ABSTRACT
The 2011 Bollywood film Aarakshan (Reservation) starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, which tackles the issue of caste, untouchability and reservations in higher education, attracted controversy from various sections of the Indian community: civic authorities in Bhopal bulldozed the set; it was banned in Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh before its theatrical release; and caste groups criticized ‘certain scenes in which characters say untouchables … are dirty and fit to polish the shoes of their social betters’ (Banerji 2011). P.L. Punia, Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, stated that ‘while the overall theme of the film is not objectionable, it is loaded with anti-Dalit and antireservation dialogues … Aarakshan has failed. It is likely to create communal tension’ (ibid.). The film’s engagement with the question of caste is commendable because this is a rarity in Indian popular cinema, but the film, while underscoring the inequalities and exploitation of the caste system, does not seek to abolish it. Rather it deals with caste in the same way that the Hindu nationalist and centrist Congress Party have dealt with it. As Hugo Gorringe (2008: 130) points out, it both ‘critiqued the existing inequalities and sought, respectively, a homogenous nation of Hindus or a caste system purged of its iniquitous effects.’ I begin with Aarakshan and the controversy to underscore Rajadhyaksha and Willemen’s (1994: 10) point that ‘for millions of Indians, wherever they live, a major part of “India” derives from its movies,’ and Priya Kumar’s observation that ‘cinema is a crucial realm of representation and refraction around the issues of nationalism, religion and minoritarian identities’ (ibid.: 178).
