Friday, February 24, 2023

ASSESSING THE INDIGENOUS INDIAN THOUGHT THROUGH THE FILM KANTARA by Sejal Pandey

 

Indigenous peoples are guardians of the biological diversity and cultural variety of the planet. Despite making up just around 5% of the global population, they efficiently manage an estimated 20% to 25% of the planet's geographical area. This property is located near regions that are home to 80% of the world's biodiversity, 40% of all terrestrial protected areas, and landscapes with intact ecosystems. Therefore, indigenous peoples are crucial to attempts to preserve the environment and biodiversity. India's indigenous people make up 104 million people, or 8.6% of the country's total population. There are more ethnic groups that would be eligible for scheduled tribal status but are not officially recognised than the 705 officially recognised ethnic groups.

Despite accounting for such population, the media representation of indigenous tribes has been very one-sided and stereotypes. There has been only so many references and representation of indigenous tribes in Indian Cinema. With that being said, the year 2022 saw a dramatic surge in representation of indigenous tribes specifically in South Industry. We saw movies like RRR representing some aspects of gonds tribe, the ground breaking ‘Dhabari Quruvi’ with its all- tribal actors and many more as such have been showing positive intervention of indigenous tribe in the media. One such movie is Rishabh Shetty’s Kantara.

Jam packed with powerful performances and gripping climax, Kantara – directed by Rishabh Shetty is one of the finest movies in Kannada industry right now. The movie was released in Sept., 2022 under the Hombale films banner. The central theme of the movie is the right to forest and land of the indigenous population. The film provides some excellent insight into the customs and ancient traditions of indigenous tribes, along with their belief structure and approach to life, and the socioeconomic conditions at the time through numerous sequences and references. And for the same, it has used some marvellous background score and music to make the impact even more powerful.

The movie plot revolves around ‘Shiva’, an individual from Tulu tribe and his life in Karnataka’s ‘Kaadubettu’ in the coastal region. The movie is divided into three major timelines right from 1870s to 1990s. The film gives ode to many cultural customs and traditions of Dakshina Kannada. From the ‘Kambala’ championship (the buffalo race through muddy paddy field during the harvest season) or the practice of ‘Bhoota Kola’ (a festival to worship the various deity), Kantara created an engrossing narrative as a proud and audacious display of its tribal culture. One of the other important aspects of this film is its portrayal of the hardships and complications that indigenous tribes and the forest officials had to face during Forest Conservation Act, 1980. It also discusses how the indigenous people were never at ease ceding authority of the forest to anybody else for a variety of reasons. Through several ramifications, the film discusses how their lives were and are different and challenging because of our government's carelessness.

Indigenous tribes and the impact of culture on them:

 

Culture plays a very prominent role in an individual’s development. A healthy society's culture is conveyed in a variety of ways, such as via storytelling, festivities, nostalgia, amusement, and future-oriented thinking. It is very important to understand the impact of culture as it not only forms the customs and tradition of the region but also is the prominent factor that connects individuals to civilizations’ roots. It has the capacity to link individuals to the origins of civilisation while also demonstrating how culture brings people together. Numerous similar elements have been employed by Kantara to emphasise the influence of culture on tribes. It has very effectively utilised the trick to highlight the value of cultural practises in our nation, whether be it in the form of storytelling to Shiva by his father about how their ancestors got the land through the king in the first place or through the folklore of ‘Panjurli’ Daiva and his protector ‘Guliga’. The culture of Devaradhana was very beautifully portrayed in the film through the dance form of ‘Bhoota Koal’. It is fascinating to see how "Bhoota Kola," a ceremony involving Daiva worship, is carried out in the coastal regions of Tulu Nadu, sections of Karnataka, and Northern Kerala in the film. It has also tried to incorporate the boar spirit god aspect, which is often represented by dancers performing Bhoota Kola by donning a snout. It demonstrated the necessity of fostering cultural celebration in the form of the Kola festival in addition to the need to conserve and defend our culture. The movie does not shy away from showing the culture of rural India either. Be it in the form of mud houses with bamboo sticks, rain splattered roads, the modest clothing, the use of cow dung, etc. The culture was deep rooted in various scene from the movie.

Indigenous tribes and Forest Conservation Act, 1980:

The Forest conservation act was introduced the government in 1980 to ensure the conservation offorest resources. It was implemented after the increasing deforestation issue in the country. This meant that there was complete restriction on the use of flora and fauna and all the biodiversity present in the forest, which also included hunting. As clearly shown in the film in multiple instances, the protagonist used hunting as his main occupation and in fact also for leisure activity. This puts him at loggerheads with the DRFS. It is very important to understand the reason for the male protagonist reacting the way he did. Hunting used to be the primary source of income for many indigenous tribes for centuries. With the implementation of FCA 1980, it got constricted. That created a major tension between the indigenous tribes and the government. In fact, Leela, the love interest of main protagonist was thrashed for doing her job with the forest department. She was gravely insulted and looked down upon working with the forest department. 

The legislation also declared government-owned forest reserves, and any human settlement on those lands that does so without authorization is referred to as ‘encroachment’. This word was also used several times throughout the film. The DRFS Murali faced tremendous difficulties while trying to implement the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 as it is clearly shown in the movie. There were protest by the villagers, he was also being disobeyed by them. Forest was considered and in fact is still considered as an integral part of livelihood for the indigenous tribes. With the implementation of act, not only did their livelihood got taken away in the form of prohibition on hunting and restrictions in the use of flora and fauna, it also gave them shelter crisis too in the name of encroachment. It is important to notice that there was introduction to a new FCA act of 2006. That act recognized the rights of the forest dwelling tribes to the forest resources, on which their livelihood was dependent on.

Indigenous tribes and socioeconomic conditions:

  

The indigenous tribe in India still suffer greatly when it comes to ill practises or the socioeconomic differences as compared to the other parts of the country. There were several instances of the ‘Zamindar’ practising untouchability with the tribe, even if it was not obvious. The difference between the kind of food they ate at their home and the food that was available at the landlord’s house was drastically disparate. Even now, there have been many instances of indigenous tribes facing such social evils. The economic condition of the village was not very great either. There were hardly any electricity or gas cylinder available (now mind you, I am certainly aware that the film was based in the 90s and there was no Ujjwala Yojana or the promise of electricity as such, but it was very clearly seen that the Zamindar’s house had all these facilities as compared to the rest of the village).

Indigenous tribes and illiteracy:

The indigenous population has an illiteracy rate of above 59% (according to the 2011 census). Tribes that are cut off from the rest of civilization have little confidence in established educational institutions. Many of them have no knowledge of education, institutions of higher learning, degrees, etc. They are not motivated to educate their kids. Since most tribal members are underprivileged, education seems to be a luxury for them. People from tribal groups who work in agriculture want their young children to assist them at home or in the fields. This thus gives them no occupational mobility and hence restrict development too. This also gives rise to social evils/frauds being practised against them. The film showed a perfect instance for this with the landlord doing fraud with all the villagers and illegally seizing their land. This also led to their problem of displacement after the implementation of act. The problem of illiteracy also increased the superstitious practices of the tribe. There were many such issues with the indigenous tribes in India that can be easily resorted through education. Thus, the movie marvellously captures the many aspects of indigenous Indian and the issues faced by them.

Conclusion:

The importance of indigenous tribe and their proper representation is extremely necessary because they form a major part in protection and conservation of the forest cover area. They have been protecting the biodiversity for centuries now. Even though there are various laws introduced for the betterment of indigenous tribes, the implementation of these laws is not very strict. Thus, they need to ensure that with the help of all such laws, the development of indigenous tribes increases which in turn will protect the forested areas of the country.

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