In reading the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema descriptions of Shyam Benegal's renowned trilogy – Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975) and Manthan (1976) – one might be led to imagine the 'straightforwardness' of the narratives of the films. Ankur, for instance, to be about a young man's affair; Nishant, about a woman who is abducted and raped by rural feudals; and Manthan, about corrupt politicians and their struggles with new technologies and milk cooperatives. In general, if one were to read such synopses without prior knowledge about the larger social relevance of these films, one could tend to believe that they have nothing to do with caste or untouchability. The reality, however, is that these films have layers of subtle references to the dynamics of caste in rural India. Unfortunately these crucial yet understated elements have ambiguously been omitted by film critics.
To test this claim, let us explore the caste indicators of Lakshmi and Kishtayya in Ankur, and then look closely at how the synopses addressed this. The morning after his arrival into the village, Surya (a newly married city-bred young man played by Anant Nag) asks Lakshmi (played by Shabana Azmi, the wife of a deaf-mute labourer, Kishtayya) to make tea for him. She hesitates, asking him whether he would drink tea that she made saying: "Mere haat ki chai piyengey aap?" Confused as to why he would not, Surya asks, "Kyun, kya baat hai?" and she responds, "Woh, hum loga kumhar hai sarkar", telling him that she belongs to the kumhar, or potter caste, considered 'low' born.
Although castes involved in skilled professions such as carpentry (sutar) and ironsmithing (lohar) are technically, in the government parlance, considered to be 'backward' classes/castes, they were not necessarily considered as 'untouchables' or Dalits. In other words, a Kumhar might be considered to belong to the 'lower' Shudra caste, but the practice of untouchability was by and large reserved for the ati-shudra, the Dalits. The working mechanism of the caste system, however, systematically laid down 'inherent' notions of caste/occupational hierarchy, leading to what B R Ambedkar termed 'graded inequality' within Indian society. Thus, for example, Sutars consider themselves to be superior to Lohars, who consider themselves to be superior to chamars (leatherworkers) and so on.
Of the various ambiguities in Ankur the lived reality of untouchability that the Dalits faced was imagined for the Shudra couple Lakshmi and Kishtayya. Therefore, depicting them as Kumhars and 'untouchables' was perhaps erroneous. Not that it was completely inaccurate, as Shudras (ie, Bahujans) might also have encountered such discriminatory treatment. Nonetheless Kumhars being treated as 'untouchables' highlighted yet another dimension of the practice of untouchability that can be thought of as permeating Indian society. On being asked about the caste identity of Lakshmi and Kishtayya and their depiction as 'untouchables', Benegal recently told this writer that although Kumhars might not now be considered Dalits, they were treated as 'untouchables' in the Telengana region of the 1950s, the period in which the film was set.