Dalit, Woman, Rebel: Why Dakshayani Velayudhan still matters

Last year, as protests erupted nationwide in response to the heinous rape and murder of a resident doctor in Kolkata’s R.G. Kar hospital, one protest in Mumbai coincided with another tragic incident - the demolition of several homes of Dalit families in the Jai Bhim colony. Women from the colony who requested to join the protests and raise their issues were denied the space by upper-caste women activists who claimed the demolition to be a “different issue.” 

The “Othering” of Dalit women reduces their identity and participation to a tokenistic value within India’s progressive, yet elite spaces. Outrage and appraisal from upper-caste women’s movements in India are known to have been selective. 

Reflecting a broader historical pattern of exclusion, Dalit women are erased  not only as victims but also as achievers within Brahminical hegemonic structures.  This erasure and sanctioned marginalisation of the struggles and accomplishments of Dalit women must compel us to acknowledge, celebrate, and archive the significant contributions of Dakshyani Velayudhan, the only dalit woman and the youngest member in the Indian constituent assembly, this International Women’s Day. 

Navigating her path amidst oppressive caste and gender structures, Velayudhan relentlessly advocated for equality and meaningfully contributed to the making of the Indian Constitution. The caste system prevalent in Indian Society, operates similarly to the theatrical stage in Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy. In his much celebrated work, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), Goffman paints social interactions as theatrical performance, with individuals playing roles on a stage sculpted by societal expectations. While Goffman was not writing about caste, his body of work eerily captures its essence. Caste is a theatrical play where your birth decides your role, and stepping out of character invites social ostracism and at times violence. For Velayudhan, this meant accepting a script which demanded a life of invisibility, a life at the margins of India’s social hierarchy.

But Velayudhan surely rejected this ‘assignment’. Her very name, “Dakshayani” which is a synonym for Hindu Goddess Durga, traditionally reserved for upper caste families was her family’s first act of resistance. In 1935, she became the first Dalit woman in India to graduate with a Bachelors in Science  in Chemistry. Her journey was marked by challenges. She was barred by a professor from using lab equipment. She had to observe experiments from afar. Velayudhan embodied resilience, rewriting the script of oppression. 

Velayudhan in the Constituent Assembly

At the age of thirty four,, she became one of the members of the Constituent Assembly. She strongly advocated for social justice, communal harmony, economic upliftment, and human dignity, envisioning an Indian society rooted in liberty, equality and fraternity. Velayudhan’s personal trysts with untouchability since her childhood shaped her contributions in the Assembly. In 1948, she powerfully asserted that “we cannot expect a Constitution without a clause relating to untouchability because the Chairman of the Drafting Committee himself belongs to the untouchable community”, referring to Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Velayudhan only emphasized the incorporation of the abolition of untouchability under the constitutional scheme, she also  underscored the state’s accountability in bringing about meaningful change .

Navigating her path amidst oppressive caste and gender structures, Velayudhan relentlessly advocated for equality and meaningfully contributed to the making of the Indian Constitution.

The caste system entrenched bonded labour, and the colonial regime further exacerbated and perpetuated the conditions for the system of ‘begar’. Observing these deeply entrenched societal structures, Velayudhan recognized that economic exploitation, financial burden, double colonization, and slave-like treatment contributed to the misery of the neglected communities. In her view, only holistic freedom could liberate these communities. The right to demand wages and assertion of self-respect played a vital role and would bring about a transformative revolution in their lives. This vision later found its place in Part III of the Indian Constitution. 

Velayudhan was also staunchly critical of absolutism, and the centralization of power. She proposed that India should be a sovereign republic, citing the example of Licchavi republic, where power emitted from the people and the very etymology of power was rooted in the people. She was also critical of the system of separate electorates for which she grounded her opposition in the anticipation of corruption turning democratic representation into a politics of tokenism. Instead, she believed that the amalgamation of different communities and their mutual diversification would result in collective progress. 

75 years after the Constitution’s adoption, atrocities persist

Caste atrocities persist, recurring on a daily basis across rural and urban landscapes, among the elite and non-elite, and within both he private and public sectors. Many experts argue that both the narrow judicial interpretation of 'public view' in Section 3(1)(r) and the shift from stringent to flexible bail provisions within the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act, 1989, have resulted in the dilution of the legislation. This dilution, along with a high rate of withdrawal and a low conviction rate in cases registered under this Act, compel us to examine the criminal justice system through a critical lens.

Observing these deeply entrenched societal structures, Velayudhan recognized that economic exploitation, financial burden, double colonization, and slave-like treatment contributed to the misery of the neglected communities.

The majority of people engaged in manual scavenging belong to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class communities. Recent data indicates that more than 300 people died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks between 2019 and 2023. Despite the Supreme Court’s recent directions to bolster the implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the central and state governments continue to ignore its enforcement—costing the lives of innocent people who have fallen prey to systematic killings.

In the given socio-legal-political context, Dakshayani's principles and advocacy, grounded in the reformation of society, can only be realized when the state is accountable for legislating and willing to implement such policies at the ground level. The theater of caste continues to endure. Dalit students still face segregation, Dalits are still denied access to public wells and inter-caste marriages provoke violent “honor” killings. India as a country cannot shy away from this. In this context Dakshayani’s legacy is not a relic of the past but rather it serves as a blueprint for resistance. Her speeches in the Constituent Assembly—calling for social equality and political representation directly confront the systemic inequalities that persist. The marginalisation of Dakshayani’s legacy in the record-keeping of constitutional history is not an accident. 

To Remember Dakshayani today is to confront the unsettling truth that lingers around India’s democracy -that the promise of equality remains unfulfilled. Her life challenges us to look deep inside ourselves and ask us: who gets to occupy the centre stage in history and who is pushed to the backstage? Dakshayani’s defiance guides the way for people like us.