The following story appeared in the Indian Newspaper, DNA as part of an initiative to raise awareness about the plight of India’s Denotified Tribes (DNTs). This community is also the subject of our new film, Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir! You can see the trailer for our film here.
A look at why Chharanagar is the land of lawyers
Chharas say it is the only profession where their past is not a consideration
P Kerim Friedman
Walk through the narrow, twisted alleyways of Chharangar, a small ghetto on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, and you will see dozens of houses with a black lawyers plaque on display. There are over 120 lawyers here. Why are there so many lawyers in Chharanagar? A cynic might say it is because there are so many criminals. But the truth is that becoming a lawyer is one of the few jobs the Chhara can get simply by obtaining the necessary credentials. You don’t have to face the humiliation of getting turned down for a job because people think you are less than honorable. As one Chhara lawyer put it, “I felt that if they are going to keep calling us thieves I might as well learn what the law is.”
This reputation for thieving is a legacy of the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 under which the British branded entire communities as “criminals by birth.” Even if there are some thieves in the community, such collective punishment violates the most basic principles of human rights; and yet the Chhara, and over sixty million other De-notified Tribes throughout India, continue to be punished for simply being born into the wrong community.
A Chhara with a master’s in English literature might get turned down for teaching jobs because “Even though we would love to have you, the parents of our students aren’t so enlightened.” Or a business owner might think, but not dare say aloud, “We like you, but how do we know that your friends and relatives won’t use you to steal from us?” And forget about finding an apartment outside Chharanagar. The neighbours won’t speak to you, and eventually the landlord will be pressured to kick you out.
Despite all this, some Chhara manage to make a way for themselves. Over the past five years my wife and I have been filming a talented group of young actors known as Budhan Theatre. Not only have volunteers of Budhan Theatre succeeded as actors, some are going on to the prestigious National School of Drama, but they also do important community development work. They run a library, a children’s magazine, and an informal school. But more than anything else, theatre allows these youth to dream of a world where being a Chhara does not just mean being a lawyer or a thief, but whatever they want it to mean.
P Kerim Friedman is an assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous Cultures at National Dong Hwa University, where he teaches linguistic and visual anthropology.
