Film and Caste Anxieties in Early Twentieth-Century India

Film was one of the new technological inventions of the 'long nineteenth century' that often instilled a fear of loss of the existing way of life and of disturbing existing social structures. In India, this manifested in a variety of ways, such as through the censorship of films by the government, but also by social codes which created major barriers for many to work in the film industry. In this article, I discuss film and its negotiations with caste in the twentieth century through close reading of the Indian Cinematograph Committee Report, film magazines, advertisements, audience responses and the speeches of nationalist leaders. I argue that rather than democratising desire by producing the universally desirable object of the star body, popular films in India produced desire that conformed to existing caste structures. The author also thanks the anonymous reviewers and the editor of the journal for their suggestions.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Ravi S. Vasudevan, 'Film Studies, New Cultural History and Experience of Modernity', Economic & Political Weekly 30, no. 44 (1995): 2809–14.2. Satish Deshpande, 'Caste and Castelessness: Towards a Biography of the "General Category"', Economic & Political Weekly 48, no. 15 (2013): 32–9.3. In the varna system, the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras are called the Savarnas, while the Dalits and Adivasis who are not a part of the varna system are called Avarnas. In this paper, I use Savarnas to refer to the upper castes.4. Dyer, discussing Marilyn Monroe and sexuality, describes the film star as a universally desired body: Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society (London: Routledge, 2004): 40. In the Indian context, where desire was always policed by caste and class structures, I describe the production of a 'universally' desirable object as democratisation of desire.5. Manishita Dass, Outside the Lettered City: Cinema, Modernity, and the Public Sphere in Late Colonial India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).6. Neepa Majumdar, Wanted Cultured Ladies Only! Female Stardom and Cinema in India, 1930s–1950s (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010).7. M.S.S. Pandian, 'Tamil Cultural Elites and Cinema: Outline of an Argument', Economic & Political Weekly 31, no. 15 (1996): 950–55.8. Suraj Yengde, 'Dalit Cinema', South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 41, no. 3 (2018): 503–18.9. B.R. Ambedkar, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. 1 (New Delhi: Ambedkar Foundation, 2014): 87–88.10. Ibid.11. Yengde, 'Dalit Cinema'.12. Sangita Gopal, Conjugations: Marriage and Form in New Bollywood Cinema (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2011): 25–6.13. Akshaya Kumar, 'Re-Visioning Caste in Indian Cinema', Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 104, no. 4 (2021): 362–91.14. Vidushi, 'Cinematic Narrative: The Construction of Dalit Identity in Bollywood', in Media, Margins and Popular Culture, ed. Einar Thorsen et al. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015): 123–35.15. Megha Anwer and Anupama Arora, 'Love, Interrupted: Caste and Couple-Formation in New Bollywood', Quarterly Review of Film and Video 39, no. 3 (2022): 615–43.16. Pallavi Rao, 'Soch aur Shauch: Reading Brahminism and Patriarchy in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha', Studies in South Asian Film & Media 9, no. 2 (2019): 79–96.17. Debashree Mukherjee, Bombay Hustle (New York: Columbia University Press, 2020).18. Mukherjee, Bombay Hustle, 2.19. Filmindia, May 1940: 9.20. Filmindia, February 1940: 31–3.21. Broadly, one who can attain moksha, liberation.22. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 32 (New Delhi: The Publications Division, 1969): 199.23. Shyam Benegal, 'Secularism and Popular Indian Cinema', in The Crisis of Secularism in India, ed. Anuradha Dingwaney Needham and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007): 225–38.24. Mukherjee, Bombay Hustle, 256.25. Filmindia, August 1946: 1.26. Ibid.27. Benegal, 'Secularism', 225.28. K. Sivathamby, The Tamil Film as a Medium of Political Communication (Jaffna: New Century Book House, 1981).29. S.V. Srinivas, 'Is There a Public in the Cinema Hall?', Framework 42 (2000), accessed September 27, 2022, http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/32cb69_95584ff57df547febaf04c3e0bafa3fc.pdf.30. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography (Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House, 2008): 114. Gandhi does not mention the name of the river, though it is clear he is referring to the Godavari.31. Mukherjee, Bombay Hustle.32. Reel and Slide Magazine, May 5, 1919: 12.33. Ibid.34. Ibid.35. Modern Screen, March 14, 1941: 52.36. Epes Winthrop Sargent, Technique of the Photoplay (New York: The Moving Picture World, 1916): 261.37. The Cinema, June 1932: 25.38. Jenny Rowena, 'Locating PK Rosy: Can a Dalit Woman Play a Nair Role in Malayalam Cinema Today?', Round Table India (2013), accessed September 27, 2022, https://www.roundtableindia.co.in/locating-p-k-rosy-can-a-dalit-woman-play-a-nair-role-in-malayalam-cinema-today/.39. Ibid.40. Ibid.41. Sabu was an early film hero. He was born in India but worked in international productions and moved eventually to America.42. Photoplay, January 1939: 24.43. Indian Cinematograph Committee Evidence, Vol. 3 (Calcutta: Government of India Central Publication Branch, 1928): 98.44. The Cinema, April 1932; 11.45. Sarah Rahman Niazi, 'White Skin/Brown Masks: The Case of "White" Actresses from Silent to Early Sound Period in Bombay', Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research 10, no. 3 (2019): 332–52.46. Talk a Tone, December 1939: 5.47. Indian Cinematograph Committee Evidence, Vol. 2 (Calcutta: Government of India Central Publication Branch, 1928): 9.48. The Modern Theatre, May 25, 1940: 75.49. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 40 (New Delhi: The Publications Division, 1970): 125–26.50. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 33 (New Delhi: The Publications Division, 1969): 184–85.51. Filmindia, January 1940: 18.52. Ibid.53. Filmindia, May 1948: 24.54. Filmindia, November 1940: 30.55. Majumdar, Wanted Cultured Ladies Only!56. Talk a Tone, July 1943: 14.57. Talk a Tone, August 1945: 21.58. Kumar, 'Re-Visioning Caste', 364.59. Cynthia Baron, 'Capturing Natural Behavior on Film?', Theatre Annual 59 (2006): 87–103.60. Dyer, Heavenly Bodies, 40.61. Filmindia, June 1939: 41.62. Filmindia, July 1942: 40.63. Filmindia, July 1942: 41.64. Street and Smith's Pictureplay XLI (December 1934): 12.65. Picture Post, November 1943: n.d.66. The Cinema, April 1932: 17.67. Filmindia, November 1938: 18.68. Filmindia, October 1930: 15.69. Filmindia, December 1940: 13.70. Filmindia, April 1945: 22.71. Filmindia, January 1938: 14.72. Filmindia, January 1948: 21.73. Filmindia, June 1939: 41

Ancient history · Caste · Geography · Political science · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Law · South Asian Cinema and Culture

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