Cool product
Sir — In an age where there are nearly as many beauty regimens as there are people, the American pop icon, Dolly Parton, has stumped the world by saying that her skincare routine consists primarily of cold cream. If your first thought is that it sounds old-fashioned, you would be right: it was first formulated in ancient Greece. Over the ages, it has been variously used as a remedy for everything from sunburn to eczema. These days, it is back in vogue as a make-up remover owing to its thick, oily consistency. Whatever the benefits of cold cream may or may not be, it will invariably be close to the Bengali heart because it was the inspiration behind the beloved Boroline.
Krishna Das, Calcutta
Caste burden
Sir — Most villages in India have different caste groups living in geographically separated zones. But when homes or landholdings are next to each other, there is bound to be dispute. When Dalits resist oppression, land grab, forced labour, or sexual assault — atrocities that they have historically had to bear in silence owing to their caste identity — they are often met with violence. It is thus important to recognise socially-constructed rapes as the editorial, “Darkness visible” (Sept 22), pointed out. The purported ‘honour’ of women is the ultimate weapon to show a Dalit family its place and to establish who is the feudal lord and who is the subject. Since rape is seen as an act of humiliation and dishonour, many families of victims go silent and stop resisting everyday caste oppressions.
But the issue is not just one of silencing Dalits who demand their fundamental rights and justice. Upper-caste men think they have the right to the bodies of Dalit women. Caste, or even class for that matter, is an inextricable part of violence against women. Ignoring it would not just be foolhardy but also tacit support for such crimes.
Piyali Basak, Calcutta
Sir — Caste is the most pertinent and compelling factor in understanding sexual violence in India. In December 2012, a young, middle-class, educated woman was gang-raped and tortured in the capital city. The gruesome incident shocked the nation and protests erupted against the State’s failure to protect women’s honour and bodily integrity. West Bengal saw similar outrage against the rape and murder of a doctor recently. But does anyone remember or even know of the violation of a Dalit woman and the attack on her three children in Maharashtra’s Khairlanji village in 2006?
Brahminical society constructs Brahmin and other upper-caste, Hindu women as sexually pure and aims to protect/control their sexual purity. Dalit women are constructed outside the normative framework of caste and sexual purity as the caste system sanctions the upper-caste man’s access to a Dalit woman’s sexuality, body and labour. Endemic caste-based sexual violence against Dalit women is condoned. They are sexually exploited in the agricultural fields or on construction sites where they toil for livelihoods. They are also raped, paraded naked and/or lynched by dominant castes when they want to teach a lesson to Dalits for transgressing the caste order. Caste hierarchies determine the value of a woman, her dignity and even her right to life.
Yashodhara Sen, Calcutta
Problems galore
Sir — Two years after cheetahs were introduced in Kuno National Park, Madhya Pradesh, the country has at least 24 of the big cats. These, however, are still early days for Project Cheetah. All the surviving African animals and their progeny, at present, live in acclimatising enclosures. Cheetahs are free-ranging predators. The test of their survival will be in the wild. Kuno’s last free-ranging cheetah, Pawan, drowned in mysterious circumstances in August — the eighth adult animal brought from Africa to die since the project commenced.
Sunil Chopra, Ludhiana
Sir — The problems ailing Project Cheetah are not mere teething troubles. They stem from ignoring expert opinions. Studies, for instance, have revealed that the forest department is under-prepared to deal with the ways of the African animal. India was home to Asiatic cheetahs that were suited to its tropical climate. The African cats, like other felines, develop winter coats in anticipation of winter months in South Africa as opposed to India’s wet monsoons. Last year, several cheetahs died as a result of maggot infestation owing to this climatic discrepancy. Little has been said about what is being done to alleviate this problem.
Samaresh Khan, West Midnapore
Skewed balance
Sir — Of the 116 Nobel prizes in literature that have been given out between 1901 and 2023, only 17 have gone to women. The Booker Prize, too, has had a similar trajectory. The fact that five out of the six authors shortlisted this year for the Booker are women is thus heartening. At the heart of this anomaly is the way in which literature by men and women is received. Books by women are variously derided as ‘chick lit’ or reduced to subsets of the larger world of literature as ‘women’s writing’. As Margaret Atwood once put it: “When a man writes about things like doing the dishes, it’s realism; when a woman does it, it’s an unfortunate genetic limitation.”
Rupanjali Samadder, Calcutta
