ONCE A SWEEPER...?

The Cultural Construction of Identity

Many stereotypes, including expletives regarding the psyche and culture of sweepers or the choorra caste, are deeply embedded in mainstream discourse, including folklore, idioms and local narratives.

Certain derogatory traits are considered to be part and parcel of the sweeper community and profession. These attitudes are culturally embedded and find expression not just in language use, idioms and folk songs but in poetry, novels, films and other forms of the entertainment industry.

Significantly this debasement of a particular caste and occupation has given rise to a counter-discourse of resistance to the hegemony of the purity/pollution binary. In raising their voice in support of the 'impure' 'untouchables' of the caste system, the Sufi poets of Punjab inverted the discursive hierarchy and granted the debased 'choorri' an agentic voice. They transformed her into a metaphor of resistance to the false values and self-image of those in power.

A powerful example of such writing is this verse from the 18th century Sufi poet Bulleh Shah:

'Main choorri haan sachay sahib di sarkaron

Kazi jaanay hakim jaanay pharag khati begaaron'

[I am the sweeperess in the service of the true Lord

Let the qazi know, let the judge mark!

No longer a bonded slave, I am the humble servant of the Almighty]

In this verse, he joins his voice with that of the 'polluted' sweeper and elevates it triumphantly in a manner that rejects so-called 'status and purity'.

Pakistan's Christian sweeper community bears the burden of multiple marginalisations and continues to suffer in silence because of caste-based prejudices that have stilted its social mobility. The recent monograph Swept Aside: A Story of Christian Sweepers in Lahore, based on the PhD dissertation of political scientist Ayra Indrias Patras, explores this cycle of victimisation and whether it can be broken. Presented below, with permission, is an excerpt from the publication...

However, not all artistic expression, even when sympathetic, is so uncompromisingly clear in its message. The Pakistani film Main Hoon Shahid Afridi touches on the issue of religion and caste-based oppression through the character of a Christian cricketer who is repeatedly mocked and ridiculed by his colleagues with the name of 'choorra', negatively affecting his performance. As the storyline leaves the issue unaddressed, the film, instead of challenging the stereotype, reinforces the occupational vulnerability of this community and those affiliated with it by religion.

Colloquial Punjabi, including Lahori Punjabi, has a vast repertoire of demeaning and derogatory terms and idioms regarding the Choorra community. 'Choorra' is a word often used to belittle and insult 'worthless' people. This behaviour connotes a poor state of mind. Other idiomatic expletives used to ridicule the community include 'Choorray jaisi khaslat', 'Choorray jaisa rang' (only a sweeper has such a nature or behaviour typical of a sweeper or only sweepers have such a complexion).

Jime Sidanius and Rosemary C Veneigas, researchers tackling gender and race, explain that human societies are structured and governed by group-based social hierarchies, ascribing more benefits to the dominant group (wealth, power and status). In contrast, subordinate groups face a disproportionate amount of negative social value.

While investigating racial/ethnic differences in multiple aspects of well-being, American psychologist Carol D Ryff and her colleagues found that perceived discrimination is the negative predictor of well-being. Its gender-specific effects entailed more on women who faced high levels of discrimination that compromised their sense of growth, well-being, mastery, autonomy and self-acceptance.

An Inescapable Stigma

The scholar Neepa Gandhi observes in her paper on sanitation workers in Ahmedabad, India that people in janitorial services are considered polluted, and they have to live with this stigma in the prevailing reality and accept their status as untouchables. Hector Bertheir, a Mexican researcher who has written extensively about the issues faced by garbage workers, points out that the marginalised social status of garbage workers has made them live in isolated and closed societies, developing their habits, customs, beliefs and values as well as specific mechanisms for their marginal or interim integration. The internalisation of their marginality and low social status due to their work with garbage and dirt is deeply embedded in the psyche of sweepers, as they prefer to live in areas inhabited by the sweeper community.

The close-knit settlements of Christian communities in Lahore at Pathi Ground on Dil Muhammad Road, Youhanabad, Nishtar, Mohallah Churshah Bandagi, Baelhatha Garrhi Shahu, Isanagri Misri Shah, Maryam Colony Township, Christian Colony, Azmat Chowk, Paki Thattiyan, Joseph Colony, Bajwa Colony, Badami Bagh, Sandha Chandni Chowk, Sandha Bundroad, Nijatpura Bundroad, 62 Road Niazi Adda and Mohalla Tupsari depict the ghettoised living conditions of Christians.

There is a strong sense of shared understanding among sweepers that society does not respect their profession. This realisation leads them to internalise worthlessness and develop inferiority complexes and social alienation from society. Because of...