Presenter
Bunkar Neeraj - Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United KingdomPanel
38 – Anti-caste Experiments in Indian Cinema: Figures, Aesthetics, and TechnologyAbstract
For ours is a battle, not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality” (Dr. Ambedkar,).[1] To start with Dr Ambedkar’s quote, I, in this paper, attempting to make a contribution to the anti-caste film theory to study cinema and to develop our (Ambedkarite) own ways to associate and contest with the cinematic image. And for this, one tool which I construct is ‘Ambedkarite gaze’. In this paper, I will discuss the importance of having the unique anti-caste approach to study the popular culture, particularly cinema. As we know that the Indian history including cinema widely dominated by the people of the oppressors caste while sidelining the contribution of the Bahujan samaj, it is the tendency to overpower, overrule the Indian psyche from the upper casteness which continues to determine all the sphere of India and Indian diaspora abroad.
