The other day, I was watching a documentary about casteism in India being aired on BBC. It was about how the Indian caste system meant that those in the upper caste wanted those lower in the caste system to remain poor so they could be powerful and how those lower in the chain of caste were trying to emerge out of this trap.
Unfortunately I could only watch the last 15-20 minutes of the documentary where-in it was shown how some of these down-trodden had taken up arms in Bihar; so had some of them in the upper castes to counter these forces. The documentary also featured the changing India, people in the lower caste moving to bigger cities to make a living, where the Caste line was a bit blurred if not erased, their struggle and their way of life.
The documentary was prepared by a team of foreigners, or so it was shown. At the end of the program, when the credits rolled they showed some 'behind the camera' scenes a-la Jackie Chan movie style - and that is what made me sit-up (what? not the documentary?): The Camera panned to show another cameraman who had accidently stepped into ankle deep mud, the kind the Swine love. A local offered a mug of water to him for cleansing, which he accepted with a dhanyavad (thank you). When he did not succeed in cleaning the mud completely with the one mug of water provided, someone from his crew said in the background, "Clean the whole thing, you are not coming with us in the car with that."
Unfortunately I could only watch the last 15-20 minutes of the documentary where-in it was shown how some of these down-trodden had taken up arms in Bihar; so had some of them in the upper castes to counter these forces. The documentary also featured the changing India, people in the lower caste moving to bigger cities to make a living, where the Caste line was a bit blurred if not erased, their struggle and their way of life.
The documentary was prepared by a team of foreigners, or so it was shown. At the end of the program, when the credits rolled they showed some 'behind the camera' scenes a-la Jackie Chan movie style - and that is what made me sit-up (what? not the documentary?): The Camera panned to show another cameraman who had accidently stepped into ankle deep mud, the kind the Swine love. A local offered a mug of water to him for cleansing, which he accepted with a dhanyavad (thank you). When he did not succeed in cleaning the mud completely with the one mug of water provided, someone from his crew said in the background, "Clean the whole thing, you are not coming with us in the car with that."
This small clip said much more than what the whole documentary would have: that someone would have to get into the mud to get the caste system in India abolished. That someone has to be us - the cameramen.
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