The ‘Untouchable’ Communist and the Caste-Class Struggle in Sujatha Gidla’s Ants Among Elephants

Abstract

This article analyses, through Sujatha Gidla’s memoir titled Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India (2017), whether the socio-economic subordination of dalits can be challenged by tackling class exploitation. Gidla’s book emphasises the Kambham family’s status as ‘untouchables’ in its very title by tracing the story of Gidla’s uncle K. G. Satyamurthy, who sought to combat class and caste exploitation with the ideology of Communism. The memoir highlights the intersectional functioning of the two oppressive structures, thus complicating the definition of subalternity, and one’s journey to emerge from it. This article probes the correlation between Satyam’s desire to fight class exploitation as a communist, his affinity with middle class political activism and his own desire for class mobility. Where does caste fit within the definition of class in terms of relations of production? Does contesting class exploitation automatically translate into battling caste? Where does social mobility fit within this complex of caste and class? Do these hierarchical structures run parallel or in tandem with one another to create an inescapable system of oppression? While analysing the complexity of dealing with caste and class, this article will examine whether Gidla’s uncle K. G. Satyamurthy’s polemics reconcile the two causes of fighting each of these structures.