Kenmar John D.

Lavapie
Kristine Marie T. Reynaldo
14491 WFX2
May 30,2015

Sociohistorical Milieu of Dhowli

In "Dhowli," a young outcaste girl has the misfortune of having the Brahman
landlord's young son fall in love with her. It is common for a high-caste landlord to
have an untouchable mistress and children by her, supported by him to make sure
that the "door" once used by "a lion" never receives "the pigs and the sewer rats."
What is uncommon is that the boy is too confused to act upon his position of power.
The code of honor of the wealthy and powerful, which is not unlike the colonial code
of honor, expects him to be her patron. The girl moves from grief and shame to
embittered rage, from fearful timidity to emboldened efforts to survive. This the
powerful cannot tolerate. They contrive to drive her out of her home and village.
She does not weep until she notices how unchanged nature is on the day an
innocent girl is crowned with the ignobility of the city whore.

People reading this might become disturbed and think that the story is very
unnatural that women would be treated as such, but others might think that it is
just natural. The reason would be the sociohistorical milieu in the story. The fact that
the present is the fruit of the past turns the setting or the sociohistorical milieu of
the story an important or necessary ingredient in visualizing and adding color to the
story.

To investigate the sociohistorical milieu in the story of Dhowli, authored by

Mahasweti Devi, I had to look at the author. Most of the authors books were
inspired in by the tribals, underprivileged, and downtrodden people of India. It would

seem that even Dhowli with the use of technical terms such as Brahman, and
more would be more affiliated to India. Then that would mean that the
sociohistorical milieu of the story is likely to be similar to India. With the fact that
the authors intent is to create a story with a similar society and possibly history,
how women are treated in India would be similar to how the women are treated in
India. Authors create stories because they had intent in doing so, and Mahasweti
Devis intent are "Fight for the tribals, downtrodden, underprivileged and write
creatively if and when I find the time", these were her words when asked what she
would do for the rest of her life on 1998.

Dhowli offers a glimpse to its readers on a circumstance where on is forced

to be pushed on the brink of survival. One of the disturbing things to be seen is not
only the caste system, but the discrimination of men from women. Even though
Indias Hinduism has female gods, the abuse of women being lesser than men is
quite evident. In its history the women of India when being married are the ones
who provide the dowry, and in some cases the dowry had evolved to verbal and
physical abuse which led to the deaths of women. An example of physical abuse in
dowry is bride burning, where the husband burns the wife alive when the dowry
asked is not supplied by the wife or the wifes family. Another case showing that
women are subservient was the observance of a ritual call sati or suttee, where
living widows are burned along with their dead husbands. The practice of suttee
shows loyalty, but it also shows inequality where widowed men are allowed to move
on in their lives. With women being looked down upon there was a decline on
women to men ratio since 1901 to 2000, the reason is believed to be that men are
considered to be more special than women or female feticides. Due to the alarming
rate in decrease of women the Penal Code, sections 312 to 316 was formed, which
only allows access to abortion in extreme cases. This situation looks grim in the
perspective of women especially to those who are already in the low tier of power,
such as Dhowli.
In retrospect it would seem that India is an efficient country where it would
supply itself with men who have more uses than women before, while it would
respect women with high power or essential to the society such as Sanichari who

was the only medicinal woman in Dhowlis village. The story also supports the
Conflict Theory of Karl Marxwhere people the rich exploits the poor, one of the
cases is where Dhowli was forced to prostitution in order to survive from the
harassment of the Misra family. Another would be on how Misra mistreats the lower
classes, he was only lucky to be born as a Brahman.

India also contains the caste system, which could be found in the story at the
mention of Brahman. Brahman is one of the four vernas or group in caste system,
along with Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, Dalits are also included but are often
ostracized they are also known as the untouchables.

The caste system is a

hereditary system which is unchangeable and causes restriction on the people.

Example restriction would be that intermarriage within classes is highly discourage,
which happens between Misrilal (Brahman) and Dhowli(Dalit).
Settings in a story can be used to improve the understanding of the readers
on the story. While at other times they are used to convey a message to the readers
which are not easily seen unless by those who had a previous engagement or
knowledge in similar setting. In finding out the sociohistorical milieu of Dhowli, it
becomes more sensual and more real rather than some oppressive story created
within the mind. In my opinion, in learning these circumstances it enforces the idea
that the world is not a simple black and white.
Documentation:
Eraly, Abraham. The First Spring: The Golden Age of India. Penguin. P.370
Ash, Lucy (16 July 2003). "India's dowry deaths". BBC. Retrieved 2015-05-29.
http://mahaswetadevi.bookchums.com/.Web. May 29, 2015
Bardhan, Kalpana. Of Women, Outcasts, Peasants and Rebels. University of
California Press. 1990.
Anantha, Sita. Women in India: A Social and Cultural History. Volume 2. P.190-210.
Marx, Karl. 1971. Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Tr. S.
W. Ryanzanskaya, edited by M. Dobb. London: Lawrence & Whishar
Devi, Mahasweti. Dhowli.

Brian K. Smith (2005). Jones, Lindsay, ed. Varna and Jati. Encyclopedia of
Religion (2nd ed.) (MacMillan Reference USA). pp. 95229524.