Manifestation of Subaltern Narratives in Cinema

All About Ambedkar: SPECIAL ISSUE ON CASTE AND CINEMA, 2022

The following Introduction briefly traces, albeit in jarring cuts, the evolution of caste question and its relationship with Indian cinema. It also tries to point out some aspects of Indian film theory, its lacunae and hopes that some of the questions raised here may give rise to future works by other (better) theorists. Pre-Independence cinema in India rarely addressed caste question, and if it did, then it was through an abstract global humanist lens. This tendency to address caste through a hollow and empty shell of a theoretical model unfortunately has stuck around even in these times, and only found newer ways to reinvent itself in Neoliberal times. To understand the reason of Indian cinema's lack of addressing caste more directly and pointedly, it has to be seen as part of a historical process. Only then can we see the history of ideology that is "outside of itself", that is, in the material conditions that made possible Indian caste-society as well as its cine-culture. It also tries to raise questions about the film form, and its many possibilities of experimentation with the caste question (i.e. both in ideological and experiential possibilities). Lastly, it introduces some of the key works in this issue. Of course, with the hope that the readers will forgive and give respite to the many lacunas of the issue, as well as the Editor himself.

Popular Hindi cinema provides a fascinating account of Indian life history and cultural politics. Hindi cinema is always a mirror of the Indian society but films also have fascinated entertained the Indian public for more than a hundred years and sometimes when we analyze the history of Indian cinema we can get an amazingly interesting but actual history of the contemporary society with all its virtues and vices in different colors. This paper deliberates on the various issues pertaining to the portrayal of specific caste, especially the Dalits in Indian films-both Hindi and regional.

1 Caste has been a unique phenomenon of the Indian social structure from ancient times to the present. Despite constant criticism and opposition by various reformers, thinkers, religious liberals and litterateurs in the ancient and medieval times, the caste system has continued to deepen the social divide through its various manifestations. The process of modernization and industrialization has not been able to uproot the system and lessen its impact upon Indian society. The efforts of reformers, thinkers and leaders like M. K. Gandhi, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia and others, and the special Constitutional provisions notwithstanding, limited success has been achieved. One of the core reasons for this is the religious sanctity provided to the caste system by the Brahminical scriptures/ texts, which have, in their turn, influenced not only the social fabric but also the religious-philosophical-cultural network, literary writings and various other art forms. This practice that has accepted the caste system over these thousands of years has nurtured a vicious mind-set, one that affects not only the upper caste Hindus but sometimes also leads to self-doubt among the dalits themselves. In other words, the oppression of dalits is not merely material but cultural. As a result, dalits are the most oppressed people in the caste hierarchy, resulting in several forms of social, cultural and political exclusion, particularly from social space, property rights and knowledge sources. They have been termed and treated as untouchables, impure to touch. In this sense the identity of the dalit, in mainstream/dominant perspectives, is necessarily linked with his/her body. The prejudice against the dalit body is so deep rooted that there has been no significant dalit participation and intervention in the Indian film industry. The body of the dalit is a real battle-ground where all caste battles, old and new, pro and against, have been grounded and fought. In suggesting that untouchability is the foremost and the biggest 'sin' against humanity, Gandhi insisted on the need to do away with untouchability in order to re-establish the sanctity of the dalit body. In Indian cinema, the issue of caste was seldom a prominent issue with most film-makers and rarely dealt with the seriousness and urgency it deserves. The marginalization that is a reality in the social space, extends to

Zeitschrift für Indologie und Südasienstudien, Band 38, 2021

This essay examines representations of Dalit women in Hindi films that focus on caste discrimination and caste-based violence as primary themes. The history of Indian cinema endorses the fact that the Indian film industry is dominated by high-caste filmmakers, producers and actors. Barring a few instances, Dalit characters do not generally appear as part of the main narratives. A more dismal picture emerges if filmic representations of Dalit women are taken into consideration. They are often rendered invisible or represented as stereotypes. Employing critical textual analysis method, this essay studies two film texts: Sujata (1959) and Article 15 (2019), and argues that the question of Dalit women’s vulnerability has never been adequately addressed in Hindi films. It also illustrates with examples from other films how the ‘absence/silence’ of Dalit women predominates not only in the films made by upper-caste filmmakers, but also in the films made by filmmakers hailing from low-caste communities. This apparently paradoxical argument allows the essay to examine the term ‘Dalit cinema’ critically. Moreover, the essay scrutinizes how a Dalit woman’s location at the intersections of overlapping social categories such as caste, class and gender shapes her experiences of marginality. Positing the argument within the theory of intersectionality (Crenshaw 1989) and its critique in the Indian context (Menon 2015; John 2015), this essay problematizes the issue of identity politics and the notion of Dalit women’s agency within a Brahmanical, patriarchal society. Finally, the essay evaluates the need for articulating a Dalit feminist standpoint in order to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of subaltern representations in Hindi films.

Abstract The subject of subalternity with its innate consequences is yet to discover support among movie producers in India. Dynamic movie producers of the 1960s endeavoured to address the subject of subaltern and set out to give the subaltern a voice, however they stayed solitary endeavours. Through an inquiry into a Malayalam film (a local film industry of Kerala in India) Papilio Buddha, this paper studies the portraiture of Dalit people group in Indian silver screen. In spite of the fact that Malayalam film industry has attempted to address the worry of Dalits, they have been stereotyped from various perspectives and diminished to being sidekicks to villains or incompetent workers having no character. They stayed as instruments to worship the main hero and to help the protagonist to bring out his heroism. They are like the poor helpless victims who always help the hero to display his heroism. Papilio Buddha got media consideration when it was denied by the censor board as it investigates the region of Dalit cognizance by concentrating the focal point on the land strike by the Dalit people group and making a counter story to the hitherto glorified pictures made by the state. Keywords: Dalit, Subaltern, Kerala, Caste, Victims

Economic and Political Weekly, 2020

The cinematic interventions of contemporary Dalit film-makers in India, Nagraj Manjule and Pa Ranjith, among others, represent modes of resistant historiography, employed by Dalits, against the aesthetic regime of stereotypical representation, through innovative techniques in visuals, sound, music, and cinematography. The paper attempts to evaluate and argue for an enabling anti-caste aesthetics articulated through an embodied sensibility in films. The paper argues that these film-makers not only disturb “the unconscious of caste” through an explicit anti-caste aesthetics but also produce affective, expressive archives. In other words, they bring into presence what was previously impossible through the processes of denunciation (of casteist images) and innovation (of anti-caste aesthetics).

Cinema reflects all the complexities of the society like other forms of art. The advantage with cinema is that it can reach out to wider audience and can influence their psyche. With this huge capacity cinema also bears the huge responsibility of seeking truth and providing platform to the marginalized people. In India Dalits are the most oppressed social group and their suffering has a long history. It is rooted in the ancient past. Indian film industry especially Bollywood makes continuous effort to put critical insight on the plight of untouchables and explores the root causes of their suffering. This paper takes a historical approach to trace the process of their subjugation. At the same time it focuses on the evolution of Bollywood movies in portraying Dalit issues with the transition in Dalit society.

Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 2023

The paper seeks to provide an exhaustive narrative history of Hindi-language cinema’s (Bombay cinema) engagement with the question of marginality and the representation of marginal peoples and communities in Hindi film. Here we focus on two categories of marginality and its representation – caste (Dalit) and religious community (Muslim). One of the objectives of this paper is the consideration of the cinematic space as a field of dominance, control, struggle and resistance as well as of presentation and representation. It also attempts to engage with the teleology of “contested marginality” in Hindi cinema; the politics of exclusion; notions of power and negotiated marginality in the popular cinematic space; and the subaltern imaginary in cinema. While the paper seeks to unpack the notion of ‘marginality’ by examining cinematic representation in Hindi cinema, it attempts to locate excluded, marginalized, and minority communities and groups (religious, caste, and gender) within the larger discursive sphere of media as a public sphere and as a canvas of dominance and resistance.

Cinema reflects all the complexities of the society like other forms of art. The advantage with cinema is that it can reach out to wider audience and can influence their psyche. With this huge capacity cinema also bears the huge responsibility of seeking truth and providing platform to the marginalized people. In India Dalits are the most oppressed social group and their suffering has a long history. It is rooted in the ancient past. Indian film industry especially Bollywood makes continuous effort to put critical insight on the plight of untouchables and explores the root causes of their suffering. This paper takes a historical approach to trace the process of their subjugation.

History of Modern India is ripe with examples of marginalization of Dalits', which is against empowerment / Self-respect. There are various factors that contribute towards the marginalization of these people some of them include Exclusion, globalization, displacements, disasters etc. In India, films started making an appearance around 1900s. As the films drifted from its close kin " stage play " , a different set of grammar was established and the hermeneutics of films started to evolve later. The new form struck the caste system, let in the oppressed people into theater and allowed for an equal treatment without discrimination. This started to irk the influential and pushed them to enter into the film industry. After which, films took a new form of stereotypical representation, glorification of caste and caste based differentiations, denigrations of the lower communities, portraying them as powerless etc. This study attempted to elicit the arbitrary meanings of both Dalit and Non Dalit filmmakers' texts and establish that they significantly contradict with constitutive meaning. A Semiotics analysis of Dalit and non-Dalit films underpins this study. In many instances the work of dalits seemingly fuel the campaigns being initiated by political parties, which instigate socio-political movement against Dalit instead of counter these movements.