Reflecting Caste Shadows ft. Homebound

Abhinav (Smilo) presenting some scenes of Homebound. Picture credit: Inika Bhattacharyya

This session of Chaar Kadam with Smilo featured Homebound by Neeraj Ghaywan and was an attempt to explore the caste based discrimination at grassroot level. It started with the screening of some specific scenes of the film and was followed by a presentation by Abhinav (Smilo) which sought to bring an overview of the story and the intricate role of caste identities in the lives of its characters. In his remarks he touched upon rigid stratification of the Indian society at the level of education and jobs.

After this, a thematic discussion took place among the participants, which addressed caste identity as a hindrance in the socio-economic development of subaltern communities of India. An hour long discussion came up with some crucial questions like, as stated by Kumar, are we really willing to get rid of the caste system, or do we, in fact, intend to invest into the political and social upliftment of the historically marginalised groups? Kumar argued that there is a need to reinvestigate the efficiency of our tools meant to eradicate the caste based discrimination; and stressed upon the creation of new institutions in case others are failing to provide social justice. Apart from this, Inika asserted that we need, first of all, to acknowledge the wrongs perpetrated against certain groups for ages. Furthermore, she emphasised that many a times talent and hard work get undermined with a tag of 'quota'; and added that there is a need to develop lenses in this regard.

The session was concluded with Sunny's opinion that some actionable pragmatic decisions should come out of these sessions, otherwise there is no point in conducting such discussions and debates.