Hollywood directors, producers and world famous film personalities were shocked to hear from Indian Dalit leaders about rampant racism inside India and how it was worse than the South African Apartheid.
The occasion was a seminar held at Hollywood on Sept. 14. 2005 by the Dalit Freedom Network (DFN), an American organization working for Dalits which organized the meeting in collaboration with All-Indian Christian Council. Those present included noted producers, directors, actors, popular TV show anchors, script writers and documentary film-makers.
Though India was the largest colonial country, its cultural history is much less known. Hardly any major Hollywood intellectual seemed to know anything substantial about India. To make the issue communicable to an average Hollywood person, Ms. Nanci Ricks, the executive director of the DFN, made a brief presentation with the help of India’s map on how India was a country of numerous castes.
Religious sanction: Many of those present did not know that there existed a system of untouchability that involved as many as 200 million people and that there was a tribal population of about 70 million were in India. Besides, these massive numbers there are about 500 million people suffering from caste discrimination based on work constituting a category called “Other Backward Castes” (OBCs).
Joseph Desouza, the international president of DFN, said how the upper castes (Hindus) in the Indian society never felt guilt or shame about the caste system as it was sanctified by their Hindu religion. Though there have been numerous struggles by the low caste people, they have never been historicized.
He said hurricane Katrina exposed the conditions of the underdogs in US. But it was not well known that there are millions of perpetual underdogs in the Indian caste system.
He called for a global partnership to liberate the Indian underdogs and asked Hollywood to take interest in this process of liberation.
Joseph Desouza, a Karnataka Christian leader, has been campaigning on caste and untouchability over three years in global circles. It was he who was mainly responsible for the establishment of the DFN in which scores of American and European citizens are involved, His appeal to Hollywood certainly goes a long way in
drawing the attention of the globally influential cultural center. The Hollywood film industry makes films on Blacks of not only America but also of Africa. It makes films on Chinese and other Asian cultures not just karate but also subjects like war-lordism. Why Hollywood did not make a single film on the caste culture and the horrendous practice that goes with it?
Not many realized the fact that the Dalit in Lagaan was not only lame but also mentally retarded. It was a sad presentation of a historically skillful community.
The opposition even to the social protest for including an Untouchable in the team was so weak that the superstition of the defeat caused by the presence of an Untouchable was also allowed to persist. This film rubs some salt into the wounds of the Untouchables.
Jews in films: The Hollywood film industry consists of quite a significant number of Jews whose presence is quite visible in the film city of Los Angeles dotted with synagogues. The Jews have experienced the Holocaust in Europe and they have a historical responsibility to understand the historical oppression of millions of people in South Asia. As producers and directors they perhaps would respond to the call that was given at the Hollywood seminar
Interest shown: Interestingly several award-winning film personalities like Black actor-director Forest Whitaker and his wife Keisha evinced interest in visiting India to understand the Dalit question. The DFN team did a wonderful job by circulating a chapter on untouchability from noted columnist Thomas Friedman’s recent book. The World is Flat. Friedman, himself a Jew, carries the baggage of the Holocaust with him. The conviction and credibility with which Friedman writes made many Americans think that this problem is serious enough to work on.
So far no global media concern has done focused work on the Indian caste system and untouchability. If at all the Indian films presented the Dalit-OBC life in the films and documentaries it was only to show their historical inability. The Indian film industry and TV plays portrayed them as unworthy of becoming heroes and heroines. What the Dalit-OBCs need is a dignified and heroic presentation of their selves in the global media The Dalit Freedom Network deserves praise for working towards the process of breaking such historical silence on untouchability and caste discrimination.
