https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.061
Untouchable Waters: Filming Caste through Water in Water, Sairat, and Pariyerum Perumal
SWATI NARAYAN
PhD Scholar
Department of English
University of Delhi
Abstract: Indian cinema has been criticised for its erasure of caste from mainstream narratives. The absence of caste from the big screen is seen as indicative of a larger problem, where Indian cinema has consciously operated to sell the myth of a casteless society. However, it has been overlooked that caste being integral to Indian society remains enmeshed within the margins of filmic fabrics themselves. This creates the problem of perpetuating casteist stereotypes by normalising markers such as dark skin colour, food and Dalit lifeworld. One of the markers that reveal the apartheid of caste is the denial of water to the Dalits. Through the politics of water, cinema often signifies the “lower-caste” status of a person. Thus, instead of explicitly mentioning the caste, the caste identity is revealed through a glass of water. Historically, the Mahad Satyagraha in 1927 under Dr B.R. Ambedkar, considered as a turning point, where Dalits contested the injustices and asserted their right to access water from Chavdar Lake. This event highlighted the deep-seated nexus between water, caste hierarchy and fundamental human rights. Films centered on caste have reimagined and renegotiated the politics of water with respect to Dalit identity. The present paper, through analysis of Deepa Mehta’s Water, Nagraj Manjule’s Sairat and Mari Selvaraj’s film Pariyerum Perumal, interrogates water as a marker of caste identity and as a site of resistance and assertion of Dalit identity in cinema.
Keywords: Water, Cinema, Purity, Pollution, Untouchability, Dalits, Caste, Resistance
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