Experiencing Interruptions?

Birth1871

India is celebrated as the world’s largest and one of its most participatory democracies. However, freedom for India’s Denotified Tribes (DNTs) meant something very different to that of other Indian citizens. These communities were subject to the only experiment in human history to define entire peoples as hereditary criminals. In 1871, the British colonial government in India inaugurated the Criminal Tribes Act.

By independence the Act had been amended 3 times and had defined around 130 communities – ‘Criminal Tribes’ – totalling about 12-13 million across India, as ‘habitually criminal’ and ‘addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences’.

In the 1940s, the provincial governments of Bombay and Madras passed ‘Habitual Offenders’ legislation. This was incorporated into a general Habitual Offender’s Act following independence. Yet many of India’s DNTs continue to be subject to systematic police surveillance and control. Following independence they were not fully ‘rehabilitated’, released only slowly from ‘settlements’ and have generally not benefitted from the post-colonial state’s projects of welfare for disadvantaged communities.
This project, which has so far produced a documentary film , explores what happened to India’s DNTs when India gained independence by focussing on two specific communities in western India. It is currently being developed further to explore the relationship between nomadism among DNTs in India and broader patterns of nomadism, the arts and performance across Europe.

The project has been supported by The British Academy and by Cultural and Creative Industries Exchange (Ignite), University of Leeds

  • Dakxinkumar Bajrange
    Director
  • Nomad Movies Pvt Ltd
    Producer
  • The University of Leeds, UK
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    History, Human Rights, Ethnography, Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Arts, Thetare, Denotified, Nomadic tribes
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 1 minute
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2014
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi
  • Shooting Format:
    HD
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • University of Ottowa, Canada (8th, March 2014),
    University of Ottawa
    March 8, 2014
    Canada Screening
  • University of Toronto, Canada
    University of Toronto
    March 10, 2014
    Toronto Premiere
  • York University, Toronto, Canada
    York University
    March 11, 2014
    York Premiere
  • Queens University, Kingston, Canada
    Queens University
    March 12, 2014
    Queens premiere
  • Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
    Georgetown University
    March 17, 2014
  • Temple University, Philadelphia
    Philadelphia
    March 20, 2014
  • Steven institute of technology, New Jersey
    New Jersey
    March 23, 2014
    New jersey premiere
  • Ball State University, Muncie
    Muncie
    April 1, 2014
    Muncie Premiere
  • University of Washington, Seattle
    Seattle
    April 17, 2014
  • Phillycam, Philadelphia Community Access Media

    May 18, 2014
    Access media
  • University of Leeds , UK
    University of leeds
    October 7, 2014
    University of leeds
  • Cambridge University
    Cambridge University
    October 10, 2014
    Cambridge University
  • Edinburgh University
    Edinburgh University
    October 11, 2014
    Edinburgh University
  • Oxford University
    Oxford University
    October 17, 2014
    Oxford University
  • School of Orinetal and African Studies (SOAS), Univeristy of London
    University of London
    October 18, 2014
    University of London
  • Women Studies Department, University of Pune
    University of Pune
    November 10, 2014
    University of pune
  • 'Samvaad' - Tribal Conclave organized by Tata Steel Rural Development Society
    'Samvaad' - Tribal Conclave
    November 18, 2014
    'Samvaad' - Tribal Conclave
  • Pearl Academy, Jaipur
    Jaipur
    March 31, 2015
    Pearl Academy
Director Biography - Dakxinkumar Bajrange

Brief Resume” Dakxinkumar Bajrange (Dakxin Chhara)

Dakxinkumar Bajrange (Chhara) is an award-winning filmmaker, playwright and activist from the Chhara De-notified Tribes of Ahmedabad in the western part of India. He is a recipient of a Ford Foundation International Fellowship (2010-11) to study Graduate studies in ‘Theatre and Global Development’ at the University of Leeds, UK. His book ‘Budhan Bolta Hai’ (Budhan Speaks) was awarded first prize for "Mahatma Gandhi Best Creative Writing on Human Rights" by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for 2010-11. He also receives Rajiv Gandhi Arts Fellowship (2004-05) and Bhasha Fellowship (2002-03) to study art forms of nomadic and de-notified communities in Gujarat. For films he is also the recipient of the Kerala State Award at the International Documentary Short Film Festival of Kerala for the film “The Last Man” in Dec 2021, Recipient of the Best Director Award and “Award for Excellence” at the 7th Art Independent International Film Festival for the film “Budhan Podcast” in Jan 2022, Recipient of Best Director” and “Best Documentary Award” at the Picasso Einstein Buddha International Film Festival for “The Last Man” Jan 2022, Recipient of Donald E. Lacy, Jr. Social Justice Award at the Studio City International Film Festival for my recent documentary film The Last Man 2020, Recipient of Award of Merit at 7th Arts International Film Festival for my film “The Last Man” Nov. 2020, Recipient of Best Director award for his recent film “Covid 19 Blame Game” at the 7th Arts International Film Festival, Nov 2020, Nominated for Social Impact Award for Theatre and Films (2019) by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) 2019. Members of the public also nominated him for Fellowship for Freedom of Expression, INDEX, UK, 2018, Nominated as “Heroes of Ahmedabad” by Ahmedabad Mirror Newspaper in 2014, and Invited by United Nations to speak about India’s Nomadic and De-notified Tribes in NY in 2007. He is co-author of the book titled “Vimukta - Freedom Stories”, edited by him and Prof. Henry Schwarz of Georgetown University published on 31st Aug 2021 by Navyana Publication House. For more info about my work, recognitions, and media links, please visit www.dakxinchhara.in

Currently, he works as an “Artistic Director” at Budhan Theatre (www.budhantheatre.org), he is also a founding director of Nomad Movies Pvt Ltd. He has written and Directed 13 plays Supervised 48 Theatre Productions of Budhan Theatre and performed more than 1000 shows in different parts of India. He was nominated for "Heroes of Ahmedabad" by Ahmedabad Mirror. As a Filmmaker, he directed 94 fiction and non-fiction films/TV series on various developmental, social and political issues of India He has recently directed his debuted critically acclaimed Bollywood film "Sameer", starring Zeeshan Mohammed, Seema Biswas, Anjali Patil. Sameer was released in theatres in India on 8th Sept 2017 and also screened at New York Indian Film Festival (USA), Charlotte Asian Film Festival (USA) and the Indian International Film Festival of Queensland, Australia where he received the "Best Director" award for 'Sameer". Recently he has finished his film “The Last Man” and finished 20 episodes of Budhan Podcast as “Project Director”, funded by University of Leicester, UK

His academic and journalistic articles on Theatre and Films appeared in several national and international journals/newspapers include,

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Birth1871 is first well-researched documentary film on India's De-notified Tribes who are treated as 'Criminal Tribes' by Indian society and legal and judiciary system. The researcher of the film Prof. William Gould took one year to collect lots of data and archives that shows in-depth history of these tribes in India, particularly, an injustice happened with them during pre and post independence. 'Birth1871' is deeply inspired by the theatre group called Budhan Theatre that is a theatre group of Chhara De-notified Tribe of Gujarat State. Since 17 years, the group is raising their voice again injustice and social prejudices about DNTs in general and Chharas in particular. The film discusses in detail about how these tribes are living lives with stigma of criminality and how theatre group is trying to encounter with colonial historical stigma through arts and culture. The film is meant to distribute in the DNT communities in India so people can be well aware about their history and their contemporary situation in changing political arena of India.

The film is my one of the most ambitious project I wanted to make since many years. Now a days, the film is contributing in raising important questions about constitutional guarantee of DNTs in social and political movement of De-notified tribe. Apart of just documentation, its helping to the communities to understand their history from different perspectives and contributing in dialog for their rights.