked by mobs, resulting in large-scale violence. Protests by Dalit groups in Mumbai followed soon after, leading to the arrest of several youngsters for causing disruption and violent protests.
A recent book by Ajaz Ashraf, "Bhima Koregaon - Challenging Caste," delves deeper into this event. The book reads the violence at Bhima Koregaon as a clash between two worldviews—one striving to flatten the social hierarchy, the other justifying and perpetuating it. The book's subtitle is "Brahminism's Wrath Against Dreamers of Equality." The Dalits aim to flatten the social hierarchy, while the right wing in India and proponents of Hindutva or ‘Hinduness’ ideology support or are part of the attacking groups. At that time, a political party espousing this ideology was in power in Maharashtra.
However, such events, though significant, are infrequent. When observing life on the streets, it’s the daily, slow, and often invisible violence of the caste (and class) system that stands out. These are everyday stories about housing, food, or education. It’s about how the city is designed for the rich and the privileged without care for the rest, around car use instead of improving public transport, access to water, health, and solid waste management—jobs dictated by caste and services denied or underfunded in poor areas. It’s about the rising inequality in the city, where the richest celebrate weddings with extravagant pre-wedding parties worldwide.
Rising above it all are the aspirations of the people. The focus on education and the will to fight for equality and an equitable world against all odds are enduring. This struggle is as brutal as it always was. The stories of this struggle are best told by those who live it, and the internet has provided a platform for these voices. Social media has become a space for the fight for equality. Telling these stories can be dangerous, but when we see, observe, and acknowledge caste oppression in everyday Indian life—on the streets, in homes, and workplaces—it’s the first step we can take towards making this world a more equitable place and seeing beyond the identity we are condemned to at birth or have been lucky enough to choose.
Besides observing, Marathi literature is incredibly rich in stories by Dalit and oppressed caste writers and poets, with a legacy spanning more than a century. A simple search for translated Marathi Dalit literature will yield enough books to last a lifetime.
Reading List:
Dalits through autobiographies.
Suraj Yengde's list of 12 books to read to understand Dalit writing.
An introduction to Dalit Literature in Marathi.
Dalit Literature from across India.
5 Marathi must-reads from the intersection of gender and caste.
Books about the oppression, marginalisation and resistance of Dalits.
Review of Dalit Literature and Criticism by Raj Kumar.
That’s all, folks.
Thank you for sharing this. I felt like I was moving around in the city with these pictures. Mumbai has this special aura and it is quite evident in the pictures.
Please keep sharing more.
Very nice piece and a needed reminder that despite all the progress, these invisible walls persist - not that life is that great for the privileged classes of this city either! (Also please note that 'taste' is pronounced as 'test' in Marathi, and vice versa:-))