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Earth by Deepa Mehta

Earth by Deepa Mehta. Race Relations and Women and Children’s Positions. Outline. General Introduction: Partition and Race Relations ; Deepa Mehta and the film ; Love and Hatred before & during Partition period Characters across the Racial Divide The Roles of Women and Children.

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Earth by Deepa Mehta

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  1. Earth by Deepa Mehta Race Relations and Women and Children’s Positions

  2. Outline • General Introduction: • Partition and Race Relations; • Deepa Mehta and the film; • Love and Hatred before & during Partition period • Characters across the Racial Divide • The Roles of Women and Children

  3. General Introduction • Partition & Independence: clips 11 (reality vs. the government rhetoric)

  4. Race Relations • Hindus-- 83  %Muslims(回教) -- 11 % .ChristiansSikhs(錫克教), India's armed forcesBuddhistsJains（耆納教）-- Parsee, descendants of Zoroastrian Persian immigrants, among the richest groups in IndiaJews -- in the Southern State of Kelara

  5. The Partition of India • August 14, 1947: birth of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan • August 15, 1947: birth of India

  6. Two speeches • "Leave India to God. If that is too much, then leave her to anarchy." --“My Appeal to the British” Gandhi, May 1942 • "At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom...A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance..." • — India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

  7. Reasons for Partition • The British had followed a divide-and-rule policy in India. • An ideological divide between the Muslims and the Hindus of India. E.g.1. 蒙兀兒王朝時Mughal回教徒當權﹐但英統治之下﹐印度教徒較親英﹐回教徒則反英﹐因此社會地位較低．2. 印度教徒反食牛肉；回教徒主要吃牛肉．3.回教徒生活由可蘭經規律．

  8. Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs migrations and uprooting (6 million Muslims to Pakistan+ 5 million Hindus and Sikhs to India) Riots and violence: e.g. "ghost trains“ Division of the provinces of Punjab and Bengal Ruined economies and lands; no established, experienced system of government. Separation of Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971. Impact and Aftermath • Wars between India and Pakistan; deadlocked over Kashmir.

  9. EARTH (1998) • Director: Deepa Mehta • Adapted from Bapsi Sidhwa's semi-autobiographical novel Cracking India(the film a simplified version; see Sidhwa’s account) • Setting: Lahore

  10. Born in India in 1949, based in Toronto since 1973 Her feature films 1. Sam & Me; Indian trilogy: Fire—lesbian plot Earth—the partition of India Water—lives of Indian child widows in the 1930s. (Her set destroyed in Varanisi, and her life threatened.) Hollywood/Bollywood – 2002 Deepa Mehta

  11. Love & Hatred before & during the Partition Period Qs: • Describe how the different races are presented. (e.g. Race Relations in the film: clips 2, 9; Parsee, clips 5 ) • How is partition presented? What are the symbols used? Ironies? (clips 4, 12) • What are the significances of the park scenes and the friends’ meetings? What is the symbolic meaning of the park? (clips 3; 7, 9, 16, 18, ending)

  12. Partition: Seen thru’ Ironies & Symbols • Symbols: broken plate, torn doll; • Partition // the breakup of the group of friends • Ironies: kite flying riots; the changes in Shenta’s fate; happiness in the park and the desolate park.

  13. Characters across the Racial Divide • Compare the characters of Hassen and Dil Navaz. • Discuss Dil Navaz’s changes in the film. Why do think the original novel is subtitled The Ice Candy Man? • What do you think about the betrayal at the end of the film?

  14. Dil Navaz: “Ice Candy”; Good at poetry and performances, Tendency to violence, “Lion in everybody’s heart.” Hassan Quiet and gentle, Wants racial harmony Rescues Singh Willing to convert to Hinduism for Shenta Characters across the Racial Divide The other responses: escape; convert to Islam, Christianity, helpless in front of the mob.

  15. The Roles of Women and Children • The child bride (untouchable) saved by marrying a Christian dwarf; • The Muslim refugee child (clip 14) • Shenta • Lenny: unhappy birthday; breaking plate and doll, nightmare

  16. Lenny as the narrator • Narrative frame: Lenny 58 (1997) Lenny 8 (1947) • A child’s perspective—a witness of the trauma of partition in the individual dramas of love and rivalries  the breaking up of the nation/frienship, the violence, and the distortion of human nature Q: Why does the director choose to tell the story from Lenny’s perspective? innocence + Parsee’s neutrality

  17. References • “My Appeal to the British” http://sourcebook.fsc.edu/history/gandhi.html • The first steps of a new nation http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/India97/india/panorama.tumultuous.times/

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