The Oppressed
Journal Title: International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS) - Year 2014, Vol 2, Issue 1
Abstract
Do the poor get every opportunity in the world? We can hear the voice of the suffering, discriminated and exploited people are essentially the same across the world. It is a voice that bursts from the crushing silence over decades or centuries. It is a voice of deep agony which we can feel in the Australian film ‘Million Dollar Baby’ (Clint Eastwood) and the Bengali film ‘Koni’ (Saroj De from India). Australia and India were colonies of Great Britain for hundreds of years. The history of oppression by the fair skinned man – although differing in details and extent – is shared by the Australian black and Indian brown-black people. India won freedom in 1947 and all the people are apparently treated the same. Australia changed its governmental stance of assimilation to the multicultural one in the 1970s and the indigenous people are recognized with equal rights to human beings (in theory). Do Indian dalits and Australian aborigines get equal treatment? ‘Koni’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby’ say an emphatic ‘No’. The aboriginal’s period of colonization and the period following it is the gloomiest part of the Australian aboriginal life. It is replete with discrimination, ill-treatment, loss of land, people, culture, language and religion, and natural surroundings. Memories of trauma and turmoil, massacre and violence at both physical and deeper levels dominate this period. The independent India is not completely free from oppression. There are fourth world societies in India in the form of upper class and castes and displaced and dispossessed aboriginal and poor communities. The dominant strata of society have portrayed and treated the outcastes as sub-human. The rich educated people still carry colonial legacy as their paradigm. They do not resemble themselves with the poor. They get all the opportunities and think that opportunities would continue to galore. They don’t recognize poor as human beings. In the film ‘Koni’, named after the protagonist, Koni is treated like an untouchable. The swimming trainer Khitish spots Koni swimming in the Ganga and tries to make her a champion swimmer. But sadly enough, Koni was disqualified immorally in Calcutta’s multiple swimming competitions. Had Koni been a daughter of the rich and the influential, would she be treated and disqualified likewise. No. this shows that division of class exists even in the so-called modern urban society. Koni is economically sub-altern. Trainers of Jupiter club, the competitor girls of different clubs refuse to recognize her as a human being. They banter, torture and treat her inhumanly. Koni always eats alone, stays alone in Madras, where she was sent for competition. The juxtaposition of lonely Koni and the decorated swimming pool with many rich swimmers comes alternately. Koni name’s was discarded from the competition list. Her trainer Khitish is neither rich nor influential and so the inevitable had to happen. Koni’s last resort, her trainer, was also dismissed as a trainer from the Jupiter club.
Authors and Affiliations
Sushreema Dutta Sensharma
Keywords
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