Bollywood film banned in India over fear of unrest

A controversial Bollywood film which touches on the highly-sensitive subject of affirmative action for the Dalit community (the caste formerly known as "untouchables") in the country's education system, has been banned in three Indian states. Local authorities in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh in the south fear screenings of Aarakshan (Reservation) will cause law and order issues among Hindus. The drama, directed by well-known Indian film-maker Prakash Jha and starring Bollywoodstar Amitabh Bachchan, has been criticised for using objectionable terms to describe people from the Dalit community, who were once denied access to decent job and education prospects. The film's title refers to the current practice of reserving education places and government jobs for socially disadvantaged groups, a policy introduced to help ensure social mobility for India's 166 million low-caste citizens following centuries of repression. Jha, who has a history of making films which touch on sensitive social issues, has denied suggestions that Aarakshan paints a negative image of Dalits, a self-imposed title which means broken or suppressed. "In India there are people who benefit from this policy [of quotas] and there are those who have missed an opportunity because of the policy," he said last week. "Reservation and the quota system is a hard-hitting reality. It is almost an India-versus-India situation and by showing this in my movie, I am trying to bridge the gap." Writing on his blog, Bachchan said critics were acting out of ignorance. "Without any knowledge of what the film contains, without any desire to determine the trust and the most basic principles of law of democracy, it has merely strengthened my and many others' fear of the weakness it conveys of our belief in governance and its ethics," he wrote. Posters for the film have been vandalised by protesters, many of whom have also objected to the casting of Saif Ali Khan, a Muslim aristocrat, as a Dalit.