‘Masaan’ through the Lens of 'The Caste Question Returns'

- Ipsita Das

['The Caste Question Returns'- Anuradha Gandhy]

Caste, as we know it today, is contested in many ways, but Anuradha Ghandy pushes this claim further, proposing that caste is a long way from being consigned to the civilisation of feudal India, with all its tensions; it is more akin to a violent, breathing phenomenon which changes with time. Many other Savarna castes have largely assimilated into modernity; caste has, at least in part, consumed them entirely and penetrated deeply into the economic structures of capitalist society, as well as the institutional frameworks of educational organisations, and the progressive strides built upon them. Additionally, it extends to more subtle social norms, economic exploitation and cultural imperialism.

Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan (2015) is a poignant cinematic exploration of this reality. On the surface, the film narrates two distinct stories in Varanasi: one of a young girl, Devi Pathak (Richa Chadha), fighting social shame and moral policing, and the other of Deepak Kumar (Vicky Kaushal), a lower-caste young man who aspires to improve his life. But from Ghandy's perspective, Masaan becomes an unflinching snapshot of how caste, interlinked with patriarchy, class, and corruption, helps to determine fates in contemporary India.

Deepak Kumar and the Inescapable Cage of Caste

Ghandy's central argument is that economic possibility, social connection, and individual desire are all shaped by caste, irrespective of merit or aspiration.

Deepak, a member of the Dom community, is destined for his inherited profession of cremating corpses on the ghats. His education and aspirations to be an engineer are acts of defiance—efforts at leaving caste-labour behind.

Nonetheless, Ghandy warns that upward mobility cannot alone eliminate caste barriers: social prejudice guarantees that mobility is limited and conditional. Deepak's love for a woman from the upper-caste, Shaalu Gupta (Shweta Tripathi), is feasible and evident in the fragile and hidden, pure in its intent, yet inherently subversive to caste structures...

Shaalu's tragic death serves as not simply a personal loss for Deepak, but a stark reminder of the systemic boundaries Ghandy refers to - where caste difference remains an unspoken, yet always present, force in determining the possibility of a life.

Devi Pathak and the Gendered Face of Caste Oppression

Ghandy points out that caste cannot be separated from patriarchy — control of women's sexuality and autonomy is a crucial site of caste endogamy. This relationship is illustrated in Devi's story: she is stalked, blackmailed, and socially shamed for having been found secretly with her lover. This act is not just a private matter; it is treated since it is subjected to a public moral penalty policed by corrupt officials of the state who were never going to act on Devi's behalf, and reinforced by social sanctioning via gossip in the community.

Devi's suffering can be connected to Ghandy's central argument that institutions such as the police, local power structures, etc., are often aligned to maintain discipline over women whose actions may be viewed outside the boundaries of propriety. While her story does not specifically mention caste, it reflects the marginalisation experienced by women in a patriarchal and conservative context, with links to the broader strategies identified by Ghandy, where women's options are rationed to maintain social "purity" and order.

Corruption, Class, and the Machinery of Oppression

A central element of Ghandy's analysis is that caste oppression functions today alongside multiple systems of exploitation. In Masaan, the police officers who extort money from Devi's father are not simply enforcing law; they are abusing the power of their office to extract from the vulnerable. This abuse of power illustrates how the operations of caste discrimination are entrenched in state institutions, whereby the enforcers of the state are not only upholding social hierarchies but intensifying them.

An economic class deepens this vulnerability. Deepak and Devi's families face financial instability, which restricts their options to resist harassment or challenge the social order—aligning with Ghandy's argument that caste oppression persists by keeping groups at the bottom of social hierarchies economically insecure.

Resistance Through Solidarity

In her theory, Ghandy argues for the infinite combination of struggles and unity among all oppressed people, stating that any isolated resistance misses the deeper struggle against systems. At the end of Masaan, when Deepak and Devi meet by the river, it is a silent validation. They may be strangers, but they are not alone. It is somewhere in the silence where Deepak and Devi build an invisible bond, hidden beneath their grieving hearts and being scofflaws to normative society.

Conclusion: The Living Wound

Seen through the eyes of The Caste Question Returns, Masaan ceases to be just a story of tragic love or personal redemption and more an interrogation into how the caste hegemony constructs lives, polices affections and restricts freedoms — even in this India that is modern and woke. A structural root undercuts the Ghandy-esque approach, exposing the film's emotional surface. Deepak’s grief is not only for Shaalu, a love that is controlled by centuries of oppressive boundaries. Similarly, Devi’s fight is not only for dignity; it is against a deeply embedded moral framework crafted to subjugate women in the name of social order.

In the end, through Ghandy’s structural approach and Ghaywan’s tender storytelling, the deep-rooted societal evils of caste discrimination and patriarchy have been highlighted.