By Muskan Agarwal

Abstract:

Beginning with a brief explanation of the connections between caste, work, and sexuality, the article draws heavily on the view of a Dalit feminist on the lived experience of caste.  As attested by the actor and director in their numerous interviews, it presents the chance to wonder if it is really possible to represent a marginalised character authentically on television by honest research and educating oneself about the lived reality of marginalised people. The film will leave lots of thoughts and feelings. But it will also illustrate how complicated caste and queerness can get. 

Introduction:

‘Geeli Pucchi’ is a one-of-a-kind movie which unravels the intersectionalities of sexuality, caste, and privilege. This film is one of the very few movies that tap into the issues of caste oppression by not only portraying a female Dalit lead but also Dalit queerness. The movie director, Neeraj Ghaywan, who himself is Dalit did an exceptional job of examining the intersectional realities of Bharti and Priya who come from contrasting backgrounds. The director has portrayed the same in his national award-winning film ‘Masaan’, which examined the intersectionalities of caste and gender. The movie ‘Geeli Pucchi’ revolves around the lives of two women, Bharati Mondal, a Dalit factory worker, and Priya Sharma, a Brahmin desk job worker. While Bharti fights the caste barrier and oppression in her workplace she also struggles with her sexuality in her private sphere. Priya, on the other hand, struggles to accept her sexuality while silently fighting the Brahmanical Hetero-patriarchal oppression. The film portrays the constant fight of two women trying to challenge the heteronormative societal expectations by defying the ‘moral grounds’ and tapping into the desire of being queer. 

Other Instances of Oppression:

The movie is set in a modern-day factory where Bharti is the only woman working in a field dominated by men. The film starts with Bharti working in a factory, donning blue overalls. ‘Blue’ as a color is also symbolic of the Ambedkarite Movement, which represents an egalitarian society, something which Bharti constantly strives for. Bharti’s Dalit identity is the only roadblock to achieving the job she desired. While trying to achieve the same, Bharti is reminded by her coworker Dashrath, that trying to aim for a better position at the factory, might get her “burned up in flames”. This is a reminder to Bharti and the audience of the years of violence faced by Dalits who tried to fight for themselves. A classic example of which would be Bhanwari Devi and the Khairlanji Massacre wherein Dalit women who resisted the Savarna power were either meted out with sexual violence or death. In either instance, no one was held guilty because the oppressing class men are not “ideal perpetrators”.

Priya through her subconscious mind supported the marginalization when she stopped eating at the canteen because the workers of the Dalit class that were working there were “strange” and the canteen used to “stink”, perpetuating the same notions of ‘untouchability’ that are being performed since decades. Before leaving for maternity leave, Priya requested the manager to let Bharti work as her replacement while assuring that she would be back soon, demonstrating how a Dalit woman’s qualifications and skills are overshadowed by a Brahmin woman’s words when it comes to influencing choices at work. Priya, being a Brahmin girl has been approached by the caste system in a very different manner than Bharti has been. She was not only respected by the other Brahmin colleagues in the office but also by the Dalit factory workers because the presence of Brahmin women is “adored and worshiped as caste purity”.

The Brahmin- Heteropatriarchy:

For Bharti, the same Brahmin-Heteropatriarchy is preserved when Endogamy is continued by marrying a man of her caste. Heterosexual desire and the institutionalization of marriage are naturalized. Bharti, being aware of this same Brahmin-Heteropatriarchy, mentally manipulates Priya’s marital life by convincing her to have a child. In the concluding scene, when Priya betrays Bharti, because she disclosed her caste to her in-laws and the same offered her tea in a different cup, in one last moment of manipulation, Bharti convinces Priya’s family that working in the harmful and unhygienic factory setting would be harmful to both the mother and child. She upholds the same pollution/ purity standards held by Savarna individuals. By doing this, Bharti pushed Priya into more intricacies wherein, she is permanently stuck under the rock of patriarchy. She does not have a say in her own life and marriage since in the modern-day patriarchal familial setting, the male members of the family automatically assume that they are ‘duty bound’ to protect the female members of the family. 

Queer continues to be a part of the restricted identity for those who are economically underprivileged. There continues to be a lack of class-based diversity. Queer is the political identity which acts as a resistance to the traditional norms of patriarchy. ‘Dalit’ as a word, in the documentary, India Untouched, one of the Dalit doctors mentioned that she’s a Dalit and she’s a woman, hence she is a Double Dalit. Dalit as a word here is used to express oppression towards a particular community. In the movie Geeli Pucchi, it can be asserted that Bharti is a Triple Dalit because apart from being a Dalit woman, her sexuality is also oppressed by the ‘societal norms’ of heteropatriarchy. Menon talks about how with multiple political identities, women are unable to address internal heterogeneity and also cannot express the same.  

Desire is pre-constituted just as caste is. Due to preexisting caste preconceptions, a Brahmin would not interact with a Dalit. Desire and intimacy are pre-figured as to how Dalit bodies should smell, look and behave. Positioning the “previously established analytical structure”. The Dalit struggle and mainstream feminism have failed to provide Dalit queer women with proper representation. The disturbance generated by Dalit queer masculine women is not welcomed by conventional casteist beauty standards, which appeal to heteropatriarchal Brahmin- Savarna sensitivities. 

On being asked her name by Priya, Bharti masked her surname with that of a high caste surname due to the existing judgment and rejection towards the marginalized communities. This masking of one’s own identity is known as ‘Sanskritization’ or ‘passing on’ wherein the oppressed castes imitate the lifestyle and surname of the oppressing caste. On getting to know Bharti’s caste, Priya detached herself because even though she was a fervent supporter of the caste system and so, she refrained from exploring any romantic and erotic possibilities with Bharti. Even Bharti failed to demarcate her anger towards the caste oppression in her workplace and her growing affection towards Bharti which ultimately led to Priya being oppressed by her orthodox Brahminical values. Bharti succeeded in getting a job, but it was not a happy ending for either of them because even she had to sacrifice her affection towards Priya to get the job she wanted. 

“Geeli Pucchi” gains significance by posing the question of who can legitimately be recognised as the authentic subject of queer culture and politics in India today, given that in the cultural, legal, and political imagination of the Savarna caste system, queer desire embodies dominant-caste and class privileges, whose demands of sexual citizenship are deemed cognizable and pursuable.

Conclusion:

The movie, although made by a Dalit actor fails to have an adequate representation of Dalit and queer individuals in it. It fails in order of representation wherein again an upper-class cis-hetero individual represented the lives of marginalized individuals. “Geeli Pucchi” is not your typical Bollywood film wherein the female or the male actor is the hero and there is always a happy ending. It reflected those biases to which ‘upper caste’ individuals are usually oblivious. The director was successful in showing the authentic and challenging lives women of today are faced with. The movie served its purpose wherein it again ignited discussion about years of oppression both casteist and sexual among activists, academicians, and most importantly the audience. However, the discussions today are still swept under the carpet whenever the chance is since conversations surrounding caste, women, and queer individuals are always labeled as uncomfortable. 

Image Source: Google Images

About the Author

Muskan Agarwal is a third-year student pursuing BA. LLB (five years integrated course) at the Jindal Global Law School. Her areas of interest include public policy, corporate laws, and arbitration laws.