Resisting colonial master-narratives of the ‘hereditary criminal’: Self-representation by the Chhara Community in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Abstract

Within public discourse regarding the Denotified Communities of India, the stigma of ‘hereditary criminals’(G.N.Devy) continues to haunt the communities. This results in a situation where entire communities live with contested identities. This research utilises a cultural studies approach to certain select self-produced cultural texts of the Chhara community in Ahmedabad Gujarat, to arrive at an understanding of their self-representation. This will be further triangulated with the oral histories collected as primary data in this research. The Chhara Peoples are known for their skills in performance and cinema, and they also negotiate with multiple marginalities everyday. Their collective social action to challenge dominant narratives about their identity in the public sphere, for the last two and half decades, has resulted in them embodying a significant shift in public perception. This paper will discursively engage with the questions of self-determination, and challenges of belonging to communities defined by intersectional marginality. For this study we are looking at select mediated texts and our primary data coming from the community. This paper will utilise these narratives to theorise the role of self-representation in enabling social change that empowers the community. The power of storytelling and performative articulation by the Chhara Peoples in empowering voice-to-action by marginal actors for their self-representation will be engaged with at length in this paper.