Mr. Dalit Comes to Class
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 11:09AM 
FT story on new Bollywood film depicting "untouchables" and the discrimination they suffer. The film is already banned in three Indian states out of fear of inciting social unrest.
Ask yourself, what period of US history does this remind you of?
Fair dynamic comparison, although here the pushback comes more from dalit politicians and those in favor of their rights. Why? Film focuses on quota system for dalits/untouchables set up at time of independence. Upper castes say film makes them look bad, but dalits say film denigrates positive impact of quota system - aka, India's version of affirmative action.
What I remember from visiting India: it seemed like the taller you were and lighter your skin, the more likely you were more powerful and thus from a higher class. Conversely, lower caste people seemed shorter (poorer diet) and darker. So when I mixed with elites, I looked them in the eye, but when I moved among ordinary people, I felt like a frickin' giant. The dichotomy rather stunned me.
If you mention that observation, you tend to get a strong response from Indians who find any comparison to racism in the West to be completely offbase. I'm not sure what you call it, but it strikes me as a deep legacy of discrimination based on birth (meaning you can't change who you are no matter what, which smacks of that "one drop of blood" logic) and thus is reasonably compared to racism elsewhere in the world, despite its "sophisticated" and multivariate application.
Point of post: rising India, like rising China, is racing through a lot of history and "phases" that US went through a much more leisurely pace. That's incredibly hard but facinating to watch.
Blurb on film only hints at controversy (from Rotten Tomatoes), but understand that Prabhakar has a special space for dalits in his school and that Kumar, who is in love with Prabhakar's daughter, is himself a dalit. This is classic Bollywood (father-daughter conflict over undesirable match) with the twist that here the father is the perceived liberal:
Aarakshan is the story of Prabhakar Anand (Amitabh Bachchan), the legendary idealistic principal of a college that he has single-handedly turned into the state's best. It is the story of his loyal disciple, Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan) who will do anything for his Sir. Of Deepak's love for Prabhakar's daughter, Poorbi (Deepika Padukone), of his friendship with Sushant (Prateik). It is the story of their love, their lively friendship, their zest for life, and of their dreams for the future. Centered on one of the most controversial issues of recent years, with the Supreme Court's order on reservation, the story suddenly becomes a rollercoaster ride of high drama, conflict, and rebellion, which tests their love and friendship for one another, and their loyalty to Prabhakar Anand.
Film is already in US, probably because Bachchan is the Cary Grant of Indian cinema. Done about 300k, so art-house limited.
Be interested if anyone has seen it and can provide impressions.
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Reader Comments (5)
Sorry, I haven´t seen the film yet, but if it starts in Germany I´ll watch it.When I was in India I was sometimes astonishesd when members of the socalled Indio-Arian nation contacted me which also have good contacts to the RSS ( a Hindu racist and nationalist organization which contributed to the formation of the BJP)..In their ideology the former Bramahns were Arians who settled from Europe to India: blond, blue-eyed and white skin.In their ideology race mixture lead to the decline of Hinduism, the Brahams and the caste system and by this of the alleged suoerior race. It´s interesting to see that Hitler and the Nazis had the same idea and that the head of the SS-Ahnenerbe was the founder of the Institute for Indiology at the University of Munich.I think that your observation and disticinction of people by skin colour has its roots in this ideas.
"Done about 300k, so art-house limited."
Not necessarily. In Seattle, it's playing at the one Bollywood-for-the-expats screen in Kirkland. (Same suburb as Google up here, just next to Redmond.)
It's worth remembering there are enough Indian and Pakistani expats/immigrants around here that the NW Cricket League (http://nwcl.org/) has 22 teams, including 3 from Microsoft alone.
My knowledge of Hinduism is tiny, but what I've read is that the caste system is believed to represent a moral hierarchy -- that you move up or down in caste if you are reincarnated that way, so messing with caste upsets the moral order of the universe. I'm not defending it, but if deeply embedded in religion, it can be that much harder to overcome.
Perhaps it will be overcome by time scales: the cycle of reincarnation is too slow for the modern world. People move up and down in their worthiness in real time, so reincarnation is a test with too much latency (i.e. it reports changes too long after the fact). People can reveal their worth now and should be able to move in caste in real time, too.
To Mike Oliker,
Yes, I also think that the traditional Hinduism and caste systems are based on cosmology and the idea that your moral life sets the standard in which caste you will be reborn (howver,the idea that you as a caste meber behave like your caste is very static). However, religion was confronted with science and by this with biologist ideas and racism.This is the starting point to make the Brahamns Arians and the question of the caste system a racist system. However, when I discussed with people of the Indio-Arian Nation, the RSS and the BJP, I wanted to know what their point is. Do you want to restore the old order or breed a new superior race by gentechnology and/or caste seperation? Do you want to restore a system where the upper caste is blondhaired, blue-eyed and white skin or only Brahams?What would you do with the "mixed"Brahmans? And such a hierachial system with long reincvarnation cycles are not fitting to our modern world and their social mobility. All I heard was that a untouchable Dailit like Rao shouldn´t become president of India and that a Braham like Vajpayee was good for the nation.Is the Congress Party the party of the Dailits and the BJP of the Brahmans--propbably not. It´s more a tendency, but Vajpayee and the Brahamns couldn´t rule the country if they hadn´t support of other castes. However the question remains: Is India a caste democracy or a modern democracy?
Maybe the ideology of the modern Indian caste system is somehow Calvinist. If you are rich and a Brahman you are legitimated by God or the universe--like many Americans see it.If you are poor, undercaste, it´s your own fault and a sign that God doens´t love you or you have been sinful in your (former)life. Maybe the BJP is pronouning a caste solidaity without the Dailits--see them as the evil as the Calvinist in America do with the poor or AFL-CIO associated persons and that the Congress Party wants the integration and emancipation of the Dailits. Means: While the Republicans hate all American underdogs, the BJP hates all Dailits and while the Democtras try to integrate the underdogs, the Congress Party tries to integrate the Dailits and the untouchables. By this it becomes more a class question and a question of exclusion or inclusion of the underdogs.No wonder that the Nacalites have such a support by the poorer classes and castes while in China you don´t have this disparaties and real poverty anymore.