Soumashree Sarkar 
Two weeks ago, one of the world’s foremost scholars on caste and gender, Shailaja Paik, was named a recipient of the prestigious ‘genius’ grant given by the MacArthur Foundation. Paik is known for centring Dalit perspectives in her work and for paying close and ruthless attention to the ways in which oppression of caste and gender overlap. This is something that the Foundation too has noted in its citation for her.
Paik’s first book, Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination, published in 2014 is an exploration of agency in colonial and contemporary Maharashtra. Her seminal work The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India takes on notions of what is vulgar and what such a categorisation of Dalit women-led artistic performances seeks to achieve. Paik’s field interviews come alive in her writing across books, essays and opinion pieces – where she takes apart aspects of societal behaviour to reveal the casteism, misogyny, Brahminism and patriarchy hidden in them.
By all accounts, Paik is the first woman from a Dalit community to win this grant. Since the news of honour, many including news media outlets have lauded her journey from Pune to the University of Cincinnati where she teaches history. Reports have highlighted Paik’s humble background and at a podcast recently, she said that she was the first in her family to have got a university degree. However, a section online has poured vitriol on Paik and her scholarship, leaving the casteist underpinnings of such opinion to no one’s imagination. “This hateful response speaks to the denial of the evident accomplishments of Dalit women [and] a desire to ensure caste never gets the attention it deserves globally,” Coming Out as Dalit author Yashica Dutt noted on X.
In an email interview with The Wire, Paik speaks on her grant, the past and future of her research and the behaviour of high-caste elites. The full chat is below, presented without any edits.
Congratulations on the grant. I am curious as to what your initial thoughts are about a grant that looks at potential too, as opposed to only someone’s body of work.
I am ecstatic, exhilarated by this highest honour, to be named a MacArthur fellow – the foundation has recognised my hard work over long years and the deeper impacts of my works – educational, social, and legislative. This fellowship is a celebration of the enormous contributions of Dalits and especially Dalit women’s ideas, actions, history, and fight for human rights. It is a felicitation of both my work and the potential of that work.
In 2005, bio-engineer Jim Collins, a grant awardee, wrote on the New York Times that once you get this grant and “if you’re an academic, expect your colleagues to assume that all of your papers are being accepted – little will they know that your work still gets rejected regularly.” Although the foundation avoids using the term ‘genius’, absolutely everyone else does. What are your thoughts on this?
Per the MacArthur Foundation, it rewards “creativity, new ideas, approaches and models.” It is due to these reasons people use the term “genius.”
As Marlies Carruth, Director, MacArthur Fellows underlines, “The 2024 MacArthur Fellows pursue rigorous inquiry with aspiration and purpose. They expose biases built into emerging technologies and social systems and fill critical gaps in the knowledge of cycles that sustain life on Earth. Their work highlights our shared humanity, centering the agency of disabled people, the humor and histories of Indigenous communities, the emotional lives of adolescents, and perspectives of rural Americans.”
I embrace the “genius” with gratitude. I am honoured and happy to be named a fellow!
Also read: What Dalit People Taught Us About Education and Why We Must Commit to It
Can you tell us a little bit about how you got to know that you would be getting the grant? Was it a surprise or did you get feelers on it beforehand?
It was a surprise. The MacArthur Foundation nominated me as a fellow. I did not know I would be getting the grant.
What’s a normal day in your life like? How has it changed since you were named a recipient of the grant?
A normal day in my life includes reading, writing, teaching, reviewing scholarly works, and participating in many committee meetings. In addition to this work, I am now carving out some time to celebrate the award with my colleagues, friends, my institution, and the community. The media has kept me very busy with interviews about my work.
Rightwing social media participants have alleged that the decision to grant you the award is reflective of a deep conspiracy to introduce rifts in India. This, from an audience most tuned to celebrating foreign achievements, leaves little to the imagination on the casteism worn proudly by a large section of the polity. Would you agree with this assessment?
I am not on social media and I don’t know any details about these statements. Please ask the participants who have written this.
You have written on how regimes of power constitute and implicate especially Dalit women, putting them in small boxes best suited for casteist and patriarchal practices. Many have posited your success as an exception. Do you view yourself as an exception?
The foundations says the fellowship is given to a select few American citizens who “show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work”. This fellowship is a celebration of the enormous contributions of Dalits and especially Dalit women’s ideas, actions, history, and fight for human rights.
It is a fantastic reminder of the contributions of Dalit studies as well as of me, an Indian-American woman scholar, has made to the different fields of knowledge. After experiencing discrimination in terms of caste, gender and race, I have worked my way up and out from the under with grit, determination and hard work.
I am indebted to Dalit women who shared their lives with me, and my advisors, mentors, colleagues, and friends who have participated in this journey. I hope this achievement will strengthen the fight of Dalits and non-Dalits against race, gender, and caste discrimination in and beyond South Asia.
Also read: ‘Tamasgir’ Mangala Bansode and the ‘Tamasha’ of Her Life
In your books, the way you assess society leaves little room to hide for anyone looking to escape their role in perpetuating casteist-patriarchal practices. We are now at a time where pointing out the ills of Indian society is considered anti-national. What are your thoughts on how this can affect scholarship, especially scholarship by Dalit academics? Will it have a stymying effect?
I hope the MacArthur fellowship’s recognition of the impact of history, humanities, and Dalit studies will help deepen global conversations on caste social inequities and help strengthen anti-caste, anti-race, and anti-patriarchal work. The caste system pervades South Asian society, politics, and economy and nobody can deny or shy away from this fact.
High-caste elites love to pretend that caste does not exist, but they are oblivious to the casteist horrors of contemporary reality.
The fellowship’s recognition of my work underlines the need to focus on the monster of caste as it has worked over centuries and manifests itself in different forms to continuously privilege those who are positively advantaged and disempowers the oppressed, marginalised and vulnerable populations.
What do you plan on doing in the next five years?
The fellowship will help me focus on my research and writing and continue my contribution to global anti-caste, anti-patriarchy, and anti-race work. I will continue my work – researching, writing, and advising students. I am already collaborating and will continue to do so with my colleagues to work on social justice agendas.
What do you like to read? What are some pieces of creative output – painting, sculpture, cinema or digital art that have moved you recently?
I like to read non-fiction and at times fiction.