Page 17 - THE CHANGING WORLD OF RAY

pose, thus, wasting his own uralizing the caste system as

Shakti. In this way, the film a way of social stratification.

anticipated current political In his criticism of Dumont’s

discussions, by progressive approach to the caste sys-

writers such as Sukhadeo tem, Deliege (2011) associat-

Thorat (2004), focusing on ed this Durkheimian holistic

the rights of Dalits in a glob- view of Indian ‘society’ as
al context. ‘akin to analyzing European

In sum, Devi and Sadgati of- society exclusively through

fer experiential understand- the Bible’, which excluded

ings of how the caste system individual agency and his-

works, focusing on the in- torical change through the

equalities it inherits, with static ‘lenses of hierarchy
open-ending narratives that and purity’ (2011: 45-6). By

allow several interpretations contrast, Devi and Sadga-

of the content. Further, the ti challenged the ideal of a

two films show a society on sacred village community,

change, with historical and based on European stereo-

political implications project- types of purity and pollution
ed directly on the life of the as frequently used in an-

characters. thropology in the 1960s and

1970s, focusing instead on

This offers a much stories of socially oppressed

more realistic and dynamic individuals, while exposing

picture of the ‘caste’ system, the self-interest and moti-

rather than Louis Dumont vations of their feudal land-
(1972) for instance, who lords. By using the openness

famously argued in Homo and symbolic richness of

Hierarchicus that: ‘equali- photography, Ray readapted

ty and hierarchy are not, in the three evolving Bengali

fact, opposed to each other’ images of the Mother God-

but they are in a comple- dess within a contemporary

mentary relationship in dai- context, in order to show
ly life (1972: 306), thus, nat- how traditional ideas and