“We get our identity even before we are born, I belong to the Charra community and in true sense the people of our community are born criminals. We live with that identity and die with it, there is no reformation or rehabilitation for us- A youth from Gujarat’s Charra community.”
Branded a criminal, stripped off their dreams and devoid of identity- The Denotified Tribes of India or the ‘Vimukta Jati,’ are a considerable section of India’s population. Facing discrimination since the colonial era, they find a mention in the constitution of India and are noted under the ‘Habitual Offenders Acts’ after being ‘denotified’ from the Criminal Tribes Act. A colonial prejudice made people believe that these communities like Chhara, Khedia Sabar, Birhor are born criminals, fraudsters and should be prosecuted for every little offence. While, the colonial masters are long gone, the mindset stays.
To change this mindset and bring the voices of this marginalised community on the forefront, the first 1st Nomad Film Festival was organised, on Sunday September 4 at the India Islamic Centre. Six short films portraying different communities and their plights were showcased. It was organised by filmmakers who were engaged with the issues of these communities. In 1871, the British introduced the Criminal Tribes Act, which gradually notified around 200 tribes as criminals or born criminals. The notification covered communities which had no criminal record. The first movie was a tribute to late Ashraful Haque, who was a theatre artist and an exemplary actor.
Touching on a lot of topics, the movies depicted the vicious circle which enslaves the members of this community- forced prostitution, poverty, identity crisis, discrimination and harassment by the authorities. The festival also featured Sriram Dalton’s Lost Behrupiya, an award-winning silent film on the lives of behrupiyas, people who practice the art of dressing up as characters and then enacting scenes on the streets. The characters could be from history, folklore, mythology or everyday life.
The struggle of snake charmers was captured by Dakxinkumar Bajrange’s acclaimed film, Fight for Survival along with the relationship shared by these animals with the ‘madaaris’ or snake charmers. Their traditional occupations stand at the threshold of oblivion by insensitive government policies and lack of rehabilitation facilities.
This was first of it’s kind attempt which highlighted the issues faced by these people and their call for some action or attention. The Shakespearean dilemma of ‘to be or not be’ stands true with them but sadly in their case, it’s just ‘to be,’ because existence is still the sole struggle of these ‘denotified’ tribes.
