On Zero Discrimination Day, Cinemaazi recalls Bollywood ‘s celluloid statements on the significant social issue of discrimination.

On Zero Discrimination Day (1 March), Cinemaazi recalls Indian cinema‘s celluloid statements on the significant social issue of discrimination.  India is the most complex culture/society in the world, in terms of religion, language, community, caste and tribe. Caste is a unique institution of Indian subcontinent which has now become a medium to assert the identity. Bollywood films have, from time to time, raised issues related to caste in its products. Many mainstream films, and the small-budget, low-key ones have focused on this significant social issue. 

Some prominent films on the subject include, Chandidas (1934), Dharmatma (1935), Achhut Kanya (1936,)  Achhut (1940), Doosri Shadi (1947), Sujata (1959), Parakh (1960), Subarnarekha (1965), Bobby (1973), Ankur (1974), Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976), Ganga ki Saugandh (1978), Sadgati (1981), Aarohan (1982), Mandi (1983), Arpan (1983), Sautan (1983), Damul (1985), Chameli ki Shadi (1986),  Rudali (1993), Tarpan (1994),  Bandit Queen (1994), Mrityudand (1997), Shool (1999) and Fandry (2013). 

Till this day, Sujata enjoys the status of a classic both at national and international retrospectives of Bimal Roy’s films and of Indian films. Sujata is born into a Dalit family whose parents die in a cholera epidemic. She is brought up by a Brahmin overseer and his wife but she learns much later that she is adopted and belongs to the Dalit community. When she realises that something is wrong for her mother to repeatedly introduce her with, ‘she is like my daughter’, she creates a shell of self-imposed silence as expression of her feelings of betrayal by her foster-mother and also as her voice of rebellion.

The Dalits are not the sole subjects of oppression among the caste-ridden masses of India. The oppression cuts across the rural and the urban, language, education and social status. The women, who may or may not be Dalit, are equally or perhaps more oppressed and so are the children from the Dalit community. Till discrimination exists in our society, Bollywood shall, hopefully, continue to make fearless celluloid statements on this significant social issue.