In August 2012, Outlook magazine came up with an issue that supposedly did some survey and found that Dr. Ambedkar is the greatest Indian after Gandhi. If I remember it right, that particular issue was put together by S Anand.
The cover story was written by Vinod Mehta and some of the other stories were written by Uttam Sengupta, Sudheendra Kulkarni and S Anand himself. There were also pieces by Gail Omvedt and Anand Teltumde.
The issue was a super hit among Dalits and other Bahujans.
Though there was some discomfort in leaving Gandhi out of the race, everyone still went berserk praising the issue and probably bought the magazine in large numbers too.
We are exactly 9 years from then, and Outlook's current issue has been trying to find the best 50 Dalits who have been remaking India. Suraj Yengde has written the cover story and magazine has been using his face to aggressively push the sales.
But I don't think most Dalits or other Bahujans are taking the magazine or this particular issue seriously.
For whatever its worth, the mic has been technically passed as far as these specific issues are concerned.
Because Outlook doesn't need S Anand to put together these 'special issues' anymore. They can now take the help of Suraj Yengde and that should ideally get them more acceptable. But amusingly, that isn't the case. Most Bahujans seem to be mocking the theatrics of this issue.
The credibility they had 10 years back is almost lost today.
So it is naturally tempting to wonder what changed things so much in this decade.
The primary reason is the growth of Round Table India (RTI) in the last 10 years and how it has revolutionized Bahujan writing in English.
Any Bahujan who has even had a brief exposure to RTI would quickly realize what writing really matters to them and what is just superficial commodification of their identities.
If Bahujans want to read something about themselves in English, they don't have to wait for the special issues of Outlook or any other magazine. They can just go to RTI and read from its vast resources.
Today, any English media space that intends to write something credible on the Indian caste society can do so by only mimicking or borrowing the extensive articulation that the writers of RTI have created.
This they continue to do without crediting or acknowledging RTI or its writers. But in those rare occasions when they forget to borrow from RTI, they end up sounding embarrassingly empty like these listicles.
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One thing that struck me about Neeraj Ghaywan's short 'Geeli Pucchi' from the Netflix anthology 'Ajeeb Daastaan' is that it is probably one of those rare films that problematizes the role of the Brahmin woman in the caste structure.
The last decade might have seen several films that engage with the subject of caste from an anti-caste perspective. But most of these films locate their central conflict between an OBC and SC caste.
And whenever some Brahmin-Savarna filmmaker is involved, a Brahmin savior character is also thrown into the mix.
One thing I realized during my three weeks long covid quarantine is that Hollywood popular cinema can make for a great watch during this period. When the quarantine started, I was being a little too ambitious and started with Krzysztof Kieslowski's 'Deklog'.
But very soon, I realized that even if one's symptoms are only mild, watching serious cinema can be very exhausting and draining.
So I quickly abandoned all sorts of serious films that demanded a lot of emotional or mental investment and went with simple Hollywood classics.
And I must say they made my quarantine quite enjoyable.
I started with Steven Spielberg's 'Catch Me If You Can' (2002). The film had the right amount of thrills and also felt like a fuzzy Christmas movie at the same time.
I think there were exactly two or at best three points in 'Karnan' that put me off. But when I looked beyond some of those cinematic compromises, I think I loved 'Karnan'.
What an arousing and moving film on the human spirit and the extent it is willing to go to fight for its dignity.
'Karnan' is a story of a community's resistance.
That would fiercely guard its dignity and is willing to confront even the mighty power of caste structure and state machinery. It is unfortunate that some people intend to interpret the story of a community's resistance into a superhero's battle.