Indian or south Indian? The casteist roots of northern hegemony

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper argues that brahmanical conceptions of India centered on Aryavarta and structured by casteist logics undergirds the hegemony of north India by provincializing the south and its lowered-caste inhabitants. I term this phenomenon northernism, which renders the idea of India as synonymous with a brahminized rendering of north India. Drawing from Jyoti Nisha’s elaboration of Bahujan spectatorship, I develop Dravidian spectatorship as a methodology to analyze a Bollywood film as a representative text that elucidates northernism. I conclude the essay with a call to center casteism as a first step towards understanding different oppressions constituting Indian society.