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A shocking blow to conscience

Documentary film maker K Stalin talks about his latest flick, ‘India Untouched’ with T. SARAVANAN

Photo: G. Moorthy

Powerful Attempt to create awareness

Scene I : A group of children playing on a ground refuses to cross the ‘Lakshman rekha’ (borderline) when invited to visit a Dalit locality. When asked for a reason, they reply: “We will get polluted.”

Scene II : A Hindu scholar in Benares takes pride in saying, “Dalits can never be equal to us. They are destined to stay on the lower ladder.”

Scene III : A Rajput farmer, who feels proud to be a caste Hindu, boasts, “No Dalit can sit on a chair in front of me. They have to sit on the ground, even if he or she occupies a high post.”

For those, who claim that the country has successfully rid itself of untouchability, this documentary comes as a rude shock, a blow to their conscience.

Capturing shocking revelations on camera, film director K. Stalin expresses his anguish over such discrimination against the underprivileged: “I was stunned to see people confessing in full public glare, how they practice untouchability. There is no iota of remorse. In fact, they feel it is their way of life and the Government has no authority to interfere with something that is natural and common.”

Stalin, from Ahmedabad, is well known for his ‘Lesser Humans’, a documentary on manual scavenging, which won many accolades at international documentary film festivals including the Silver Conch at Mumbai International Film Festival and the Excellence Award at Earth Vision Film Festival, Tokyo.

This is his second film on the caste issue. “I wish to give this film a national colour, as people who saw my earlier ventures came to me saying that the issue was prevalent everywhere. Hence, I decided that ‘India Untouched’ should leave no stone unturned.”

Right from Benares in the North to Tirunelveli in the South, eight States and four religions have been covered in this film. “It took me four years to give shape to this documentary. I travelled across the length and breadth of the country only to get enlightened that discrimination of underprivileged is definitely not a rural phenomenon. I heard and saw people living in urban areas as victims of this social menace,” he says.

Even in hallowed institutions like the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, such practices are common. “In JNU, an upper caste boy has erected a partition just to avoid facing his roommate, a dalit, in the early morning. Even matrimonial columns in leading dailies list the castes under different heads. Marriages are the leading perpetuator of caste in this country. It may be hard to digest but it is the uncomfortable truth.”

Cutting across religions, this social evil is a commonly accepted practice. “Even States, which are identified to be progressive, untouchability is a happening phenomenon. The saddest area is that even the Dalits themselves approve of it. There are subsects within their community and the practice of discrimination.”

Having undergone such disturbing phases, Mr. Stalin has made it clear in his documentary which runs for 108 minutes, that unless the Dalits in this country are empowered there is no meaning in boasting about the country’s development.

A pioneer in the field of ‘participatory media’ work with urban and rural communities, Mr. Stalin is now involved in training local people to produce their own videos and radio programmes and screen them to their neighbours, as he sees such activities as empowerment tools.

“We wish the mainstream media take note of the predicament of these people. When not many came forward we thought why not we start our own units. Already, there are six in place — three in Gujarat, two in Mumbai and one in Andhra Pradesh. We plan to increase it to 10 with one unit in Chengleput in Tamil Nadu,” says Mr. Stalin, who is also the convener of the Community Radio Forum – India and Director (India) of Video volunteers.

As the co-founder of Drishti-Media, Arts and Human Rights, he has organised several programmes including community radio, campaign design, street theatre, documentary filmmaking, participatory video, community arts and youth activism. Dhrishti has already produced 30 films on development issues and conducted more than 300 training workshops for several non Governmental organisations.

Having lectured in more than 20 institutions from National Institute of Design to Tata Institute of Social Sciences, from New York University to Stanford and Berkeley Universities, Mr. Stalin is now keen on creating awareness among people on such evil practices which plague the society.

He wishes to do so in association with local human rights organisations and like minded individuals.

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