Kannada actor and activist Chetan Kumar is facing police complaints from the Karnataka State Brahmin Development Board but that has not stopped him from continuing to speak out against caste. The actor says he has been fighting to highlight anti-caste ideas of Ambedkar, Periyar, and Kuvempu for the past decade and that he is only placing their ideas in a modern context.
The complaints against him were made over a video posted by Chetan two weeks ago in apparent response to popular Kannada actor Upendra's appeal to not talk about caste as it would perpetuate it further. In the video, Chetan questioned whether issues like corruption, female foeticide or even the coronavirus would simply go away if people stopped talking about them. "The only way to treat an ailment is by addressing it first - similarly, caste identity is the society's ailment and the only way to fix it is by addressing it," Chetan Kumar said.
This response led to complaints made by the Brahmin Board against Chetan on the grounds that he was allegedly 'hurting religious beliefs' and making 'imputations prejudicial to national integration' and FIRs being registered against the actor in two police stations in Bengaluru.
ಜಾತಿ / caste (1/2) pic.twitter.com/nHnTnF3Qyc
— Chetan Kumar / ಚೇತನ್ (@ChetanAhimsa) May 27, 2021
Chetan says that the idea 'let's not talk about caste' does not hold ground in Karnataka when so much of the daily life of the people in the state is dictated by caste.
"I wanted to discuss that the idea that 'let's not talk about caste' is wrong when caste continues to debilitate and be a factor in every single part of our existence - from jobs, access to water, access to dignity, basic human rights and the way you are treated from the moment you are born," Chetan says.
"This fight is not against any caste but against the system of inequality. If people from the Brahmin Board are finding fault, then it's not because they don't know this, it is because they don't want to accept it and want to create an idea of victimhood when these communities have benefited from extreme social capital and education," Chetan says. "It is difficult to remove Brahminism from the kind of ideological and systemic ways caste plays out and how people are oppressors and are oppressed at the same time in this system," he adds.
The discussions of Chetan and Upendra have brought the topic of caste to the mainstream discourse in Karnataka once again. Chetan, who was born and raised in the United States, returned to India in 2005 after he was offered a Fulbright Scholarship to work on ways to create social change through art and theatre. Over the last 15 years, he has not only acted in popular films but also taken part in Dalit and Adivasi movements for equality and justice. From fighting for a rehabilitation fund for endosulfan victims to the campaign to rehabilitate the Dhidhalli Adivasis from Kodagu and founding the Kannada film industry based Film Industry for Rights and Equality (FIRE) for women, writers and workers, Chetan has been an activist along with being a filmmaker.
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"We are fighting to uphold the anti-caste ideas of Ambedkar, Periyar and Kuvempu but even when there are large crowds, it does not get the kind of media recognition it should. I have been noticing this for about a decade that these discourses are kept out of the mainstream and not acknowledged. I want to bring these issues to the mainstream and we have to understand the struggles of many communities," he says.
According to him, the recent comments are not anything new and that he is only placing anti-caste ideas put forward by thinkers like Ambedkar, Periyar, and Kuvempu in the modern context. "This is not about any individual community but it is about questioning the idea of Brahminism and living by the ideas of justice and equality. It is not relegating Brahminism to any one caste. I believe everyone is born accidentally into their caste and once they are born, they are beneficiaries of privilege or the lack of it," he says.
"Bahujan leaders like Ambedkar and Periyar were extraordinary thinkers. Phule, Kuvempu and many others have spoken about anti-caste ideas for centuries and I am just someone putting it in the modern context," he adds.
Just as he pointed out in the video he made last month, Chethan says that many professions like cremation work and waste management are still relegated for Dalits. "Graveyard and cemetery workers are from generations of Dalit communities. Jobs involving cleaning drainage, managing waste, are relegated to the most marginalised communities. Everyone should have equal opportunities and they should be able to get other kinds of jobs and access to decent education," he says.
He also acknowledges that he has benefited from the caste system but he says that the movement for Dalit rights cannot be restricted to any one caste or community. "It is important that ideas are spread by everyone and not just by Dalits. Movement for Dalit upliftment is not just for Dalits but it is for anyone who is a part of this system. I have been working on anti-caste activism led by various Bahujan leaders for almost a decade now," he says.
Despite the police investigation over his recent video, Chetan says that he will not stop talking about caste-based injustices. "The complaints do not affect me. I have not said anything Ambedkar or Periyar have not said themselves and I will continue to use those ideas because they are transformative ideas that need to be highlighted," he adds.