The Weave Of My Life.

The Weave Of My Life – Urmila Pawar.

Plot Overview-

The original title of Urmila Pawar’s memoir is ‘Aaydan’, a word from the local dialect spoken in the villages that from the background of her life. Aaydan is the name for the cane baskets that her mother wove to sell for additional income for the family. Translated into English as ‘The Weave of My Life- a Dalit woman’s memoirs. It takes us from her childhood memoirs of life in the village, and her mother’s constant struggle to make ends meet, through her school and college days in the town of Ratnagiri, to her life after marriage in Mumbai, where she encounters a feminist group and later becomes a writer and organizer of Dalit women. The time span it covers is from just after India’s independence in 1947 to the end of the century.

In those days Dalit were considered untouchables. They were outcaste by the main stream of society. Their condition could be compared with the condition of black people in America. A great Dalit leader Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar and his followers Dalit man and woman struggled for years to establish themselves in the society. When Ambedker converted himself into Buddhism the dalits of Mahar community of Maharastra decided to do the same. This conversion brought such a huge transformation in the lives of Dalits.

The weave of my life begins with a detailed description of harsh landscape of the Konkan region on the west coast of India and the relation these Dalit women their own lives harsh and full of toil have with landscape. Dalit women’s journey to sell their wares rice bags, firewoods, grass, in the town market. The women walk in a group accompanied by their children for how can they leave them behind and who will look after them back in the village? They talk, curse, and gossip, among themselves as they climb the hills along thorny paths.

After Ambedkar’s conversion in 1956 Dalit thinks they are equal to upper cast so they started taking education so, Pawar’s father set up house in Ratnagiri so that his children and his nephews and nieces would have access to better schools. Later on Urmila’s father died and her brother Shahu inherited the priesthood. Though he was only twelve years old. People made concessions for the small priest and gave him only jobs he could handle.

Her own experiences of caste discrimination are narrated with an interweaving of humor or with  asides of self-deprecation.  At school level and after her marriage she has undergo several funny and heart touching incidents that shows caste discrimination in the society. Later on in the book, Pawar gives us more serious example of patriarchal oppression of women both within the Dalit community and along the lines of caste hierarchy, with upper caste men enjoying a license to exploit Dalit women sexuality. The temple priest sexuality abuses a young girl from the nomadic Komati Community. Urmila sees her coming out of inner sanctum in tears and does not understand. Her mother and her sister Bhikiakka are more victims of dire poverty than patriarchy. As novel progress we came to know that the ill treatment of another sister Manjula. At the hands of her in – laws followed by several cases of similar treatment of daughter-in-law. There is a terrible story of a widow who becomes pregnant and is kicked in the stomach by women of the village till she aborts the fetus and later dies.

In the later chapters of The Weave of my life Urmila Pawar moves with her husband to Mumbai and works at a job in a government office here the narration picks up speed as she adjusts to life in a metropolitan city. The ubiquitous presence of caste cannot be entirely forgotten here: there are daily pinpricks and occasionally bigger jolts o caste discrimination. But Pawar makes good use of the newfound freedom and attends meetings, meets women groups and most important begins to write here, too her weaving technique is at play as she intersperse the narrative of her own achievements with her observation about society around her. Her increasing activity and fame as a writer makes her husband uncomfortable. There is a tragedy she loses a college going son and problems to be resolved. She stands by both her daughters when they go against her father’s wishes, marrying men of their choice.

 Urmila Pawar’s use of earthly language is no longer a new stylistic device. She has been criticized for her association with upper caste women’s group and her open exposition of Dalit patriarchy has not been welcomed. If one wishes to understand the complex interweaving of caste and patriarchy and how it affects the lives not only of Dalit women but of men and women of all castes living in contemporary India, Urmila Pawar’s book has much to offer. I’m sure that non Indian readers too, will find articulations here that they can resonate with. A careful reader will learn much about how the politics of culture is played out in the lives of ordinary women and men in a situational context vastly different from her own. She may also understand something of the role that Dalit women can play in shaping the politics of the future.