Jai Bhim Comrade
Anand Patwardhan (Director)
Date: 23 February 2013Time: 9:00 AM
Finishes: 23 February 2013Time: 2:00 PM
Venue: Russell Square: College BuildingsRoom: Khalili Lecture Theatre
Type of Event: Film
Programme
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| 9.00 | Welcome Refreshments |
| 9:30 | Introduction ~ Anand Patwardhan (Director) |
| 10:00-13:00 | Film screening ~ Jai Bhim Comrad (India, 2012, 185 mins) |
| 13:00-14:00 | Roundtable Discussion & Q&A |
Synopsis
For thousands of years India’s Dalits were abhorred as “untouchables” denied education and treated as bonded labour. By 1923 Bhimrao Ambedkar broke the taboo, won doctorates abroad and fought for the emancipation of his people. He drafted India’s Constitution, led his followers to discard Hinduism for Buddhism. His legend still spreads through poetry and song.
In 1997 a statue of Dr. Ambedkar in a Dalit colony in Mumbai was desecrated with footwear. As angry residents gathered, police opened fire killing 10. Vilas Ghogre, a leftist poet, hung himself in protest.
‘Jai Bhim Comrade’ shot over 14 years, follows the poetry and music of people like Vilas and marks a subaltern tradition of reason that from the days of the Buddha, has fought superstition and religious bigotry.
Watch the trailer
Documentary cinema of Anand Patwardhan
Admission
This event is free and open to the general public.
Hosted jointly by the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, the Centre for South Asian Studies and the Centre for Media and Film Studies at SOAS, University of London
Contact email: dm21@soas.ac.uk
Contact Tel: 020 7898 4426
