TMR 2022: Why do upper castes narrate most of our stories?

Have regional languages been abandoned? Why do the upper castes narrate most of our stories? Who chronicles the Northeast? Are narratives on marginalised communities authentic? Is the film industry any different from the news media?

These were some of the themes of “Who tells our Stories”, a panel discussion held at The Media Rumble 2022, which took place in Delhi on October 14 and 15. Moderated by Avani Dias, a Sri Lankan Australian journalist, the panel comprised Animesh Bordoloi, a lecturer at the OP Jindal Global University, prominent poet-novelist Jerry Pinto, documentary filmmaker Somnath Waghmare, and author and film critic Sucharita Tyagi.

Discussing the dominance of the upper castes in the media, Jerry said, “The problem with storytelling is that it is in a line – anglophone, and upper caste and upper class. These are the people who have access to do everything.” Talking about regional languages, he said, “You have cheated the language as if it is the taxi and you treat English as if it is your home car. So you work on your home car but ignore the taxi and you use the taxi when you need it and abandon it when you don’t.”

Talking about the authenticity of narratives on marginalised communities offered by the film industry, Sucharita said, “If a person who is telling the story of someone's lived experience they do not have one, it's on them to have a writing team that includes people who have that lived experience…a lot of films fall into the trap of wanting to say the right thing but being unable to do it because they have not been able to get the right people to imbibe their writing but lived experience that film is also critiquing.”

Somnath pointed to a “pattern of criminalisation of Dalits”. “This is for everyone; non-Dalit cultural elites, who are using Dalit Adivasi as the data and making their fellowship grants and careers. So stop this, OK? They are doing this because they have the historical privilege.”

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Text by Hardik Dogra.