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And at its helm was the conference President, Sulochanabai Dongre.

Dr Jayshree Singh and Gargi Vashistha, in their research paper, A Critical Insight On Status Of Dalit Women In India (2018), write, “Dalit women in India have been living in silence through the centuries . . . They do not have control over their own bodies, earnings, and lives. Instead, somebody else controls them . . . Dalit women are bearing the burden of double-day caste and the division of labour based on sex . . . They are poor, illiterate, sexually harassed, face caste violence and exploited.”

Like Sulochanabai, Social activist Periyar EV Ramasamy was one of the first few to talk about women’s right to their bodies. In 1932, Ramasamy spoke along similar lines in his article on birth control in Kudi Arasu, a magazine Dalit feminism that focused on Dalit rights and female emancipation.

The enigma that was Sulochanabai Dongre

Source: Chamaar-today

Sulochanabai was a member of the All India Women’s Congress, just like other dalit women leaders such as Ramabai Ambedkar. Soon, she along with Ramabai and other Dalit feminists, chose to leave the conference. This mass disassociation of Dalit feminists from nationalist women’s movement was an outcome of internal caste-based discrimination.

For instance, at AIWC conference which was held in 1937, educationist Jaibai Choudhuri had set up separate seats for the Dalit women during meals.

Ideologically too, there was a stark difference between the Dalit Feminist nationalist movement and the upper-caste women’s cultural nationalism. The latter drew inferences from Hindu traditions that glorified Sati and Savitri and supported caste hierarchy. While, the Dalit women led by Sulochanabai, were fighting a larger cause — whereby sexual and social abuse of women was fueled not just by patriarchy but also casteism.