ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses the Malayalam movie Perariyathavar (Names Unknown, 2015) directed by Dr Bijukumar Damodaran through the lens of caste and environment. While most mainstream narratives of the environment generally constitute romanticisation of nature, the environment is also a political issue, particularly with reference to caste. In India, the approach to the environment is informed by locatedness of caste. Dalits and Adivasis in India suffer disproportionate risks to their lives. Perariyathavar addresses issues of urban spaces, waste management, and displacement. The narrative, depicting the social and spatial marginalisation of Dalits and Adivasis, demands the question: how did these communities end up in the fringes of urban spaces? The film is analysed through the framework of environmental justice and caste in Indian environmental discourses, and against the backdrop of the history of land alienation, displacement, and perpetual systematic marginalisation of Dalits and Adivasis of Kerala. It is also placed in the context of mainstream Malayalam cinema post-1980s to understand the portrayal of social changes with respect to land relations. Through these analyses, the chapter establishes that environmental injustice faced by people in the urban underbelly is a consequence of Kerala’s modernity and development experience, reflecting the casteist attitudes of the state and society.
