Ranjan Kamath

For over a century, a substantial number of Adivasis, or tribals of the Chottanagpur plateau, have been converting to Christianity in order to free themselves from bonded labour and feudal oppression still prevalent in rural India. A combination of education and Christianity have helped the Adivasis establish an alternative identity outside the Hindu caste system, undermining feudal and Hindu authority. While the demand for a tribal homeland called Jharkand has been gaining momentum from a number of sources since independence, Hindu fundamentalist organisations such as the Rashitriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have held the Christian missionaries singularly responsible for encouraging the Jharkand movement. In the absence of dialogue between Hindu revivalists and Christian tribals, this feature length documentary represents an effort to understand how the two communities will co-exist within a secular Indian fabric.

The film examines the role of the Naxalites of Bihar in Eastern India, also known as the Communist Party of India (Marxist/Leninist) Liberation, People’s War Group, and Maoist Communist Centre, as agents of socio-political change who employ violence as a means to their ends. Set against the backdrop of the 1999-2001 parliamentary and Legislative Assembly elections in Bihar, the film portrays the changes that have occurred over the past 30 years in terms of the social and political status of the Scheduled Castes (i.e. Dalits); the benefits accruing to the middle castes, engineered by the Mandal Commission and the emergence of Laloo Yadav, and the consequent violent backlash from upper-caste landlord militias like the Ranvir Sena. The Die Is Caste is thus an exploration of caste dynamics in Bihar, that questions whether the Scheduled Castes have gained any demonstrable benefits at all, or if they are mere pawns on the political chessboard.