Caste discrimination has no place in a modern India: Books, films can help

Conversations about caste are difficult to have as they bring up guilt, shame, anger, and defensiveness in people from communities that have profited from or been complicit in structural violence that has persisted for centuries. These uncomfortable feelings need to have a place to be aired and confronted. The work of unlearning cannot happen if people are left without tools to chip away at their conditioning and resources to sit with their inner debris.

Children and teenagers now have access to books that unpack how the caste system dehumanises people on the lower rungs of the hierarchy and how they reclaim their dignity.

In 2005, Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies and DC Books published a series of storybooks called “Different Tales” portraying the lived experiences of Dalit, Adivasi, Muslim children in a wholesome way. These depictions were not patronising or tokenistic.

Kancha Ilaiah’s book Turning the Pot, Tilling the Land: Dignity of Labour in Our Times (2009), illustrated by Durgabai Vyam and published by Navayana, challenges the constructs of lowliness and backwardness thrust upon leatherworkers, farmers, weavers, potters, barbers, and cattle-rearers. It talks about the science, art and skill involved in their labour.

Yogesh Maitreya and Nidhin Shobhana’s book B.R. Ambedkar: A Life in Books (2021) celebrates Ambedkar’s love of reading, and how he sought the company of books when he had no best friends in school. He eventually spearheaded the drafting of India’s most important book—the Constitution of the country. Sagar Kolwankar’s book  My Name is Gulab (2021), published by Tulika, revolves around a girl whose father works as a manual scavenger. Watching him clean drains with his bare hands, she strives to bring about change.

Baloo’s Big Win: How Palwankar Baloo Broke the Caste Barrier in Cricket (2024), written by Mamta Nainy, illustrated by Saumya Oberoi, and published by Penguin is the most recent of the lot. It is a biography of Palwankar Baloo, a hero from India’s cricketing history who was born in Dharwad in 1875. He grew up in a family of leather workers that had to bear the brunt of the practice of untouchability. Their access to wells, gardens, and temples was severely restricted.

The book shows glimpses from his life as a young man at the Poona Gymkhana Club, where he worked as a gardener and was also asked to bowl to club members who needed batting practice. His skills as a bowler were appreciated by the Englishmen there but they never gave him a chance to bat. Ms Nainy writes, “The news of Baloo’s bowling spread like wildfire. Word got around among the members of a Hindu club in Poona, too. The club had Indian players, mainly from the upper castes of society.” They wanted his help to defeat an English club but they were worried about breaking caste-related taboos. Eventually, they asked him to join.

Sadly, he was served tea in a clay ves­sel while others used porcelain cups. He had to eat separately, and was not allo­wed to even touch his teammates. Inter­estingly, when he led the team to victo­ry against the British, they shook hands with him and carried him on his shoul­ders. The book skilfully draws attention to the double standards and the irony.

He also played for an all-India team, led by the Maharaja of Patiala, which toured England. One can read about his performance and other achievements in historian Ramachandra Guha’s chapter “The Moral That Can Be Safely Drawn from the Hindus’ Magnificent Victory: Cricket, Caste and the Palwankar Brothers” in a book called Subaltern Sports: Politics and Sport in South Asia (2005), edited by James H Mills and published by Anthem.

News reports indicate that Tigmanshu Dhulia, who directed a biopic on soldier and athlete Paan Singh Tomar, is in the process of making a film about Palwankar. One hopes that it will be sensitively made unlike Ashutosh Gowariker’s film Lagaan (2001), which had a Dalit character named Kachra (garbage in Hindi). Last year, filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan, who belongs to the Dalit community, had described Kachra on Twitter (now X) as “one of the most dehumanised voiceless depictions of Dalits ever in cinema”. 

The evil of caste-based discrimin­ation should have no place in an India that seeks to modernise on every front. Books and films must play their part in realising this dream.

The writer is a journalist, educator and cultural commentator. He is @chintanwriting on Instagram and X