http://blog.insightyv.com/?p=595
‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Caste’ *When children of the ‘upper’ caste drop out from school…* A guest post by* P.K. Ratheesh Kumar * Different from its conventional understanding, the term ‘dropout’ has acquired a different meaning in the popular discourse in Kerala. Unlike other states, on an average, more than 90% of the children complete their school education and the question of addressing the issue of dropout does not hold much policy significance in the state of Kerala. The term dropout is then generally used to denote the shifting of children from one school to another. “TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE CASTE”, a documentary directed by Soumya, a young filmmaker, exposes the dangerous dimension of a unique dropout episode from a pre-primary school in Malappuram, Kerala. By labeling the Uthalakkandi Anganvadi in Thrukalangod gram panjayat as “SC Anganvadi”, the caste Hindu parents withdraw their children from that nursery school. They grumble their children will become cultureless by mixing with Dalit kids who are also labeled as “unhygienic and less cultured—another video story on caste from the “god’s own country”. The movie captures this dreadful caste practice in the larger context of decentralization and developmental framework in Kerala, which is otherwise being celebrated as a ‘casteless” society in public discourse. “Caste is an old story in Kerala”, ”caste has disappeared from our society“, caste is no more a significant object in determining Kerala’s social life and public sphere”—when the larger popular imaginations on caste in Kerala live with these claims, each frame of the movie wipes out this common myth. Sharply focusing on the critical thinking within Dalit community in the Uthalakkandy Dalit Colony (Settlement), it visualizes how Dalits resists the modern forms of caste violence and voices the powerful Dalit responses to the fake claims of development by the government and the media. The movie asserts: “Dalits are not capable of defining their problems is just a myth created by the state officials and the media. Political discussions and theorization take place constantly within Dalit community and they need no one to tell them what kind of problems they have and what kind of development they require”. The question of community participation and empowerment has been at the centre of discussion among educational planners, activists, and academicians for quite sometime now. In most of such engagements community turns out to be a homogenous category. The caste and gender hierarchies, the nature of participation and conflicts arising out of community involvement are more or less absent. How then one can understand community participation in schooling as empowering when the caste compositions of that community are not problematised? There was a press conference after the release of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Caste” at the Malappuram Press Club. Presumably, the media persons –both right and left- more or less ignored the theme and content of the film since it’s caste, a remote social syndrome that they cannot relate to. And then what is the point of discussing about it; so they engaged in a ‘pedagogic’ action, enlightening the young woman filmmaker on ‘how to make a documentary’. The media men sympathized that this movie has no good visuals, no good technology involved, just blended with the bits of four people’s random talk-then how will it become a documentary! The press conference, instead of discussing the film, ended up in imparting the basics of documentary making to the young filmmaker. W hile the right wing political workers observed their usual strategic silence after the movie gotbroadcast by a local television channel, the left party guardians frantically spread the word - “this is class, not caste”. Watch Part two <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Wn8sHFFAg> , Part three,<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZP7G3E4OE>Part four <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4RqkP3WB3k&feature=related>of the Documentary <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4RqkP3WB3k&feature=related> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4RqkP3WB3k&feature=related> -- Ranjit --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
