Contested Representation

Dalits, Popular Hindi Cinema, and Public Sphere

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by Dhananjay Rai

Type

Studies

Subject

Countries > India

Keywords

Hindi cinema, sociology

Publishing date

2022

Publisher

Lexington Books

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 268 pages
6 ¼ x 9 inches (16 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-6669-0133-7

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Book Presentation:
Popular Hindi cinema has become a significant signpost of contemporaneity due to its construction of social language. Generally, Hindi cinema has been understood through internal (auteur or genre or cinéma verité) and external aspects (consumption spheres and moviegoers’ complex response in the form of catharsis or everydayness mimesis). However, cinema also needs a new way of discerning with respect to ‘Dalit Representation’. The study needs to look at the construction and meaning of the social language of Hindi cinema. Construction refers to exploring factors beyond the film industry responsible for shaping the social language. Meaning entails the exhibition of social language in the form of messages. Herein, relational exploration becomes crucial. The relationship between factors of social language of Hindi cinema and Dalits must be unraveled for understanding the meaning of social language for Dalits. Contested representation encompasses the nature of absence and presence of Dalits in Hindi cinema.

About the Author:
Dhananjay Rai teaches political theory, political thought, and education at the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, India.

Press Reviews:
Well-researched, theoretically grounded and politically committed, this is a pioneering study of Dalits and Hindi cinema, examined through the perspectives of social language and representation. It needs to be read, and I hope it leads to more studies of Dalits in Indian cinema.
-- Tabish Khair, Aarhus University

Contested Representation is a brilliant exposition of the social language of Hindi cinema focusing on the ‘absence’ and ‘presence’ of Dalits in cinematic constructions. Rai argues persuasively that cinematic representations replicate the social and material power imbricated in caste hierarchies, yet the narratives are heterogenous, and the representational field is inflected by powerful Dalit resistance against domination.
-- Anupama Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University

See the publisher website: Lexington Books