The decade of 1990s has marked by the growth of Mandal and Kamandal politics. It was also the period when global effects of popular culture had spurred the Indian viewership pattern and the transnational flows of goods, information technology, media culture, people, markets, and cinema have created new dimensions of understandings. Diasporas, pop songs and advertisements became significant baseline in Hindi cinema because of this effect. The line of understanding and the manufacturing of values, ideas and consciousness were the themes which media had started focusing in the new terms. In a certain sense Ramayana and Mahabharata had become cultural locale for Kamandal politics. This is the period when the Janta Party leaders coming from the JP movement were getting into the politics and in UP and Bihar they had made the government. They were the flagbearers of the Mandal movement which culminated in the reservation of the Other Backward Classes and pollical setups in several states. The end of the 1990s and the first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed significant appropriation and reappropriation of OBCs and Dalits in Hindi cinema.
Gangaajal and Dalit Identity
Caste is a key issue in the Hindi film “Gangaajal,” (dir. Prakash Jha, 2003) which portrays the pervasiveness of caste-based stigmatisation and exploitation in the state of Bihar. The movie depicts caste-based OBC politicians who rule by fear and the broad influence of them over the public. They are abusing their authority and impact in order to gain influence among the people and take advantage of the situation. An upstanding Superintendent of Police (SP) Amit Kumar battled against the circumstances, and as a response, he finally succeeded in persuading the general public to have faith in the legal system, which allowed him to investigate and prosecute the criminals. Along with corruption, the film also deals with the nexus between criminals and Bahubalis.
Cliched Portrayal of the Dalit character ‘Mangniram’
The film portrays Mangniram in a dark complexion. He is munching Paan while on duty, and the spectator can immediately notice that the Paan is causing his mouth to become red in this shot. The movie is an example of the stereotypical mindset of the ‘social elites’, which holds that while in authoritative positions, Dalits would only abuse their position and, in the end, are “meritless.” At another scenario, when SP Amit Kumar is making his address to the subordinate authorities, Mangniram approached him and stated, “Backward jaat se hai, Isliye aaj aisa haal hai hamra” (I am from backward caste this is why our situation is like this).
The filmmakers’ clichéd conceptions, which unavoidably affirmed the Brahmanical worldview and identity against Dalits, formed the gaze of looking at a Dalit character Mangniram. Even Mangniram’s name is positioned according to the docile representation of a Dalit character. The character’s name is Mangniram, and when we examine into the name, we can discover that ‘Mangni is a very frequent word in Bihar that means ‘free,’ and it also symbolises for engagement. In contrast to his name, the major protagonist of the film’s name is neutral in caste. Similarly, Amit Kumar of Gangaajal, the film Article 15 centred on the caste problem, kept the protagonist’s surname Ayan Ranjan as caste neutral.
Moreover, while discussing the nexus via which he received the job, the film made it absolutely clear about Mangniram mercilessness. Here, the scene fails to acknowledge the struggle of low caste employees (Mangniram) to obtain employment through education and portrays them as an entity that cannot obtain employment without assistance or bribe to fellow members of their caste. As a result, film shows about Dalits that anyone who entered the service should be viewed as ‘having no merit.’
Overall, “Gangaajal” places Dalits in a narrow context and portrays them as beings who are incapable of merit. The movie’s sequence in which Mangniram is shown not only paints him as unworthy but also sends viewers a typically false message about his caste location.
Vikash Kumar, PhD, Candidate, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
