Representation of Dalits in Hindi Cinema After Liberalization

Abstract

This article delineates the transition of the representation of Dalits in Hindi cinema. For that purpose, the article categorizes Hindi cinema into two phases—first, the pre-liberalization phase, and the second, is the post-liberalization phase for the understanding of—why Dalits are treated as ‘Others’. The question of Dalit is fixed in the imaginaries of upper-caste as a matter of consumption. In the pre-1991 era, Dalit’s were represented as poor, wretched, non-heroic, and absolutely clientele characters. In the post-1991 scenario, Dalits came up as educated, skilled, competent and confident in the modern institutional setup, but Hindi Cinema did not present Dalits as protagonists. The continuous clientele depiction of Dalit characters in Hindi Cinema aggravates upper-caste prejudices against Dalits. The article argues that there is an ‘Absence of Presence’ of Dalit experiences beyond upper-caste imaginaries, and also, there is a complete exclusion of ‘New Dalit Middle Class’ from the popular cinema narratives. A commoner troupe is used to represent the Dalit and it further extends the question of ‘Real’ and ‘Reel’ representation. Thus, this article tries to investigate the above-mentioned questions in the broad context of post-liberal Hindi cinema and flag some theoretical issues emerging from this engagement.