The Ambedkarites and leftist feminists have come at loggerheads over going naked as a potential method of smashing ‘Brahminical patriarchy’. The online war of words erupted after a video of an Iranian girl stripped to her underwear strolling inside the Islamic Azad University campus went viral. Reports say that the woman was protesting against the strict Islamic dress code in the country.
The video showed several Burqa-clad women passing by as the girl walked around. The woman was arrested on Saturday and the University spokesperson said that the girl seen in the video was mentally unstable, however, it is said that the woman’s actions were a deliberate protest.
An Ambedkarite who goes by the name “The Dalit Voice” shared a picture of the Iranian girl on X on November 3rd and said, “The revolutionary woman took off her clothes to protest against the atrocities being committed against women for wearing hijab. A woman should be free to choose what she wears.”
Quoting this post, a self-declared atheist and feminist X user named Priyanka Banerjee suggested that Indian Dalit women should also go nude on the streets to “smash Brahminical patriarchy”.
“All Indian Dalit women should do this to smash Brahmanical Patriarchy. It’s time to hit the streets,” Banerjee posted.
One X user questioned Banerjee as to why her ‘revolutionary’ method of going naked to smash Brahminical patriarchy was limited to Dalit women only and not all women. To this, another X user suggested that because Dalit women are said to be “suppressed”, they should be the flagbearer of the protests and go nude.
Two other ‘Ambedkarites’ came up with a genocidal method to smash Brahminical patriarchy with one of them openly giving calls to kill Janeu (sacred thread) wearing Brahmins. “Dalit women should take guns and find every Janeuc&&d,” the X user said.
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— Based Monk (#Unreserved) (@thatindicmonk) November 4, 2024
One bhimta uncle immediately forgets about dalit atrocity literature and asks "why not all women".
This goes against their usual rules of "yes all men" and "dalit lives matter". pic.twitter.com/Yyip7QLDsv
Adding to the calls to murder the ‘upper caste’ Hindus, an X user shared a picture of slain dacoit Phoolan Devi who was behind the Behmai Massacre wherein 22 Thakur men were mercilessly murdered in revenge for her gangrape.
Several others slammed Banerjee for her suggestion to oppose Brahminical patriarchy with one calling Banerjee’s proposal “whore shit”. Another one suggested that the atheist-feminist should consult a psychiatrist.
Since Priyanka Banerjee’s X profile suggests that she is an LGBTQ+ supporter, an ‘anti-religion’ X user asked her to wear a rainbow flag in Palestine and Bangladesh and see how it pans out.
Meanwhile, another Ambedkarite, Shogun Gaikwad, called Banerjee’s call to Dalit women to strip naked as “reckless adventurism”. Amidst the Ambedkarite verses feminist online spat, a Buddhist found an opportunity to lure Hindu Dalits to Buddhism saying that somehow becoming Buddhist alone would sort out everything for Dalit women.
While the peedit, shoshit, vanchit Ambedkarites and the LGBTQ+ community usually appear to support each other with Brahmins and upper castes in general being their nemesis, in this case, the Ambedkarites decided to drop the charade as one Ambedkarite mockingly called the feminist-atheist, a “Hijda” [transgender]. “Try this on your own baman community hijde.” the X user told Banerjee.
Some ‘Bhimthusiasts’ decided not to smash Brahminical patriarchy the way Banerjee suggested with one even calling her on to initiate the movement of going naked to oppose patriarchy since Banerjee herself is a ‘Brahmin’. A Periyar fan resorted to abusing Banerjee and saying that she knows nothing about feminism and Brahminical patriarchy.
Suddenly, every other Ambedkarite, peedit shoshit and vanchit began emphasising Priyanka Banerjee’s ‘Brahmin’ caste even as she identifies herself as an atheist, feminist and LGBTQ+ supporter. It is amusing to see how conveniently the Ambedkarites dump their feminist allies over an opinion they disapprove of. And how easily anyone whom they oppose is branded as a Brahmin or their supporters, and therefore, a fair game to be treated with disdain and contempt.
Even as Ambedkarites and various shades of feminists reduced Iranian woman’s protest to skin show, the issue is about a woman’s agency to decide her clothing
While the Ambedkarite versus feminist fight reduced the Iranian girl’s supposed protest against the strict Islamic dress code laws in Iran to mere skin show, it is more than that. In Iran ever since the brutal killing of Mahsa Amini, a significant section of Iranian women have been fighting the mandatory Hijab laws to reclaim their “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi [Women, Life, Freedom]”. While the Iranian authorities called the girl mentally challenged, the Iranian activists say it was a deliberate protest suggesting that not the Morality Police or Islamist regime but the women alone have the autonomy to decide what they want to and what they don’t want to wear.
Coming back to smashing ‘Brahminical patriarchy’, it is beyond comprehension going naked will end patriarchy. Have the Brahmins imposed any mandatory regressive dress code on Dalit women? Do Brahmins or upper castes in general control who wears which attire? Probably, ‘feminists’ like Banerjee want to apply a “one-size-fits-all” protest model even as it is absolutely nonsensical given the cultural and contextual differences. While Hindu culture suggests modest dressing it does not impose a Hijab or Burqa-like dress code on women, neither Dalit women nor the ‘Savarna’ women. In the Indian context, Dalit women stripping to ‘smash’ the so-called Brahminical patriarchy or Brahminism which in reality is nothing but a postmodernist term for Hinduism allowing them a convenient way to attack Hindu Dharma and Brahmins, will only invite ridicule and dismantle nothing.
