Of Oppressor’s Body and Mind

by Yogesh Maitreya

We have grown up reading about “oppression”. We did not often read about “oppressor”. We have read about victims, speaking about their victimisation. We did not often read about victims speaking about the oppressor, the source of their oppression. This way, we have grown up knowing only one side of the coin. The biggest obstacle in the way of a change we seek lies here. We know about the symptom, we do not know about the cause.

“Of Oppressor’s Body and Mind” is an attempt to explore the workings of the body and mind of oppressors in India. It is an attempt to understand this through the literature, cinema and literary discourse they produce.

Genres: Nonfiction

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Yogesh Maitreya is a poet, writer, cultural critic, and a translator. He is a PhD scholar at TISS, Mumbai.

He is a founder of Panther's Paw Publication that publishes only Dalit-Bahujan authors.

Reviews

[Mridula]

The 'upper' caste person (oppressor) living with a false sense of superiority should give these essays a read to learn more about oneself and how they are conditioned to operate in a caste society. From asserting a moral undertone in correcting English to reading subtext in cinema and literature - Maitreya provides a strictly anti-caste lens, for which I am grateful.

[Panchsheel (not active here, follo on storygraph) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If fiction stems from utter ignorance of the social history of a people, and focuses on their feelings and emotions only as a product of their whims or circumstances, it leads the reader into a dark cave. There, he or she will feel the thrill of discovery, but end up facing the blackness. In the dark, a reader may be hurt, or caught by surprise by an insidious surrounding silence"

Fantastic set of essays.

[Akankshya · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent set of essays that reveal the invisible & subtle ways in which savarna consciousness & brahminism permeate Indian society & culture.

Particularly fascinating to me was the essays on translating dalit literature & the role of Bollywood cinema in perpetuating caste.

For instance, I have always had a feminist critique of movies such as DDLJ, but Yogesh's essay expands my own understanding by helping me understand the deeply casteist connotations obvious in the morality of the film.

The essays widen my own ways of thinking about how caste pervades our culture, how oppression operates through tools of art & media & the many ways we can discern brahminical ideology rooted in literature, cinema & more.


I am also happy to come away with some great Dalit literature recommendations to read further!


If one is trying to understand the relationship of caste to Indian culture in a snapshot before delving or re-engaging with more in depth works such as the writings of Ambedkar, this is a great collection to sit with.

[Ashna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem this book is! Every page, every para is such a compelling read, compelling us to think & recognize how our identities are controlled & restricted by cinema, literature, & language. A must read for Bollywood actors/directors/writers especially as this book exposes their propagation of caste through these 'artistic' mediums.

[Ambedkar Balasubramaniam Meganathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essays are outrageous and it even pricked at my conscience as a Dalit for appreciating certain aspects of life, especially Bollywood. It is a must read for every Dalit who can read English. This act will certainly awaken them, and understand Dalits are ghosted and gaslighted in the society. Kudos to Yogesh Maitreya for daring to bring out this work.

[Pradeep Narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely must read from beginning to end. An anti-caste reading on popular movies and books, with clear examples. The gaze is the focus, and that gaze has to be based on lived experiences. Must read.

[Divya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and well-written, with examples drawn across literature, movies, and language. If you haven’t read any truly Dalit literature, this might be a good place to start. And the world knows, we all need to be reading more non-savarna literature.

[Aswathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A radical intervention, marked by a keen sense of cultural reality, social inequality and justice.

It’s not often that you come across a book that addresses and centres the inquiry on casteism around the actual people responsible for keeping it systemically established and it’s values alive and thriving in the Indian psyche.

This book shines light on the hegemonic powers in the publishing industries, media houses and the academia, who actively gatekeep and prevent authentic works by the oppressed, from reaching the Indian mainstream as well as the wider world.

“His was the language shaped by his history as a Dalit, his people, undefiled by the Brahminical state and challenging them.”
- On Namdeo Dhasal, a Marathi firebrand writer and one of the founders of Dalit Panthers in 1972.

The invisibilisation of revolutionary literature written in regional languages by exceptional writers from the oppressed castes, is dealt with perfectly in the book. About how and why, translations into English (thereby into the wider public readership) if at all done, are done carefully in peculiar ways that make sure there’s not much disturbance in the dominant caste narratives already set in the society. The author analyses how this same system plays out in popular culture, especially in the movies that boasts of their progressive and culture shifting narratives.

“It is an attempt to tear apart the web of complexity in which oppression too, is not clearly visible, and hence becomes difficult to attack.”
- On Baluta, an autobiography by the Indian author DayaPawar in Marathi.


A book that stays true to the name of the publication, the claws of the panther are out in this one. It will be one of the most valuable books you read.