India Untouched @ Pre-Tarang week in LSR!


India Untouched@ LSR
SMILE Pravah in association with VAPP, LSR organised the screening on the 11th of November from 3:00 – 5:30 pm which was facilitated by SMILE volunteers. The event started with a brief introduction of Pravah and SMILE and the movie. The points put forward in the post-movie discussion gave a better insight and helped everyone explore the various dimensions of the movie.

The movie India Untouched explores the prevalence of caste in contemporary India among people from different religions, geographical areas and cultural backgrounds. Award winning director Stalin.K had put in 4 years of research for making the movie, showing us how widespread and real the Dalit oppression is contrary to what we may believe.

Some of the major points and observations that came forward were:
  • Almost everyone in the audience acknowledged that they had no clue that it was still so prevalent and the movie made them realise the magnitude of the problem.
  • Someone pointed out the arguments in favour of reservation on the basis of economic criteria instead of caste based criteria was an attempt to neglect the issue and only a means to deny the Dalits equality of opportunity.
  • It was also pointed out that in generality education and geographical location had no relation to caste discriminations but only the ways that these discriminations occur.
  • Someone pointed out that the caste fragmentations are so deeply ingrained into our minds that it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. Some confessed that it was still practiced in their houses (like different utensils for Dalits) and also that they themselves somewhat believed in these caste based distinctions though it was difficult to explain why.
  • Quite a few people present there confessed to the fact that even though they don’t believe in caste based discriminations as such they would still like to marry within their casteslike the lady in the movie. Someone cross questioned and pointed out that such examples show that we still believe in caste system and try to dismiss the fact by giving illogical arguments and quoting texts.
  • It was also pointed out that the problem with Dalit women was more acute and they suffered more in reference to the part in the movie where a Dalit woman is referred to as a ‘double Dalit’.
    The discussion specially the citing of personal instances started the process of self-introspection and self-questioning. The very hope to change and not to accept things as they are seemed to flame in everyone and was this was very inspiring. The importance of spreading awareness and instilling in ourselves and those around us a rational outlook and a feeling of tolerance was emphasised. The discussion was wrapped up with explaining the SMILE process and distribution of RI pamphlets.
    SMILE Pravah would like to continue its association with LSR. Please feel free to write out your views of the event and also to contact us for any sort of information or comments.
    Keep :)ing
  • SMILE'rs

Posted in: , on Monday, November 16, 2009 at at 3:19 PM  

1 comments:

  1. abhijit sarkar On November 18, 2009 at 10:52 AM Wrote

    Great findings out of the Movie. The thing that I will like to say is that the puzzle of steretype is not te easiest to solve. It requires a great of self awareness and sensitivity. For instance understanding the behavioral patterns of Humans and not integerating it with stereotype. On the other hand our pre conceived notions that are so deep rooted in us are definitely making our stereotypes stronger.

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