ENGLISH MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD CLASS 12 2024

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1. MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD INSTANCES OF RACIAL AND CASTE BASED DISCRIMINATION IN THE LIVES OF ZITKALA-SA AND BAMA

2. THE CUTTING OF MY LONG HAIR ZITKALA-SA Zitkala -Sa (born February 22, 1876, Yankton Sioux Agency, South Dakota, U.S.—died January 26, 1938, Washington, D.C.) was a writer and reformer who strove to expand opportunities for Native Americans and to safeguard their cultures. Gertrude Simmons was the daughter of a Yankton Sioux mother and a Euro-American father. She adopted the name Zitkala -Sa in her teens. When she was eight, she was sent to White’s Manual Labor Institute, a Quaker missionary school in Wabash, Indiana. At age 19, against her family’s wishes, she enrolled at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, also a Quaker school, and graduated in 1897. For two years she taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, but she was uncomfortable with the school’s harsh discipline and its curriculum, which was devised to teach Euro-American ways and history, thus eradicating students’ Native American cultural identities.

3. RACISM I Both during and after the colonial era in American history, white settlers engaged in prolonged conflicts with Native Americans in the United States, seeking to displace them and seize their lands, resulting in American enslavement and forced assimilation into settler culture. The 19th century witnessed a surge in efforts to forcibly remove certain Native American nations, while those who remained faced systemic racism at the hands of the federal government. Ideologies like Manifest destiny justified the violent expansion westward, leading to the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and armed clashes. The dehumanization and demonization of Native Americans, epitomized in the United States Declaration of Independence, underscored a pervasive attitude that underpinned colonial and post-colonial policies. Historical events such as the California genocide, American Indian Wars, and the forced removal of the Navajos reflected the deep-seated racism and violence which were both ingrained in American expansionism, perpetuating a legacy of suffering, forced displacement, and death among indigenous peoples.

4. HAIR CUTTING Many NATIVE AMERICANS consider long hair a symbol of health and strength. Neither men nor women generally cut their hair. Long hair is a part of their cultural identity .Being forced to cut their hair went part and parcel with boarding schools and attempts to “Kill the Indians, save the men.” Discriminatory policies and practices targeting Native American schoolchildren and workplace employees are far too widespread across the country, effectively acting as tools of forced cultural assimilation that, for many, are all too familiar echos of the United States’ now-infamous, government-sanctioned violence against its Indigenous population. Institutions often disguise restrictive, heritage-stripping rules as dress codes, using sweeping, exclusive language to sanction hair cutting and shaving. In one recent, high-profile instance, a Waccamaw Siouan first grader was told to chop his long hair, couched as a stand against “faddish” styles.

5. American Indian boarding schools, a notorious and particularly dark chapter in U.S. history. First established in the mid-1600s as a means of forced assimilation and so-called “civilization,” the schools and their administrators focused on re-education and shaping young Native American children into an approximation of European-ness. Dr. Cross first became interested in the subject is because her own mother was enrolled in one of those institutions, and was subjected to maltreatment from the day she arrived. One of the first things done there, are haircuts, which were issued under the guise of delousing. Her mother was given a close-cropped bob, a short chop seen in images taken at those schools. “There are all kinds of photos with real, real short hair, just cropped above their ear or chin-level, when it was really long — you have to understand, it was really long. But anything to keep them from being ‘heathens.’”

6. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF ZITKALA-SA Zitkala’s first day in a boarding school Carlisle Indian school. It is a school opened for native Indians where they are trained to leave behind their own culture and become part of the American culture. Zitkala describes that she really felt bad when a shawl is taken off her shoulders by the school authorities before entering into the dining hall. She also wonders about how the other Indian girls agreed to wear tight clothes which were immodest according to her as their whole body shape could easily be seen. Even their hair was cut short which according to the author was not good. Her mother had told her only a coward’s or a mourner’s hair should be shaved off. Later on Zitkala and other girls were taken to the dining hall where she was keenly noticed by a pale faced woman for not following the table manners. Judewin , another Indian girl tells her that the pale faced woman has decided to cut her hair. Zitkala revolts back as she does not want to look like a coward or a mourner. She hides herself under a bed in some room upstairs. Everyone starts searching for her and finally she is caught. She is tied up and her hair is cut down. She felt so depressed and humiliated with this. She is reminded of her mother who would have comforted her during this hard time. At the end she submits her to her herders like a tamed animal. The cutting of My long hair’ is a story that showcases the discrimination faced by the Indians in the western world. The story describes how an Indian girl was forced to wear western dresses and cut her hair by her school authorities in order to make her look like an American student it illustrates the prejudice that the native American Indians experienced in the west, at the hands of the English. It highlights the evil of racial discrimination. The school officials made the writer wear western clothing and cut her hair. The anguish of a girl who was a part of the minority group at the hands of the powerful management. Her community believed that cowards got their hair cut. She opposed to getting her long hair cut but the mighty took over.

7. WE TOO ARE HUMAN BEINGS BAMA Bama is the pen-name of a Tamil Dalit woman from a Roman Catholic family. She has published three main works: an autobiography, ‘ Karukku ’, 1992; a novel, ‘ Sangati ’, 1994; and a collection of short stories, ‘ Kisumbukkaaran ’, 1996. ‘ Karukku ’. ‘ Karukku ’ means ‘Palmyra’ leaves, which with their serrated edges on both sides, are like double-edged swords. By a felicitous pun, the Tamil word ‘ Karukku ’, containing the word ‘ karu ’, embryo or seed, also means freshness, newness

8. CASTE SYSTEM IN INDIA The caste system divides Hindus into four main categories - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras. Many believe that the groups originated from Brahma, the Hindu God of creation. At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and are believed to have come from Brahma's head. Then came the Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers, supposedly from his arms. The third slot went to the Vaishyas , or the traders, who were created from his thighs. At the bottom of the heap were the Shudras, who came from Brahma's feet and did all the menial jobs. The main castes were further divided into about 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes, each based on their specific occupation. Outside of this Hindu caste system were the achhoots - the Dalits or the untouchables.

9. STATUS OF DALITS Dalit is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans.Dalits were excluded from the fourfold varna of the caste hierarchy and were seen as forming a fifth varna , also known by the name of Panchama . Rural communities have long been arranged on the basis of castes - the upper and lower castes almost always lived in segregated colonies, the water wells were not shared, Brahmins would not accept food or drink from the Shudras, and one could marry only within one's caste. The system bestowed many privileges on the upper castes while sanctioning repression of the lower castes by privileged groups. Despite the obstacles, however, some Dalits and other low-caste Indians, such as BR Ambedkar who authored the Indian constitution, and KR Narayanan who became the nation's first Dalit president, have risen to hold prestigious positions in the country.

10. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF BAMA A Tamil Dalit girl named Bama describes her experience in the third grade. Although she was unaware of the negative effects of untouchability, she had encountered humiliation and embarrassment in her environment. The excerpt shows how low caste individuals are viewed as untouchables due to caste prejudice. Low caste members not only show deference to high caste members, but they also poison everything they touch. Bama who is one of the characters in this story. She is a little cheerful girl who loves to observe things taking place in her street. She says though it takes only ten minutes to reach home from her school but she takes about thirty minutes to reach her home from the school. She then explains the reason behind it. She says when she is on her way to home she sees a monkey performing and a snake charmer doing some act with his snake which was very interesting for her. Then there was a cyclist also who was cycling from past three days. There was one famous temple which had a big bell and a tribal man who sells clay beads, needles etc. She also comes across various snack stalls and street acts. Then she explains about how various political parties come to her street to give lectures. As she proceeds further, she saw a landlord sitting and watching his workers work in the field. She then saw an old man of her community handling a snack pack in a very strange manner and then offering it to the landlord. She founds it so amusing that she bursts out into a laugh. On reaching home she narrates it to her elder brother and starts laughing. He then tells her a real truth about her being from a low caste and that the upper caste people do not like their presence or touch the low caste as it would make them impure. She finds it so disgusting that she grows angry over the upper caste people. Some days later her elder brother is questioned about his whereabouts to know his caste. He then suggests her to study hard as only this could earn her respect. She works as per his suggestions and become topper of her class. This not only earns her respect but many friends too.

11. CONCLUSION: COMMON THEME The autobiographical accounts covered under ‘Memories of Childhood’ are by the two women from socially marginalized sections in two different cultures of the world. In the first story the author describes how she became victim of the social discrimination when she was badly treated by the European staff of the school because she was a Native American. She feels so humiliated when her blanket is removed from her shoulders and her hair was shingled. In her culture shingled hair was a symbol of being a coward. In the second story Bama describes the social discrimination faced by the low castes in India. She being a student of third standard was forced to face the harsh reality of untouchability, when she saw an old Dalit man carrying food packet by strings as it was meant for an upper caste man. Although both the stories are set in different parts of the world but still they have a similar theme. They show the hardships and sufferings of the marginal communities in different parts of the world.