The Print Campaign
History makes ‘others’, but then history was never known to be democratic.
Some Charras have been involved in thefts. Some of the incidents have been gruesome also. But did you punish the whole white world because their ancestors made the rest of the world a slave colony? Does one brand every bearded man a terrorist because some bearded men are terrorists? What kind of rationality promotes the logic of attributing the character of the part to the whole?
This fear in our words is also reflected in our eyes. The written word says that the ‘others’ are habitual offenders under law and so the eyes say that they have potential of ‘offending’ us. The written word says that the theft that took place a month back was committed by three Charras. It does not say that the theft was committed by two Indian men or by two unemployed youth, or two hungry youth or simply two men. The written word reiterates our fear into a belief which soon becomes a rational.Charras= Thieves
So who are the Chharas? Chharas are the Denotified tribes of India. In 1871, the British Notified a large number of tribes as 'born criminals' to solve their law and order problems. These tribes were placed under barbed wires and served as a cheap source of labor to the white rulers. Independent India failed to give these tribes justice. The Tribes were only, 'denotified' but the common man by now had learnt that some people are 'born criminals'.
Hence this campaign to break the myth of 'born criminals'.
A toddler put behind bars enacts the life of an adult criminal. The image asks people to rethink their myth- Can he be a 'criminal'?
