G.S.

Gurye’s understanding of Caste in India can be

considered as historical, Indological as well as comparative. In
his book Caste and race in India he agrees with Sir Herbert
Risley that “Caste is a product of race” that came to India with
along with Aryans. According to him caste originated from race
and occupation stablished it.
Ghurye explains caste in India based on six distinctive
characteristics:
1. Segmental division of society
2. Hierarchy
3. Civil and religious disabilities and privileges
4. Lack of unrestricted choice of occupation
5. Restriction on food, drinks and social intercourse
6. Endogamy
According to G.S. Gurye caste is product of various historical
processes, adapting to demand of time and therefore a
dynamic institution.
Caste were groups with a well - developed life of their own, the
membership whereof, unlike that of voluntary associations and
of classes, was determined not by selection but by birth. The
status of a person depended not on his wealth, but on the
traditional importance of the caste in which he had the luck of
being born.
The society is divided into various small social groups called
castes. Each of these castes is a well-developed social group,
the membership of which is determined by the consideration of
birth. The children belong to the caste of their parents. The film
Kammattipaadam also talks about the caste system and mainly
focuses on the lives of Dalits (the lower caste). The film talks
about two Dalits brothers – Balan and Ganga and what all they
have to face being born as Dalits.
The film centers on Kammattippaadam, a slum locality
in Kochi, Kerala. Kammattipaadam is a raw, raging and realistic
movie. The characters are dark and deep. The director Rajiv
Ravi has dismantled all conventional concepts of Malayali
aesthetics by capturing the unadulterated beauty of black skin
through characters who portrayed the lives of Dalits.
While, the higher caste people enjoy all the privilege, the lower
caste people suffer from varies types of disabilities. The film
focuses on how the Dalit community was forced to give up their
lands to real-estate mafias and how modern urbanisation
of Kochi metro-city took place over the plight of the Dalits.
Deracination from land means being uprooted from where you
belong. The upper caste took the land of the Dalits (lower caste
of the area) and promised to offer them money, and later the
people become homeless and comes on the streets.
‘Kammatipaadam’ tells a story of the transformation of
Ernakulam, a concrete jungle at present, from its lush green
serene past, a history of bloodshed and violence. The film rolls
out through ‘Krishnan’, who returns to the city of Kochi in
search of his childhood friend ‘Ganga’ from where flashbacks
show how manipulative forces used and discarded the true
inhabitants of Ernakulam according to their greedy needs.
Ernakulam was a small town during the early 1950's, and
during the first communist government of EMS Namboodiripad
in 1957, small tracts of farm land were given to all landless
community, mainly to the Dalit community, under the Land
Reforms Ordinance Act. But following the Economic
Liberalisation of 1991, Kochi boomed into a metro city, and real
estate skyrocketed. The then government set up Greater
Cochin Development Authority, which helped the real estate
boom, all the while paddy fields were converted to housing
boards, luxury villas and apartments.
Society, as a whole, is a cold bunch with no sympathy. The
greedy and manipulative win the game, and the poor and less
intelligent fall prey to the system. They’re also the ones with the
rare ability to love wholeheartedly.
In the Tamil and Malayalam regions very frequently, different
quarters are occupied by separate castes or sometimes the
village is divided into three parts: that occupied by dominant
caste in the village or by the Brahmins, that allotted to the
Shudras, and the one reserved for the Panchamas or
Untouchables. In Northern India generally, in the Maratha
country and, as it appears sometimes in the Telugu and
Kanarese regions, it is only the impure castes that are
segregated and made to live and made to live on the outskirts
of villages. Kammattipaadam, shows how the Dalits were
forced to sell out their lands by their own brethren to upper
caste real estate sharks, mainly the Syrian Christians. The
houses of the Dalits were demolished when they disagreed to
leave their place.

The film Kammattipaadam tells the story of Dalit people and the

problems faced by them. One can also see the life of dalits
represented in all its authenticity. They lose their land and their
freedom. In locating the emotional worlds of the three central
characters in Kammatipaadam — Gangadharan, Krishnan and
Balan — we reach a mental space deprived of belongingness,
land and consequently, philosophy. While Ganga, Krishnan and
Balan are characters in the narrative, they are also metaphors
— of the displacement of consciousness which is largely
shaped by land and love.

Generally, a caste or a group of allied castes considered some

of the callings as it’s hereditary occupation, to abandon which
in pursuit of another, though it might be more lucrative, was
thought not to be right. The traditional caste system is
characterised by hereditary occupation. Members of a
particular caste are expected to follow the occupation meant for
the caste. Traditionally a Brahmin was allowed to function as a
priest. In some casts the name of caste is dependent upon the
very occupation as for instance, Napita (barber), Dhobi, Mochi,
Mali etc. In the film, the land mafia uses dark skinned Dalit
gangs mainly from the Pulaya community to usurp real estate.
The hero, a middle class Ezhava man named Krishnan, grew
up in the slums along with his best friend Ganga and his
thuggish brother Balan, who mentors them into a life of crime
and violence. The boss always asks the Dalit boys to resolve
any cases of disagreement that arises and they are also send
with the trucks carrying the liquor. Even if the police check they
will arrest the Dalits and the upper caste people who do all this
will never get caught.
Sweat, blood, grime, gang, crime, land, camaraderie -
'Kammatipaadam' paints a rich landscape which deftly weaves
a tale across decades. This gritty tale is in essence a story of
evolution and survival - of people and of their lands.
Caste is limited to only those persons who are born as the
members of that caste. Thus, membership in the caste is
hereditary and once membership does not undergo any
change even if change takes place in his status, occupation,
education and wealth etc. While, on one hand some loose out
in the battle to an industrial and commercial upheaval
happening around them, others cash it in. What this film does,
besides confronting us with their story, is showing us why their
story matters, why this community is the ground on which India
is built, and always has been.  Their sacrifices and struggles
are what allow the other 75% to flourish.
Krishnan has grown up with blood all around him. We see him
as a kid, along with the young Ganga, witnessing twin murder
in broad daylight without batting an eyelid. The options
presented to Kammattipadam's darker-skinned characters
never involve alternatives to criminal corruption. They turn to it
as a necessity at an early age, and it follows them wherever
they go. That isn’t to say the remnants of the caste system
don’t affect their lives.
The concept of pollution plays a crucial part in maintaining the
required distance between different castes. “A high caste man
may not touch a low caste man, let alone accept cooked food
and water from him. Where the two castes involved belong to
either extreme of the hierarchy, the lower caste man may be
required to keep a minimum distance between himself and the
high caste man”. The pollution distance varies from caste to
caste and from place to place. When Balan comes and sits with
the Guest of his boss Sudheshan, Sudheshan takes him away
and asks why is he interfering in between a very important
discussion.
According to G.S. Ghurye - most of the caste groups are
divided into a number of sub–groups, every one of which
forbids its members to marry persons from outside it. In the
movie we see that Krishnan’s parents don’t approve of him
spending time with Anita, Balan’s parents don’t wish him to
marry a Christian girl, and Ganga is a far more likely match for
Krishnan’s crush (Anita) since they’re both from the same
social class. Each of these groups, popularly known as sub
castes, is thus endogamous.
Caste is not a social group but also a cultural group in the
sense that the caste is a distinct style of life which marks off
one caste from another.

REFERENCES
www.google.com
www.indiatimes.com
www.wikipedia.com