Aastha - Week 11

Reflection Paper 9
Dalit Visibility on Screen 

One of the most thought provoking documentaries I’ve watched, which have left an imprint on my mind in some way of the other is “Ram ke Naam”. The same was shown to us in our first year of law school, and in all honesty I had perhaps never given that much thought to the majoritarian politics of our country, which also speaks about my own caste and class privileges. My perceptions and compression from when I watched ‘Ram ke Naam’ the and from watching ‘Reason’ now have changed quite a bit which is why I believe I was able to get a better grasp of the scenario and gravity surrounding these two documentaries, allowing me to understand even clearly the depiction of caste and religion based atrocities.
One thing that struck out the most has been involvement of the ‘Sanatan’ organisation owing to my personal experience with them and having seeing the hate politics they perpetuate under the garb of ‘lectures’ and ‘conferences’.  
Another aspect that is interesting within the realm of on screen depiction as well academia is the debate on savarnas in essence speaking on behalf of the classes they have oppressed, and while in academia I have seen instances of biased portrayals, I believe these documentaries come from a place of wanting to educate people but they are given perhaps less of lime light owing to the fact that people seldom wish to face the grim realities of their classes.   

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