Caste and Popular Culture

As rightly pointed out by Holt N. Parker- “A precise definition of popular culture is elusive perhaps delusive.” An important question thus to begin with is What is Popular Culture? Should we look at it as separate from the ‘culture of learned’ ( Johann Gottfried Herder), or do we look at it as what Tony Bennet would call a “melting pot of confused and contradictory meanings capable of misdirecting inquiry up any number of theoretical blind alleys." In this section we try to explore popular culture as a form of mass mediated cultural and art forms in India. It also explores other arenas which constitute an important site for understanding popular culture for instance university spaces. When we talk about mass mediated forms of popular culture we tend to ignore the caste-based cultural forms. The articles in this section critically deciphers this aspect. Scholars have argued that the dominant forms of art have marginalised the caste-based cultural practices and instead focussed on showing a more homogenous culture through aspects like Nationalism. Another thing that needs our attention is how cultural performances becomes a site of popular engagement attracting a lot of people towards it, bringing into sharp focus the social, material and political conditions. Read the following section to delve deeper into the various aspects of Popular Culture.

It may appear to be the case for many that music itself is bereft of any caste markers as it is a sound technically exclusive to none. However, historically it has been the case that we often associate classical music and dance with the upper castes, and folk music with the lower castes. The fact that certain lyrics, sounds, instruments have been historically defined and delineated for Dalit musicians, is oftern overlooked. As for an example, whether it is forms of folk music in Punjab or Tamil Nadu’s Parai Attam—playing of the Parai drum, which is viewed as analogous to the Paraiyar Dalit caste. We see an emergence of the genre of Dalit or Bahujan or Ambedkarite music where musicians sing about the struggles and discrimintation based on caste. Musical genres like pop and hip-hop that have been embraced by young Dalit musicians. Dalit musicians often sing of the legendary city of “Begampura” so mentioned by Guru Ravidas, where there is no sorrow, no hierarchies, where freedom is unchallenged and all are equal, bound in a common fraternity.

The question of caste in the context of news and digital media requires us to look at representation both in terms of inclusion in the creative space, as well as in terms of bringing the voices of the marginalised, to the fore. In late 1998, a dalit organisation presented a memorandum to the Press Council of India. The memorandum was titled “End Apartheid in Indian media–Democratise Nation’s Opinion” and called for the creation of a national commission for democracy in the Indian media. The reason for lack of participation and thus representation of the marginalised castes in news media is manifold: one of the biggest reasons is that the stakeholders involved are often private players who decide the content as well as the creator of the content based on their capital gains. The “diversity model” has never been actualised in mainstream media because of a structural necessity to create news purely for profit. The economic and social underpinnings have reflected in the fact that people from marginalised backgrounds were neither found within the newsroom nor in the content. However, the second decade of 2000s brought the expansion of social media as a space and opportunity for everyone with access to technology, to finally put forward their voice in their own words. After the advent of digital media, and especially after the proliferation of social media and content-sharing platforms, Dalit–Bahujan professionals and many amateur journalists started their own websites and video channels, and Dalit–Bahujan intellectuals have their footprints on social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Though over the past few years we have seen more representation and participation of people from marginalised caste communities, but that has also been laden with prejudice and bias. It is often seen that individuals from lower castes are caricatured on social media, and trolled due to their caste position. Thus, there is still a need to find ways to democratise social media and avoid the transference of upper caste suppression into this space.

We all know that cinema is a popular form of entertainment in every household. Be it the matinees of 90s or the Netflix of today, cinema has always been present with us, in our everyday lives. The important question now is that do we want to reduce cinema for mere entertainment purposes only or can it do more in terms of representation and reform? If so how? Cinema is rooted in a particular place and time. It is history and cultural specific. Therefore one needs to understand that cinema becomes a site of ‘production’ of identities and representations. Several studies have shown how Indian cinema has stereotypically represented Dalits. The darkening of faces of Savarna actors playing Dalit characters is one of the many stereotypes one finds in the Indian cinema especially bollywood. The recent controversy over Richa Chaddha playing the role of Madam(Mayawati) in Subhash Kapoor’s film ‘Madam Chief Minister’ brings forth the problematic approach of the Savarna actors. In an interview with Indian Express she had said: “ As far as who should play it (the role of madam), that’s a very convoluted question and comes from a place of extreme ignorance. It’s like when they say that only these people should play because it’s their lived experiences. As an actor, that doesn’t make sense to me because then what are we going to do about it?” She further argued that it all depended on the process of casting and if she ever produced a movie, she would caste somebody with lived experience. This clearly brings to light the problems with systemic processes like casting alongwith the saviour complex and tokenism of progressive savarna actors, when they try to deflate the question of representation into the one about the profession of actors. This comparison is foregrounded on a very problematic comparison as it fails to accept the unequal grounds on which the Indian society stands, which eventually renders their acts of progressiveness to mere tokenism. This expropriation of identity is crippling and silences the voices of the oppressed. As rightly pointed out by Fanon that if we don’t resist the silences it will produce, “individuals without anchor, without horizon, colourless, stateless, rootless - a race of angels". (Wretched of the Earth, p176). Read the following section on the question of representation vs presence and the role of Dalit-filmamkers in challenging the stereotypical regime of cinema.

How has popular literature dealt with the question of caste? Many scholars have argued that dalit-bahujan literature has been ignored by the dominant discourses.One needs to see the alternative vision embedded in literature coming from the margins. Merely rendering this literature as ‘polemical’ is yet another way of subjugation. The epistemic alternative and assertiveness emerging from the dalit literature also brings to light the heterogeneity of culture which has been shadowed by the dominant discourses of Nationalism, Democracy and Religion, producing a picture of homogenous India. With the introduction of Dalit-Bahujan writings, on the one hand one can see the assertiveness of their respective identity while on the other we can see a quest for Dalit Self. In the quest for self the literature from the margins engages with the creation of modern identity, and knowledge production in public sphere which has been dominated by the brahmanical discourses. In doing so there happens to be a constant engagement and questioning of their marginalised status. Alongwith offering an alternative to existing discourses, scholars from the marginalised sections must be able to contribute freely to other studies apart from the exclusionary studies only. This would definitely require grounding oneself in the theoretical debates alongwith their respective lived experiences. In this section we bring to you the evolution of Dalit-Bahujan literature as an alternative to discourses dominated by the Brahmanical forces.