DOCUMENTARY REVIEW – INDIA UNTOUCHED: STORIES OF A PEOPLE APART

NAME – POORVA CHOPADE

ROLL NO.- 230415

SUBJECT – COUNTINUOUS ASSISMENT (1)

INTRODUCTION:

India Untouched: Stories of a People Apart is a 2007 documentary by Indian filmmaker Stalin K. The
film explores the discrimination and atrocities against Dalits and the practice of untouchability in
India. The documentary reflects on discrimination based on caste and gender, the concept of
untouchability, and the victimization of rape of lower caste women.

Throughout the ‘India untouched’ research documentary, one would wonder upon all sorts of
prejudice which exist in our country; this documentary reveals the paradox of Indian culture and its
people who constantly decline the existence of untouchability and prevalence of casteism and
imposition of stereotypes upon different strata of people. Confining the realities will not result in
development, instead, it will slow down the progressive development planned for our country. The
main theme of the ‘India Untouched’ documentary is untouchability, which is assumed to be
vanished by the movements and modernized legislation formed during the independence period, but
the reality is far from the utopian world of Mahatma Gandhi where Dalits are called harijans
(children of God) and given equal position and respect in the society.

1. The Bhangis – Lilaben and a child (deprived)

The documentary starts with children getting asked if they would enter the house of a Bhangi
women(Dalit) named LILABEN, they all answer in chorus saying NO, when asked for reason they said
they will (children) will get polluted by the Harijans if they do so. This tells about the practise of
telling children since small age about the concept of untouchability.
What do you mean by untouchability?

'Untouchability' according to the caste system means not touching the members of a particular caste,
denying access to resources and extreme form of discrimination is inflicted on the people of
untouchable castes. Untouchability is a form of social institution that legitimises and enforces
practices that are discriminatory, humiliating, exclusionary and exploitative against people belonging
to certain social groups.

A Bhangi child says ,that his friends from locality, never come inside his house rather they stand out.
When asked about untouchability he says that, he does not get the concept of untouchability.

2. Chief Priest – Batuprasad Sharma Shastri (1)

He calls himself a ‘Fundamentalist Hindu Brahmin’ who believes in Untouchability and also the LAWS
OF MANU , and justifies his acceptance of untouchability by holding the Vedas and Shastra
accountable for it.

a. Deprived of Normal Things

1. Madurai, Tamil Nadu – Parayars

The dalit people here are not allowed to wear slippers around upper caste’s land, the upper caste
justifies it by saying that every caste has its own rules which needs to be followed.
 2. Bhavnagar, Gujrat – Bhangis

The dalit peoples are not allowed to travel in the Chakkadas, as the other passengers won’t board if
they allow dalits to board on it. The upper caste states that if they travel with them the food that
they carry in the tiffin will get polluted.

3. Tirunaveli , Tamil Nadu

The lower castes here have to take off their footwear before entering the shops or villages of upper
caste , and if they don’t , they get beaten up.

4. Mehboobnagar , Andra Pradesh

Till the lower caste people are constructing the house they are allowed to enter it , but once the
house is built they are not allowed to enter , even for the job of painting the walls.

5. Jamui , Bihar – Mid Wife

They take care of the baby and their mother and even of the house work, but they still have to drink ,
eat outside the house. Even after being an important part of the family as they are the one taking
care of they baby, they are not even allowed to attend wedding of upper caste, when asked why , the
mid wife answers that she is musaharni (dalit) if she goes there the others(upper caste) will get
polluted by her.

6. Milk Cooperatives – Kheda, Gujrat

A Large quantity of milk goes for the milk cooperatives, but some milk is kept locally for the people
who don’t own a buffalo/cow. But the milk for this purpose comes from upper caste houses in Ardi
village for the Patels and Darbars. Milk from dalit household goes straight into the cans and is sent to
Amul Dairy , they don’t mind others having milk from anywhere but they (village people) only want
milk from higher caste.

This shows their mentality ,that the milk of the lower caste is also polluted like them or because of
them, and they only care about untouchability till it concerns them.

7. Tea Stall – Trichy, Tamilnadu

At the tea stall the upper caste get steel glasses for tea, and the lower caste get glass cups for tea,
they also have to wash their own cups every time. And the people told that “We have to use the
same cups every time, not only other cups.” If they ask for steel glasses, they are told that “if you
want to drink tea drink it otherwise go somewhere else.”

Discrimination at this level that they (upper caste) deny to drink tea from the same glasses as the
lower caste, the situation is really concerning.

8. Water wells – Ahmedabad, Gujrat

The lower caste , can’t draw water or pour water themselves from the wells , as the upper caste
believe that this will lead to the pollution of the well , indirectly pollution of the water in the well .
when they (upper caste) were told that they could get arrested for they , they said that, this is not an
offence so why should they get punished.

9. Floor

The lower castes in some places are only allowed to sit on the floor . Evan the Manager of the
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is a harijan and he won’t sit on the floor even if he is offered a
chair. If they don’t follow this , they might get shot. They can’t sit on cot even in their home in the
presence of the upper caste.

10. Respect by name.

Even the child of the upper caste needs to be called by respect by , the child has to addressed in
plural with suffix like Sinh(lion), Bapu (father), ji .

11. Fear and voilence

The lower castes are threatened with their lives, if they don’t follow the rules. For example , breaking
their roofs by throwing bricks , logs and bottles , etc.

Police are also with the upper castes. They ask them (upper castes) for advice and permission

b. Job based on
CASTE

1. Municipal Corporation workers

The sweepers in Patiala , Punjab who were valmikis (Dalits) ,were asked if they know anyone who
does sweeping and is not from the same caste(Valmiki) and they answered that no, atleast not in
their corporation .

2. Dead bodies

In Jhaja , Bihar, Dom(Dalits) are the one who dispose the dead bodies on railway tracts , which open
breaks into small pieces due to the high speed of trains , they gather the pieces and take photos of it
and then send it for a post mortem. They also pick up rotten pieces of humans , cows, dogs, cats.
They are not even employed by railways. They feel so bad when they do all these work which other
consider disgusting and still can’t find the respect they deserve from the society.
 3. A Saint

When asked about presence of Untouchability due to caste system he said that , yeah it should , that
is the tradition. Later he was asked about the consequences if this tradition is not followed and he
said that Godhra Massacre was one of the consequences.

This tells about how they can connect any information to prove their point without even thinking
once about the point they are putting forward.

He further justifies the concept of job according to caste by saying, “ A tradition that goes on for
generations gets into the blood. For eg. You don’t need to teach a fish to swim. Similarly, you see that
a barber’s child has an in-built art to cut hair.”

4. Chief Priest – Batuprasad Sharma Shastri (2)

He also preaches the same idea of job based on caste . he says that “If I insist on doing the piolet’s
job and force my way in the cockpit, won’t you SHOOT me down? I don’t have the right to fly an
aeroplane, similarly a Shudra has NO RIGHTS .”

Further when he was contradicted by saying that , there are many jobs which we can educate
ourselves to do , he says “ No ,no , no , why did you get the birth of a shudra?why did you get the
birth of a woman? Why do you have black skin or white skin? All these are the results of our many
births.”
 5. Leather work – Jalandhar, Punjab

The brahmins come and check the raw skin with blood on it by touching and smelling it , and during
that that the workers told that they don’t see any caste hierarchy because it involves money. But at
the filthiest part of leather processing only Chamar, Majbi, Valmiki (Dalits) labourers are found.

There are some other caste(comparatively upper caste) people as workers but only in marketing or
manufacturing part , not in the processing part. All this tells about the mindset of people that the
filthiest job is not theirs to do, rather the lower caste are for that work only, to do the jobs which are
considered as disgusting.

c. School Discrimination

1. Girls from school

The girls are told to do chores of school such as cleaning the whole ground,utensils, toilets , and also
make to make tea just because they are of lower caste. The student who are of other castes do not,
must do these things. And they must do these chores daily and if they do not, they get beaten.

2. Class promotion

Students of lower caste get denied of the right to get promoted to the next class even if they pass
the exam, because according to the headmaster they are stupid.

3. School Lunch

The bangi boy from before shares that he never goes for scholl meals(lunch provided by the
school),as the other caste kids get polluted by him. He has to sit apart and he feels ashamed because
of it , so he has stopped going the meal at school.

4. Rawat Teacher
In a village , some students who are ravidas(Dalits) are made to sit back in the class, and the Rajput
(upper caste) teacher prefers children who are rawat . When the teacher got questioned he claimed
that the students were lying.

5. Stopped school

A student because he was of lower caste was made to clean hostel toilets , boys toilets, girls toilets
and he felt so bad about it , so ashamed of it that he has to clean the washroom which him
classmates are using , that he stopped going to school . his mother is worried because of it , she
states that she worked so hard to teach his child so that he doesn’t have to go through the things she
went through but the society is making his son do the same things due to their caste.

6. Chief Priest- Batuprasad Sharma Shastri (3)

A shudra will always be a shudra, he cannot change it. He cannot be educated; He has no rights. He
does not have it in him to study or to be wise. This tells a lot about the mindset of people, how they
feel that a lower caste should not have education because according to them they do not have brain
or they cannot.

d. Temple and Gurudwara visit

1. Drum beating

In some places, the lower castes are not permitted for temple visiting, they are only there for playing
drums. for giving offering as well, they can’t do it directly, they have to give offerings from outside.
When asked about this situation from the upper caste they said that , they (lower castes) follow the
restrictions themselves , and they(upper castes) don’t say anything.

2. Good to follow rules – Kalyanpur, Gujrat

During the interaction, Shanvas (Dalits) told that they do pray but from a distance and they like to
maintain the boundary , and they accept the rules of untouchability without any expression of
discomfort on their face. They believe that they are born into lower caste families and so they should
follow the rules for the betterment of the society.

3. Swaminarayan Temple
While talking with a Upper Caste person , he was asked if harijan enters this temple , he answed that
NO , if the harijans were to enter the temples wouldn’t that be the end of untouchbility. They(lower
caste) won’t come in ,even if they were asked to .

4. Nodh Singh Gurudwara

Here the jats treat Mazabhi sikhs as untouchable during distribution of Prasadam . the Jats are also
very violent towards them(mazabhi sikhs), they keep them separated and apart. Once when a
mazabhi sikh tries to take prasadam from the door of Jats , they cracked his head for it with iron
laddle.

5. Different gurudwaras

According to the caste there are different gurudwaras , for Valmiki sikh , Ramgarhia sikh , Chumba
sikh , Mazhabi sikh . everyone has different gurudwaras.

6. Chief Priest – Batuprasad Sharma Shastri (3)

He was asked what would he choose between the Vedas and the constitution of India. He said that
he will not choose the Indian constitution as he doesn’t consider it as his constitution as India’s
constitution is ANTI-SHASHTRA. He further said that our Vedas and Shastras are orders, obey it, you
have no right to judge it. “Don’t use your Logic, only the words of our ancestors are right!”

7. Dr. Yadulal – Delhi

He is a Scheduled caste and a consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Safdarjung hospital , yet he says
that he does not get the Psychological recognition from his colleagues, juniors or seniors. He said
that his presence is not being recognised at conscious and even sub-conscious level. He termed this
discrimination as Hi-tech discrimination.

8. Kusum Yudulal

She is a lecturer at Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit Vidhyapeeth. She said that the upper castes don’t
want to see them (SCs) as equal to them. In their eyes a dalit cannot be wise or intelligent. She told
how it was more difficult for her as she was already dalit and women on top of that , so she said that
she was “Double Dalit.”
Conclusion:

The atrocities done by the upper caste people on lower caste people reflects the sense of pride they
take in by doing discrimination based on caste.

Article 17 of the constitution talks about abolition of untouchability. It states that untouchability is
abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden, the enforcement of any disability arising out of
Untouchability shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law, but still the meaning of certain
terms is not defined in the constitution and even article 35 gave the parliament the power to make
penal laws for the offences introduced under article 17. The awareness of legislation can prevent
untouchability but the strict notion of following the rules of their caste which are discriminatory in
nature can dismantle the existence of such laws. After many legislations, the caste system still exists
as a plague in the society and it has become an influential factor in fulfilling the need of political
leaders.

The important lesson that I learned from the documentary is that the people in power are solely
responsible for the oppression of lower caste people as they anticipate that the emancipation of
lower caste will result in loss of power and privilege on which they endure. The caste-based
discrimination also hampers the right to equality of lower caste people, it prevents them from
enjoying equal status in the society and I believe that the true essence of democracy can be felt only
when there is no discrimination.