Centering Caste in the analysis of Gender Relations in Pakistan

Abstract

There has been an effervescence of feminist scholarship in Pakistan in recent years. This has in part to do with the resurgence of the feminist movement following the MeToo movement but more importantly to the proliferation of gender studies departments across the country. Both the academic scholarship and activism subsume a variety of political and ideological tendencies (Saigol, 2016). However, one thing that remains common to both is the silence on the relationship between caste and gendered violence. This paper argues that gendered violence and discrimination towards women in Pakistan is closely linked to the fundamentally caste-ist nature of social organization in Pakistan. The relationship is elaborated primarily through the analysis of Qandeel Baloch’s murder in the first half of the paper. The latter half of the paper looks at academic scholarship and highlights the limitations owing to the elision of caste as a category. I borrow from Uma Chakravarti (2018) and Sharmila Rege (2013) to argue that analysis of caste might allow the feminist scholarship in Pakistan to form a cohesive critique of patriarchy. As it is the norm, the distinction between academic feminists and activists is blurred and any slippages between the world of academia and activism are intentional. The purpose is to highlight the closest linkages between the two worlds- not only to each other but the broader productive and reproductive processes so that upper caste ideology is reproduced in the world of activism and academia. It is naturalized to the point where most academics and activists in Pakistan can confidently claim that caste does not exist in the country (Patel, 2020). While I do not wish to speculate, it is understandable that caste is ignored in these discussions, perhaps unconsciously, because the women leading this discourse are overwhelmingly upper caste. This paper is an attempt to argue against this tendency.