Film shows how to break the cycle for India’s ‘untouchables’.
NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SHOWS HOW TO EMBOLDEN INDIA’S ‘UNTOUCHABLES’
If we know anything about the history of India we have probably heard about “Untouchables.” For centuries they were India’s lowest caste, condemned from birth by a system that considered them contemptible. They were thought to be impure, less than human, useful only to do heavy labour.
In modern times this cruel discrimination began to appear abhorrent. Those who hated it, such as Mahatma Gandhi, pleaded with the authorities to abolish it. Gandhi and others holding that view were called “abolitionists,” like those who opposed slavery in 19th-century America. Finally, the Indian government outlawed caste discrimination. That was more than half a century ago but even now many people claim that India still has millions of “Untouchables.”
A small slice of this enormous crime — yet an infinitely hopeful slice — is shown to us by a new documentary series, Daughters of Destiny, about the Shanti Bhavan school in Bangalore. The documentary runs in four onehour episodes on Netflix. It’s a carefully made work, developed over seven years by a talented American writer- director, Vanessa Roth. She makes it a charming and touching experience for viewers by drawing endearing responses from the young students.
Abraham George, an IndianAmerican businessman, conceived and founded Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project. He was an artillery officer in the Indian army who went to the U. S. and earned a PhD from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He became an officer at the Chemical Bank in New York and later started his own company, Multinational Computer Models (MCM), to help corporations deal with international financial risk. At 49, he sold MCM to SunGard Data Systems, a Fortune 500 company.
Having made his fortune, he returned to India in 1995 to do what he most wanted: to reduce India’s injustices and inequalities. He established the George Foundation, a charitable trust that set up Shanti Bhavan.
His central idea is that deprived Indians, such as “Untouchables,” can be lifted up toward prosperity and happiness by their children. In theory this will break the cycle of hopelessness that has afflicted their families for as long as anyone can remember.
A residential school, Shanti Bhavan accepts 23 students every year to spend most of their youth being taught and inspired. Dr. George, as he likes to be called, appears in the documentary as a father figure, guiding the students in their attempt to raise themselves. He takes only one child from any family, hoping this will help not only their families but their communities to realize their potential.
The children are housed, fed and clothed while they are taught by demanding teachers. Before arriving at the school, at age 4, the children have been told to remain silent while their elders talk. At Shanti Bhavan they learn to articulate their own views, thereby gaining confidence in themselves. Tamil is their mother tongue but they all learn an impressive level of English.
Residential schools in India have apparently avoided the dreadful reputation acquired by schools for Indigenous students in Canada. Shanti Bhavan takes the trouble to explain itself to the parents of would- be pupils. And pupils go home often to reconnect with their families.
After a few years in school, they realize they have two lives — one at home with their impoverished families, the other with friends and teachers at school. After a while the students find they can’t really explain to brothers and sisters what they’ve been learning at school. And they can’t make outsiders understand how bad the conditions are in the Untouchable- filled villages they have come from.
This is not always a happy process. Siblings often resent the growing sophistication of the students and feel jealous toward their future possibilities. Daughters of Destiny doesn’t pretend that replacing the caste system is easy. Teachers tell the students that they are free and independent, able to make their lives as they wish. But the students know they are under pressure to do something that will justify all the effort and expense that has gone into their education.
The stars of the documentary are five girls whom we follow for several years over their development, at school and at home. Shanti Bhavan has both boys and girls but apparently Roth emphasizes the girls because the education of girls is neglected in rural India. So their presence is one more radical element in the school. At one point we watch a discussion in which the boys try to imagine what their lives would be like if they were females.
Towards the end we follow several women, graduates of Shanti Bhavan, who are now in the early stages of college. One is studying nursing, another journalism. There’s one who intends to be a lawyer. Someone else hopes to be a singer. When we last see them they are full of confidence and hope, which Vanessa Roth’s cameras poetically convey to the audience. Perhaps Roth will return in a decade or so, to find out whether George’s radical program has actually made fundamental changes in the students and the communities they hope to serve.