BY ALEX HO

In print | November 1, 2007

“How come you are making a film on us?” a Dalit woman asks. It is a natural question, but one that speaks volumes to how obvious, yet unacknowledged the problem of Untouchability remains in today’s India. On Sunday, Deshi, Swarthmore’s South Asian organization, and Swarthmore’s Amnesty International Chapter invited activist filmmaker Stalin K. to screen and talk about his latest documentary, “India Untouched.” Stalin hopes his film will increase awareness of the continuing discrimination against the Untouchables of the traditional Hindu caste system, known today as Dalits.

“India Untouched” is vast in scope, looking at how Untouchability has manifested itself in all different communities in India, from Hindu to Muslim to Christian, both impoverished and well-to-do. In every one of its countless anecdotes, the film makes a stinging case for the persistence of Dalit persecution. We meet a Dalit mason who is not allowed to step foot in the house he has completed. Later, we meet a Dalit physician, whose boss forces him to take commands from a junior colleague. A well-paid, educated Dalit, he says, “My existence is not being accepted both at the conscious and subconscious level.”

Much of India seems unable to face this reality. In the film, we see “Youth for Equality” protests against reservation programs that give Untouchables positions in government and academic institutions. We get a montage of passers-by, who tell Stalin, “There’s no Untouchability here.” or “It’s almost eradicated.” One woman’s response – “Many people discriminate based on caste, but I never do so” – shows us a complacent attitude may explain why the issue has gone unnoticed. “In America, if you’re a white male, you wouldn’t think there’s a problem,” Stalin K. said.

Stalin’s strategy is to give as much representation as possible to this untouched and unheard group. Although Stalin interacts with his camera’s subjects, he remains unseen, allowing his film to adopt the voice of the Dalits. “The fact that they are talking … is their resistance, and I feel that it needs to be legitimized,” Stalin said. One such voice is a Dalit woman, who was beaten and raped before a mob. She tells her story, unabashedly crying, and then calmly says she will take revenge on the man who raped her. Stalin said, “That’s as powerful as someone saying I’m going to start free elections.”

Stalin feels his film doesn’t have much marketability, especially with Western audiences. Stalin said television companies are much more interested in narrative-based documentaries that follow a single character. Instead, Stalin is mostly distributing his film himself, visiting various universities in the U.S. and in India where he has already sold over 500 copies. “The academic institution is a big circuit,” Stalin said. “NYU Law has already introduced this film as a course.” The film is also making its rounds in festivals, like the Berlin International Film Festival.

Far from just being a documentary filmmaker, Stalin K. works to democratize media, bringing media tools to marginalized communities. Stalin co-founded the Drishti Media Collective, whose many initiatives include giving “art fellowships to communities to come up with the rights-based public art,” starting university film clubs and running community radio. The organization also hires community members “as full-time employees of the organization.” Stalin said, “They are trained for over 18 months … taught camera, investigative journalism, writing, critical thinking, editing, human rights.”

“All activist filmmakers want their films to change the world, and I’m no different,” Stalin said. But he also impressed that the problem of how to stop discrimination against the Dalits was firstly an issue of denial that such discrimination even exists. Stalin said, “This film is essentially meant to make people accept that, yes, there is a problem and at the same time not giving any prescriptive solutions because I’m not authorized to give prescriptive solutions.”

Stalin makes it clear that prescribing a solution would be difficult as the caste system is so ingrained in Indian culture. As one man in the film observes, “Culture is a country’s main asset.” Still, the film’s extensive interactions with children, painful and enraging, makes a case for a solution in early education. We meet children, who reject water drawn from their best friend because he is Untouchable. “Who told you about Untouchability?” Stalin asks the kids. The response is “No one. We’ve known since we were small.”

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