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Avatar's racist subtext is in line with Indian social mores
Would Avatar's message of the weak triumphing over the strong have
carried much more conviction, if the natives' fight had been led by
one of their own?
CJ: R. Venkatesan.. Fri, Jan 22, 2010 11:28:35 IST
HOLLYWOOD FLICK Avatar has not only taken filmmaking to another level,
but has also emerged as the second highest grosser of all-time in
Hollywood history, second only to Titanic, interestingly by the same
filmmaker, James Cameroon.
The 3D sci-fi movie narrates the epic battle between the mystic and
nature-loving Na'vi, inhabitants of the planet Pandora, and the
marauding greedy humans.
However, the Na'vi's fight back is led by a human, a paralyzed Marine,
Jake Sully, in his 'avatar' as a Na'vi. Though the theme relies on the
time-tested formula of good vs. evil and the weak against the strong,
the fact that the saviour of the Na'vi in the movie happens to be a
white man (as opposed to the blue-skinned, 9-foot-tall, long-tailed,
bow-and-arrow wielding native-aliens) has made a section of
movie-goers accuse the film of having a racist subtext.
These critics see the white hero saving the primitive tribe theme as
reinforcing the white Messiah fable, and racial stereotypes, i.e., the
white as superior to the natives.
While this criticism may sound far-fetched, it does contain parallels
to the caste situation in India.
Though casteism, as practiced in India, is different from racism, they
both involve discrimination against fellow human beings, and hence
comparing them could give new insights.
In India, the term 'dalits' refers to those so-called low castes who
have traditionally been discriminated against. Though the
discrimination against people belonging to these castes has ceased to
a large extent, with the dalits emerging as a significant political
force in modern India, discrimination against dalits still continues
in certain pockets of the country.
Before the dalit awakening, the fight for equal rights for these less
privileged sections of the society was led largely by upper caste
leaders like Gandhi.
But once the dalits found their voices and emerged as a cohesive
political force, one of the first things they did was to disown the
upper caste leaders who led 'their' (Dalit's) fight.
Interestingly, Gandhi had coined a term "Harijan" (i.e., children of
God) to refer to the people belonging to the low castes. Disowning
this term as insulting, the revolutionaries of the low castes adopted
the umbrella term "Dalits" to refer to themselves.
In other words, the Messiah of the dalits is no longer from upper
castes, but one from among themselves.
Read in this context, there is nothing wrong in the view that it would
have been better if the Na'vi's fight against the exploitive humans in
the movie had been led by one of their own. In fact, it would have
better served to underscore the historical metaphor of the movie,
i.e., natives vs. white settlers.
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