Title

Indian or south Indian? The casteist roots of northern hegemony.

Authors

Chandrashekar, Santhosh

Abstract

This paper argues that brahmanical conceptions of India centered on Aryavarta and structured by casteist logics undergirds the hegemony of north India by provincializing the south and its lowered-caste inhabitants. I term this phenomenon northernism, which renders the idea of India as synonymous with a brahminized rendering of north India. Drawing from Jyoti Nisha's elaboration of Bahujan spectatorship, I develop Dravidian spectatorship as a methodology to analyze a Bollywood film as a representative text that elucidates northernism. I conclude the essay with a call to center casteism as a first step towards understanding different oppressions constituting Indian society.

Subjects

INDIA; HEGEMONY; CASTE discrimination; CALL centers; OPPRESSION

Publication

Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, 2023, Vol 16, Issue 2, p91

ISSN

1751-3057

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1080/17513057.2021.1988134