Recently I attended five days workshop-cum-training on Emerging Leadership Programme at Bangalore. In that workshop, I reflected on the word, "Power". According to the discussion in that workshop, I understood that "Power" is the ability to achieve the desired/intended goal. It has a positive connotation attached to it. But the word power in the real world has a very different connotation attached to it. It is generally understood and seen by people as a mean to oppress and marginalise other fellow human being. It is used to eliminate other's existence for the sake of my own existence. Power needs to be shown to empower others, is what we reflected in the workshop. But in real world power is used to dis-empower others and push them into fear and ultimately to the culture of silence.
In the Hindi film, Article 15, the two dialogue, ' Unhe aukaat dikahan jaroori tha' and ‘Aukaat wahi hai jo hum dete hain’ clearly says how we want the power to be shown and understood/perceived by others. In the film, the three girls were raped and among them, two were hanged on a tree just to show the power (negative connotation) of the upper caste and create a fear among the lower caste people. It depicts centuries-old class and caste and gender privilege that exists until today in modern India. Every time the police officer used "in log" and "un log" to say something about the lower caste, I was feeling uncomfortable to see that how many of us through words exclude and divide people on the basis of the identity. On one side are the upper-castes and the untrammelled power that comes with caste position; on the other, are the lowest of the low, the invisible, the Dalits; and in between is the heartbreaking divide which shapes our destiny in this country even today. Right wings are in power now. They talk about Nationalism, Akhand Bharat... but what type of nationalism we want? what type of Akhand Bharat we want where the people of my country hate each other on the basis of some abstract thing which is caste. Another important word is used often by the police officer (in the film) to warn subtly the main protagonist - PS officer Ayan Ranjan (Khurrana) is "Santulan" (Balance). It is exactly what we are taught in our family and schools very much diplomatically and politically. We are always motivated to keep the status-co. We are always asked to keep the status co. People who disbalance or disturb the status co, like in the film the Dalit leader who mobilised Dalits to question the definition of power construed by the so-called powerful, are killed mercilessly without any guilty. State-sponsored terrorism is not against the people who want to show the "Aukaat" but against those people who want to empower Dalits and other marginalised community. It happened with Bhagat Singh and continues. At least in the English language, when we say lower-caste it sounds not so bad but when we say lower caste in Hindi, the name of each of the lower caste is an abusive word.
In the Hindi film, Article 15, the two dialogue, ' Unhe aukaat dikahan jaroori tha' and ‘Aukaat wahi hai jo hum dete hain’ clearly says how we want the power to be shown and understood/perceived by others. In the film, the three girls were raped and among them, two were hanged on a tree just to show the power (negative connotation) of the upper caste and create a fear among the lower caste people. It depicts centuries-old class and caste and gender privilege that exists until today in modern India. Every time the police officer used "in log" and "un log" to say something about the lower caste, I was feeling uncomfortable to see that how many of us through words exclude and divide people on the basis of the identity. On one side are the upper-castes and the untrammelled power that comes with caste position; on the other, are the lowest of the low, the invisible, the Dalits; and in between is the heartbreaking divide which shapes our destiny in this country even today. Right wings are in power now. They talk about Nationalism, Akhand Bharat... but what type of nationalism we want? what type of Akhand Bharat we want where the people of my country hate each other on the basis of some abstract thing which is caste. Another important word is used often by the police officer (in the film) to warn subtly the main protagonist - PS officer Ayan Ranjan (Khurrana) is "Santulan" (Balance). It is exactly what we are taught in our family and schools very much diplomatically and politically. We are always motivated to keep the status-co. We are always asked to keep the status co. People who disbalance or disturb the status co, like in the film the Dalit leader who mobilised Dalits to question the definition of power construed by the so-called powerful, are killed mercilessly without any guilty. State-sponsored terrorism is not against the people who want to show the "Aukaat" but against those people who want to empower Dalits and other marginalised community. It happened with Bhagat Singh and continues. At least in the English language, when we say lower-caste it sounds not so bad but when we say lower caste in Hindi, the name of each of the lower caste is an abusive word.
Caste discrimination is just not the main land's issue. It is also there very much in all over India. It has sipped into all our other religion which actually started due to caste-based violence (What an irony?). The film depicts very well the civil war that exists in our country for centuries based on caste. I really liked that the film started with the song by Bob Dylan (one of my favourite singer) playing in the background: "...how many years can some people exist before they are allowed to be free?" when Ayaan, the main protagonist, entering the village and comparing air pollution of Delhi with an experience of fresh air full of oxygen in the village, naive of the violent environment that he will experience which has taken many more lives than the pollution of cities. The first song in the film - "Kahab to lagi jaaye dhak se" is really a good song to make us understand consciously the difference between rich and poor on the basis of the privilege and hardship they enjoy and face respectively. Like Ayan, many of our young Indians are not aware of caste-based discrimination. They are very bookish and naive. But are they very much unknown to us? Do we need a film to say that? We have become so much insensitive that zero tolerance on caste-based discrimination is a distant dream in our country.
One of the very important thing that the film wanted to show was how the government institution, the police force, which has the power (in positive connotation) to eliminate the caste-based discrimination is actually preserving and practising shamelessly. The two police officer in the film - Solanki and Sinha have internalised the discrimination so well with such a perfection that they find it very much normal not to offer pakodas from their plate to the upper caste officers or refuse to drink water from a glass at his place.
I am depressed and sad after watching the movie. I am among most of you all waiting for a hero. Do I have the courage to be a hero? Has our education system, family system, professional space failed us? Are we all suffering from an acute syndrome of 'culture of silence'? In the film at one point in time, Ayan calls to her lover and says, "... I will un-mess it". To which his lover replied that whether there is any word called 'un-mess' in the english language. Then Ayan says that we need to frame new words. This metaphor is strong enough message that calls all of us 'to learn, unlearn and relearn' many things that we learned during the process of our socialization. We Indians really need to go deeper and understand our value system.
I am depressed and sad after watching the movie. I am among most of you all waiting for a hero. Do I have the courage to be a hero? Has our education system, family system, professional space failed us? Are we all suffering from an acute syndrome of 'culture of silence'? In the film at one point in time, Ayan calls to her lover and says, "... I will un-mess it". To which his lover replied that whether there is any word called 'un-mess' in the english language. Then Ayan says that we need to frame new words. This metaphor is strong enough message that calls all of us 'to learn, unlearn and relearn' many things that we learned during the process of our socialization. We Indians really need to go deeper and understand our value system.
Having said all this, I want to say one thing that I find two actors - Ayushman and Sahid, showing their own responsibility as a responsible actor. One is working in a film which is misogynist and another one is using film as a platform to raise the critical question on how we Indians are behaving with our fellow Indians. History will remember them on the basis of the film they choose.
Do we have Ayan like police officers in our country? Do we need them? Has the caste system so strongly rooted that no one can uproot it? Do we really need Article 15 in our constitution when we are not able to follow it? Is the article really making any sense to our government executives who need to ensure its implementation? Has the CSOs in India failed in empowering people of our country for the last 70 years?
