From Representation to Critical Presence:Artists and Anti-Caste Expressions in South India

Abstract

This paper studies the difference between representational discourse and critical presence foregrounding Dalit presence in Indian cinema. While representational questions are significant to the study of cinema, the same discourse is caught up in essentialization, stereotypes and marginality. In this context, how do we read the characters who do not fit into the previous constructions of Dalit identity in Indian cinema? Or how do we read artists and technicians in film industry who are away from the discourse on Dalit identity but who embody the resistant social language through their actions? Thus, the question of Dalit representation/presence should be read not just through the unilinear narratives of oppression and resistance, but also through the heterogeneous presence of complex human beings and their emancipatory presence. They may attempt to move beyond one’s oppressed location, however impossible it may be, through their life and work. Then, the focus only on the questions of onscreen representation foregrounding invisibility, marginality, and absence will not suffice to understand the discourse on Dalit representation in India, especially when Dalits are making significant interventions in Indian cinema. Keeping this in mind, this paper attempts to study the idea of critical presence in opposition to representational realm by examining the presence of select artists from oppressed communities, in Indian cinema, particularly Malayalam and Tamil film industries.