Movie Review : Article 15

"We became Harijan (  Mahatma Gandhi used to address dalits as people of God , Harijan ) or bahujan ( many people ) but we never became the people, "says the activist. And so the dalits remain marginalized in our Bharat & never mainstream.

The film Article 15 by director Anubhav Sinha  is overflowing with such innumerable dialogues which are right on spot .And there are many scenes, which are symbolic of what is happening in our nation .Article 15 is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. It prohibits  discrimination & allows for reservations  for upliftment of the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women & children.

This film is said to be inspired by the hanging of two girls in north India. A young IPS ( Indian Police Service ) appointee, Ayaan ( Ayushmann Khurana )  is posted to a  small town in north India. On the first day of his posting , he is prevented from meeting a group of  dalits as his juniors tell him that these people are forever complaining about sons & daughters who go missing & then return later. .He meets his team & the contractor  who is  in charge of setting the toilet in the police chowki . The contractor says that a new commode will be put as the old one has become useless ...symbolic of swachh Bharat. Can a toilet signify cleanliness & that too, in every aspect ? 

And the toilet muck keeps dirtying  the police chowki throughout the film symbolising  the quicksand of dirt & muck surrounding the nation's  police force. The political  parties have used the police forces to fulfill their agendas thereby politicizing the police & ruining the reputation of the police. So much so, that the protectors have turned perpetrators .

The two missing girls are found hanging the next day ,early morning before Sunrise .The bodies are sent for post mortem .The lady doctor who is doing the post mortem is under tremendous pressure for obvious reasons. The police force personnel are non chalant about the death of the girls & keep informing their boss, the young IPS that whatever we may do for them, it hardly matters. A furious Ayaan demands to know , "Who are they ? "It is as if even mentioning the names of the marginalized would pollute them.

Ayaan talks to his writer activist wife about the case & she is all ears. The wife is his voice of conscience & he promises that he will do his best .Ayaan is trying to understand why even half a century after we gained  independence, casteism continues to ruin the nation.

Were the girls raped ? Can the higher castes rape girls from lower castes even as the higher ups declare that its a sacrilege to  drink or eat anything touched by the untouchables  ? Crimes are   always between unequals....the powerful perpetrator/ s & the hapless victim/ s. And a female & that too dalit, means doubly helpless .And a male & from  upper social echelon means doubly dangerous .... even fatal.

There are parallel tracks of a dalit neta who is a rebel & his love interest. There is another track about an upper caste leader teaming up with the disadvantaged taking undue advantage of the coalition. The coalition wins & yet,  can it remain viable, when casteism is lurking beneath the surface ? Ayaan also meets his college friend  who works for the government for another department. He goes missing & his phone is off as well. Ayaan asks his team to find his missing friend. Where is he & what has become of him ?  What happens to the young fire brand leader who has gone underground ? Does he get his due ?

Amidst all this, the IPS officer is subject to an enquiry as he asked about the caste of his police  team members.He is alleged to be partisan .He is suspended.Will he continue with his investigation ? And where will it lead to ? Will the dead girls get justice ?

All the actors have acted well. Even the tiny role essayed by Isha Talwar as the IPS officer's wife is portrayed well. The director Anubhav Sinha deserves kudos for highlighting the problem of caste politics & hopefully, the country should start talking about how we can all resolve  casteism.

And as the young neta says, "More people die in gutters than at the borders...." The film depicts that we all have conspired to remain silent even as we see the marginalised being pushed down deeper . We want the disadvantaged to remain stuck in the muck , so  that the most unwanted work  like manual scavenging, deskinning dead animals & the like is done by them.

And unless, the marginalized are brought into the maintsream vide  upliftment through reservations , & other means , there cannot  be Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. 

Reservations are necessary for equality.

This post was published on 27th May, 2019 on Women's Web as a  Featured Post. Featured Posts are a careful selection of highly relevant and interesting posts picked by  editors each day.


This week, a lady doctor who was doing post graduation in gynecology committed suicide by hanging in her hostel room in the civic run , BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai.

It is alleged by the victim's parents, that she was harassed over her origins as she belonged to scheduled tribe.The victim had verbally complained to the unit head & the department head about the casteist remarks & harassment & no action was taken. The victims' parents came to Mumbai & case has been filed against three senior doctors ( all ladies ) who allegedly harassed the victim. The case is for abetment of suicide & under sections of the SC/ ST Atrocities act, Anti  Ragging act,etal.The victim was not allowed to have meals by her seniors & she was not allowed to meet her mother who was undergoing cancer treatment. The victim was taunted on a whatsapp group for doctors by her seniors.

This case is a repeat of what happened to Rohit Vemula , a PhD student at the University of Hyderabad.He committed suicide after facing extreme harassment. There were many protests .An enquiry was launched to determine Rohit Vemula's caste .It was reveled that Rohit belonged to backward class & not dalit. And so, the matter ended there.It makes no difference that a youth commits suicide .Because, what is, of utmost importance is the caste. This is what has remained unchanged, since our society started harping on the caste system through  pre independence times.

And that's why the concept of reservation  was introduced through the Indian Constitution .This was done to bring the oppressed communities  namely the scheduled castes & tribes to a level that they can be equated to some extent with the non oppressed castes or the higher castes. This is because under Article 14 which is a Fundamental Right under the Indian Constitution states " The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India. "

And reservation is an affirmative action that is positive action through policies which give the disadvantaged communities easier access to education & employment. This is so because Article 15 , another Fundamental Right under the Indian Constitution states that the State can make special provisions for classes of people who are socially & educationally backward or the scheduled castes & scheduled tribes. And  towards this end, the State has reserved some seats in educational institutes & even in government jobs.

And though this affirmative action was thought to be initially sufficient for a short period .Indian society has yet to accept the backward classes as an equal partner .And hence, the State has to continue affirmative action year after year ,through the years . The higher castes feel discriminated by    seventy year old reservations ( as the reservations were brought in,  after India got independence) . What  the higher castes seem to forget is  that the scheduled castes & tribes have been oppressed & suppressed for millions of years since the time of vedas. And the repression continues .

Even today, there are news reports of honor killings wherein the couple's parents & relatives & sometimes entire villages have ensured that the couples are killed because the boy and girl  dared to marry outside their caste .

And in educational institutes, when, the members of disadvantaged classes take admissions, they are treated with scorn & hate. They are made to recall their roots are lower in the social cadre.This affects their confidence levels & many of them are unable to complete their education. This seems to have happened in the case of Rohit Vemula as also in the aforesaid case of the lady doctor who committed suicide by hanging.Similar cases happen at the workplaces wherein members of suppressed classes get jobs.They are ridiculed & treated with contempt  by others & mocked repeatedly. All such instances point to our ghetto mentality .We are biased to the core & its going to be a long winding path before our mindsets change.

Our political leaders have wreaked havoc with reservations by introducing them to communities other than scheduled castes & tribes as this is an excellent source to get votes without doing much ! Though the courts have stepped in & sought to limit the reservations for backward classes ( other than scheduled castes & tribes ) by introducing the concept of creamy layer .

By way of the 124th Constitutional Amendment bill, 2019, the government made a 10 % reservation for economically weaker students among the unreserved category of students. The eligibility condition for 10 % reservation is that annual income must be less than 8 lakhs or those who own less than five cares of land. Ajit Ranade, eminent Indian economist says that the Government's own data by the National Sample Survey states that almost 99% households will be eligible for 10% reservation. As per an analysis by Business Today magazine , this 10 % reservation  will cover 100% of the Indian population as per income criteria. This is already being challenged in courts for obvious reasons .The   concept of  "  economically challenged " does not exist under the Indian Constitution.Moreover economic status keeps changing unlike social criteria suffered by SC& ST since generations.

Those who say that merit should get precedence have no idea what constitutes merit.  Author & law professor Marc Galanter states that three types of resources are needed to get that competitive advantage which is called merit. One is economic resources ( education, training, materials etal ), second is  social & cultural resources ( social contacts, guidance, advice, etal ) & last intrinsic ability & hard work. And obviously the disadvantaged neither have the economic nor the social and cultural resources to win the competition only based on their hard work.This idea of merit by Marc Galanter was quoted by the SC while it upheld the Karnataka law in May, 2019.

The government's own National Sample Survey Organisation ( NSSO ) data shows that Scheduled castes & Scheduled tribes are highly backward compared to  other castes in terms of education.Even in top government posts, SCs & STs corner only 5% of the posts.Another study has shown that efficiency has not been compromised by reservations for SCs , STs in railways. In fact, diversity has led to increased efficiency.

And that's why, the Supreme Court in May, 2019 upheld the Karnataka law which has made reservations SCs & STs for promotions of .This is because , Karnataka was able to show data which proved  backwardness of  SCs & STs  .

Lets remember, just as we have to pay off the debts of our forefathers , so also, this reservation  is an atonement for the wrongs wrecked on the SC & ST communities for centuries ! As we march onwards , lets make the SC & ST our equal partners. And then , surely, reservations will be on their way out.