Film captures the trajectory of a revolution in a Maharashtra village, where residents gave up their caste
A still from the film showing the symbolic distribution of Kaala during Melwari
Every year on Kartik Poornima, a holy full moon day in the Hindu calendar, a group of people from Mangrul in Amravati district congregate for an event called Melwari. Barefoot and carrying flags, the group seems like it's headed for a typical religious gathering. Except that what happens at the congregation is a complete subversion of one of the most defining facets of religion - caste.
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No more than 60 in number today, the group's followers are living testimonies of a revolution that began in the 1930s. When Ganpati aka Hari Maharaj Bhabhutkar, a visionary leader from the Varkari sect, realised that the egalitarian ideals of the sect were falling prey to caste hierarchy, he urged his disciples to abandon their castes. After Independence, the group, a happy mingling of upper and lower caste members, began to identify itself as 'Ajaat' or 'Casteless' in the caste column of government documents.
"When I first read about this group, I was both surprised and guilty. I hail from Buldhana, which is close to Mangrul, yet I knew nothing about this chapter of history," says Mumbai-based filmmaker Arvind Gajanan Joshi, who decided to meet this casteless group and film their stories in his Marathi documentary, Ajaat. "What I came across was both fascinating and sad because the village is witnessing a reverse trend, where the young generation has begun to put back the caste their grandparents abandoned in documents and their lives," he shares.
Yet, some of the practices the Ajaats follow are path-breaking for a society that is still divided on caste lines. The prasaad or Kaala, for instance, distributed at Melwari is a mix of food prepared in Brahmin and Dalit households. And inter-caste marriages are seen as unifying. "'When God has no caste, how can his children have one?' is their philosophy," says Joshi.
The film has been screened in New Zealand, Hyderabad, Nashik, Aurangabad, and is set for a screening in Mumbai organised by Vikalp@Prithvi. "After watching the film, people are beginning to question why the revolution couldn't be passed down to the next generation. I feel my job is done," concludes Joshi.
On: May 26, 7 pm at Prithvi House, opposite Prithvi Theatre, Juhu.