Latest news with #caste
Free Malaysia Today
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Free Malaysia Today
Scorsese-backed Indian film packs emotional punch at Cannes
(L-R) Producer Karan Johar, actress Janhvi Kapoor, director and writer Neeraj Ghaywan, actor Vishal Jethwa and actor Ishaan Khatter. (AFP pic) CANNES : On paper Neeraj Ghaywan's 'Homebound' – which premiered Wednesday at the Cannes film festival – looks like a typical Bollywood tearjerker. Two best friends who grew up together in a poor village leave to take on the world, their friendship and mettle tested at every turn. But this is no average buddy movie. The moving epic set in northern India around pandemic lockdowns is so much more than that because one of the boys is a Muslim and the other a low-caste Hindu. Their unbreakable bond, forged in adversity, is the beating heart of the film, which so moved Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese that he got on board to help bring it to the world. There are millions of such friendships which cross religious and caste divides in India, its director told AFP, 'but it has never been shown' before on the big screen. 'Only a handful of films have ever featured Dalit (lower caste) stories and most of those were made by people from the privileged castes,' Ghaywan said. Ghaywan is that very rare beast in Bollywood – a Dalit director from the lowest rung in the rigid Hindu caste system. He believes he is the 'first acknowledged Dalit behind a camera in the history of Hindi cinema. That's a stunning disparity,' he told AFP. And one that means the stories of the quarter of India's 1.4 billion people who are tribals or come from castes once disparagingly known as 'untouchables', are not being seen. 'India and the world really needs to see their stories,' said Ghaywan, adding that with such a vast population 'it is understandable that they are often talked of as just statistics.' 'I myself come from a marginalised background. I am a Dalit. So there's a lot of me in the movie,' said Ghaywan, who lives near Mumbai but grew up in the south. It is also loosely inspired by a heartbreaking real-life tale of poor workers who set out on foot on an epic journey back to their village from the city during the Covid lockdowns. Ghaywan brought his two leading actors, Bollywood heartthrob Ishaan Khatter and rising star Vishal Jethwa, out to the villages to see the lives of India's poor from the inside. 'We did a long immersive exercise,' Ghaywan told AFP. 'We got to know people and ate in their homes. It was genuinely such a humbling experience.' Avoiding controversy Caste and religious discrimination are highly sensitive subjects in India and the country is currently on edge after four days of fighting with Muslim-majority Pakistan following a deadly terror attack in Indian-administered Kashmir last month. India's Hindu nationalist government has often been accused of stoking hatred of Muslims. Knowing he has to get past India's censors, Ghaywan insisted he has tried to avoid politics or inflaming tensions. Sandhya Suri's movie 'Santosh', which premiered at Cannes last year, still hasn't screened in India despite winning a heap of international awards. Santosh shone a light on sexism, religious discrimination and corruption in the Indian police as well as the treatment of lower caste people. 'I like to keep politics underneath the narrative, because if your politics supersedes the story it's just propaganda. Even good propaganda is propaganda. It's not cinema,' Ghaywan added. Emotion, however, holds no fear for Ghaywan. 'I embrace it. I make no apologies for it. We Indians are an emotional people and this is a story that brings up a lot of them,' he explained. Industry insiders have 'bawled and bawled' at private screenings of the film, he told AFP, with Scorsese saying that 'Neeraj has made a beautifully crafted film that's a significant contribution to Indian cinema.' He said he wasn't surprised that Cannes snapped it up for its secondary 'Certain Regard' selection after Ghaywan won two prizes there in 2015 with his debut film 'Masaan'. Flattered as he is, Ghaywan said that 'I did not make the movie for festivals' or arthouse audiences. 'The most important thing is that it is seen in India,' he told AFP. Ghaywan stressed that 'Homebound' is 'attacking no one', with its story even set 'in a fictional state'. India is very much in the spotlight at Cannes with Satyajit Ray's 'Days and Nights in the Forest' getting a gala screening after Hollywood director Wes Anderson helped pay for the restoration of the 1970 masterpiece.
CNN
17-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
India's caste system is controversial and discriminatory. So why is it being included in the next census?
For millions across India, a rigid caste system thousands of years old still dictates much of daily life – from social circles to dating pools to job opportunities and schooling. The Indian government has long insisted that the social hierarchy has no place in the world's most populous nation, which banned caste discrimination in 1950. So, it came as a surprise when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration announced that caste would be counted in the upcoming national census for the first time since 1931 – when India was still a British colony. Counting caste will 'ensure that our social fabric does not come under political pressure,' the government said in its April press release. 'This will ensure that society becomes stronger economically and socially, and the country's progress continues without hindrance.' The release didn't include any detail on how the caste data would be collected, or even when the census will take place (it has been repeatedly delayed from its original 2021 date). But the announcement has revived a longstanding debate about whether counting caste will uplift disadvantaged groups – or further entrench divisions. The proposal is so controversial because a caste census 'forces the state to confront structural inequalities that are often politically and socially inconvenient,' said Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India. The lack of caste data over the past century means 'we are effectively flying blind, designing policies in the dark while claiming to pursue social justice,' she added. 'So, the next census is going to be a historical census.' India's caste system has roots in Hindu scriptures, and historically sorted the population into a hierarchy that defined people's occupations, where they can live and who they can marry based on the family they're born into. Today, many non-Hindus in India, including Muslims, Christians, Jains and Buddhists, also identify with certain castes. There are several main castes, and thousands of sub-castes – from the Brahmins at the top, who were traditionally priests or scholars, to the Dalits, formerly known as the 'untouchables,' who were made to work as cleaners and waste pickers. For centuries, castes on the bottom rung – Dalits and marginalized indigenous Indians – were considered 'impure.' In some cases they were even barred from entering the homes or temples of the upper castes, and forced to eat and drink from separate utensils in shared spaces. India tried to wipe the slate clean after it won independence from Britain in 1947, introducing a flurry of changes in its new constitution. It set up specific categories of castes, used to establish affirmative action quotas and other benefits – eventually setting aside 50% of jobs in government and places at educational institutions for marginalized castes. It also abolished the concept of 'untouchability' and banned caste discrimination. The decision to stop counting caste in the census was another part of this mission. 'After independence, the Indian state consciously moved away from enumerating caste … in the census,' said Muttreja. 'They thought they should not highlight caste, and that in a democracy, it will automatically even out.' But that hasn't happened. Although the hard lines of caste division have softened over time, especially in urban areas, there are still major gaps in wealth, health and educational attainment between different castes, according to various studies. The most disadvantaged castes today have higher rates of illiteracy and malnutrition, and receive fewer social services such as maternal care and reproductive health, Muttreja added. Social segregation is also widespread; only 5% of marriages in India are inter-caste, according to the India Human Development Survey. Similar divides linger in friend groups, workplaces, and other social spaces. These persistent gaps have fueled rising demand for a caste census, with many arguing that data could be used to secure greater federal government aid and reallocate resources to the needy. In some states – such as Bihar, one of India's poorest states – local authorities have conducted their own surveys, prompting calls for Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to follow suit. Now, it appears, they will. Modi has long pushed back on attempts to define the population along traditional caste lines, previously declaring that the four 'biggest castes' were the poor, youth, women and farmers – and that uplifting them would aid the entire country's development. But rising discontent among underprivileged castes boosted opposition parties during the 2024 national election, which delivered a shock result: although Modi won a third term, the BJP failed to win a majority in parliament, diminishing their power. Modi's U-turn on the caste census, his rivals claim, is a political maneuver to shore up support in upcoming state elections, particularly in Bihar – a battleground state where the issue has been particularly sensitive. 'The timing is no coincidence,' wrote M. K. Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state and a longtime Modi critic, in a post on X. 'This sudden move reeks of political expediency.' Bihar's own caste survey in 2023 found there were far more people in marginalized castes than previously thought, sparking an ongoing legal battle to raise the affirmative action quotas. Several other states took their own surveys, which the federal government said in its statement were 'varied in transparency and intent, with some conducted purely from a political angle, creating doubts in society.' The main opposition Congress party celebrated the government's announcement, claiming Modi had bowed to their pressure. BJP leaders, meanwhile, say the opposition neglected to conduct any caste census during their years in power, and had now politicized the issue for their own gain. The previous Congress-led government did conduct a national caste survey in 2011, but the full results were never made public, and critics alleged the partial findings showed data anomalies and methodology issues. It was also separate from the national census conducted that same year, meaning the two sets of data can't be analyzed against each other. Though authorities haven't said when the new census will take place, they have enough time to refine the methodology and make sure key information is collected, said Sonalde Desai, demographer and Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Maryland College Park. After the census is complete, the next battle will begin: how to use that data to shape policy. Not all are in favor of the caste census. Opponents argue that the nation should be trying to move away from these labels instead of formalizing them. Some believe that instead of focusing on caste, government policies like affirmative action should be based on other criteria like socioeconomic class, said Desai, also a professor of applied economic research at the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi. She supports the caste census, but said opponents might view such a survey as regressive, instead of helping to create 'a society in which (Indians) transcend that destiny' defined by caste. There's another factor, too: if the census reveals that marginalized castes are bigger than previously thought, as was the case in Bihar, the government could increase how much affirmative action they receive, angering some traditionally privileged castes who already dislike the quota system. Over the years, anti-affirmative action protests have broken out, some turning deadly – with these groups accusing the government of reverse discrimination, echoing similar controversies in the United States about race-conscious college admissions and job hiring. These same groups are likely to decry the caste census, Muttreja said. Already, some opposition leaders are calling to remove the 50% cap on affirmative action quotas, and to implement affirmative action in other institutions like private companies and the judiciary – controversial proposals that have prompted online firestorms. But supporters of the caste census say it's long overdue. Both Muttreja and Desai told CNN they didn't believe such a survey would deepen divisions, saying caste discrimination is already such an evident, inescapable fact of life that simply asking the question won't cause harm. It might also show how the balance of power and privilege has shifted over the past century, said Desai. Since the 1931 census, some previously disadvantaged castes may have been buoyed by affirmative action and other measures – while other castes that once sat higher on the ladder may no longer be considered as privileged. This is why, she argues, India's government should use the data to perform a 're-ranking' – reorganizing which castes belong in which of the specific categories used to allocate resources and benefits. The census could clearly illustrate who needs what kind of help and how to best deliver it, instead of relying on outdated data, said Muttreja. It can reveal intersectional gaps; for instance, a woman in rural India may struggle far more than a man of the same caste, or a peer in an urban area. And it could show whether any castes have ballooned in size, demanding more funding than currently allocated. 'It can shape school funding, for instance, health outreach, employment schemes and more,' she said. It 'helps ensure that quotas reflect real disadvantage, not just historical precedent.' Once that data is out there, Muttreja believes, the government will be forced to act – it can't afford not to. And for those who still deny that caste discrimination remains rampant, or who argue that affirmative action is no longer necessary: 'This data will stare at people's faces.'
Bloomberg
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
India's Data-Driven Reckoning Over Caste
This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a categorically concise compendium of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. The last time India asked its citizens to self-identify by caste, the survey generated 4.6 million different categories in the millennia-old system of social stratification. It was likely the result of interchangeable names for the same castes in the country's vast array of languages, regions and subcultures. That 2011 data was deemed unusable — foiled by an open-ended question — in the epic quest for equality in the world's most populous nation. The last time useful numbers were produced was in 1931, in a census by British colonial authorities. That produced 4,000 answers.
Indian Express
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Opinion Counting caste in the census is first step towards building fraternity
The problem was never with recording castes. It was with whose caste got recorded and whose didn't. A Census that would enumerate caste is poised to change that. Independent India's Censuses counted caste, but only for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as if caste existed only at the lower strata of society. These two groups were invariably named and often shamed, their specific jatis and gotras publicised, while the Upper Castes enjoyed statistical evasion. The paradox of this injustice of selective counting goes even further. According to many scholars, Scheduled Tribes and Castes are not part of the Caste Hindu society. The SCs are considered Avarnas, not a part of the caste Hindu society. Originally, STs were deemed 'Backward Hindus' living in 'excluded or partially excluded' regions — a category referring to mostly indigenous groups who were not organised along Varna principles. The earlier Censuses were an attempt to record only the traditional Avarna groups while ignoring Jati Hindus. Basically, this means that the caste census was meant to study, understand and categorise the troublesome outside-groups so that they could be better managed. Even the colonial census did not count all castes — they left out many 'primitive tribes' and 'exterior castes', as K.S. Singh notes in his foreword to the 1931 report. The shift to an all-caste census attains a new meaning in this light: It is the first ever such exercise in the subcontinent, which would also register how the caste composition has been altered by partition and migration. The republic is belatedly recognising the fact that caste is more than a disabling disease, a slow-metamorphosing system that structures the entire society. A system must be understood as such, and in the entirety of interrelations between its constituent parts. Experience has also shown us something else: Comprehensive data on caste does not ignite riots or revolts. See Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana for evidence. At best, there has been tinkering with reservations in these cases, and a partially successful land reform in the case of Kerala in the 1960s. Political parties might promise big, but the best outcome of the all-caste census might be the process itself. Savarna castes have long enjoyed the peculiar luxury of not having to think of themselves as castes, a casteist exception that enabled their self-perception and public posturing as casteless. Their status was naturalised, their jatitva (casteness) unrecorded. The census, for the first time, will compel every jati to see itself as one jati among many. This enforced relational self-awareness may be uncomfortable, but it is also necessary. Moreover, caste is not just social; it is spatial as well. It tells us not only who someone is, but where they live, whom they live among, whom they avoid, and the distances between different castes. Geography and caste are entangled. The all-caste census will give us the first comprehensive cartography of caste in India — who is clustered where, which jatis cohabit, which ones don't. One thing that might make the all-caste census unique: Its timing. The timing of the government's announcement has been read in the context of the Pahalgam terror attack and the Bihar elections. We are talking about timing in the longue durée. India is facing what is termed as the '70-year itch'. For some strange reason, modern nations tend to face internal reckoning once they cross their seventies. One may invoke the cases of the Soviet Union, the USA, Mexico, and Israel here. In India, the contours of this diamond jubilee upheaval have become quite evident. There is a party in power mobilising to restructure it, move it away from its founding principles, and metaphorically throw it to an imagined glorious past. It is time to upgrade the idea of India, based on sociological reality rather than ideological tweaking. Modern India has been fixated on nation-building and state-building while discounting people-building. As Ambedkar feared, fraternity, especially across castes, is still largely missing, and remains the least remembered promise in the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. Recording caste irrespective of one's caste is the first step towards people-building in India.
