Movie review

EXAMINING ‘ZOOTOPIA’: CASTE-BASED GHETTOIZATION IN MODERN INDIA

SUBJECT: LAW AND LANGUAGE

SUBMITTED TO: DR. UMA MAHESHWARI CHIMIRALA

SUBMITTED BY: NATASHA SINGH, 2019-5LLB-88

YEAR 1, SEMESTER 1
 CONTENTS

1 Introduction.........................................................................................................................1
2 Legal Themes: Caste Ghettoization....................................................................................4
3 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................6
1 INTRODUCTION

Zootopia released in 2016 to widespread critical acclaim. The title is a portmanteau of

the Latin root zoo-, meaning ‘living-being’ or ‘animal’, and the sociological concept ‘utopia’,
which represents an ideal or perfect society. Likened to George Orwell’s Animal Farm
(1945), the story centres on a futuristic society of anthropomorphic animals, set in an
advanced time where animals have learnt to coexist peacefully. The protagonist of the story is
a spunky rabbit, Judy, who dreams of becoming the first bunny police-officer. She is drawn
into an investigation of violent crimes being perpetrated by the previously-civilised predators
against prey.

Like Animal Farm before it, Zootopia uses species/families of animals to represent the
distinct classes in society. Predictably, the ‘lower’ classes of animals symbolise the
traditionally marginalized communities, while the predators occupy positions of power,
influence, and importance. Zootopia executes this concept while maintaining fidelity to the
natural status quo: a carnivorous predator is outnumbered ten-to-one by its herbivorous prey.
This means that the timorous grass-eaters comprise the bulk of the electorate in the fictional
land where these mammals dwell, effectively turning the food chain on its head.

Perhaps more importantly, Zootopia, like its literary predecessor, satirizes the broader
political setting of the day. Orwell, who felt a strong distaste for what he felt was the
ideologically bankrupt UK-USSR alliance, stated he wrote Animal Farm with a “full
consciousness”1, intending “to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.”2
Similarly, critics deconstructing Zootopia have commended the film’s “smart, funny and
thought-provoking”3 message.

Zootopia was reviewed by the American film-critic Peter Travers for Rolling Stone, the
Indian journalist Reagan Gavin Rasquinha for The Times of India, and the British film-
critic John Nugent for Empire. Interestingly, all three different reviews analyzed Zootopia
differently. The critics recognized that Zootopia has a hidden message; they were simply
divided over what it was. Considering that the movie was an American production, many felt
the central theme of fear, alienation and xenophobia was a thinly-veiled reference to the

11
George Orwell, Why I Write, GANGREL, Summer 1946.
2
Id.
3
Neil Genzlinger, Review: In ‘Zootopia,’ an Intrepid Country Bunny Chases Her Dreams In The Big City, THE
NEW YORK TIMES, March 23, 2016 at page 6, Section C.

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politically charged climate of the divisive presidential-election. In his Rolling Stones review,
Travers described Zootopia as a “subversive”4 movie that “put a lot on its animated plate”,5
interpreting its depiction of the treatment of meat-eating species as potential threats as an
analogue to the US government’s notorious policy on racial-profiling. In the UK, where it
was released under the alternative title Zootropolis, Empire magazine praised the movie for
its rich detailing, acknowledging the uneasy onscreen predator-prey relationship as a “smart
analogy for the debates on immigration that rage in our human world”6. While Rasquinha
avoided explicitly politicizing the movie, he complimented it as an “intelligent”7 movie
which avoided being “too moralistic”8 about weighty issues. Due to the wide scope of
interpretation, and the marketing of Zootopia as a children’s movie, a majority of the reviews
eschewed focusing solely on the socio-political issues the film touched upon, and instead
lauded its core message of acceptance, rationality, and tolerance.

When examined in a specifically Indian context, several points of interest crop up. The
film experiments with a variety of themes that have legal and social significance. These
include ghettoization, vertical occupational legacy, social pigeonholing, and institutionalized
discrimination.

Caste-like stratifications, particularly with reference to occupational heredity and

endogamy, are strikingly ubiquitous. Japan, too, for example, had a highly inflexible system
of social stratification (mibunsei) during the Edo period (1603-1868). Mibunsei was based on
a Confucian conception of ‘moral purity’. Those who bore arms and protected others
(samurais) were accorded the highest respect in society, followed by peasants and artisans,
who produced goods and services. Last of all were the merchant-bankers, who dealt with
wealth and money (typically viewed as corrupting influences). Parallel to the Indian Varna-
system, there were also those outside this system entirely. These outcast groups included
Burakumin, who carried out the traditionally ‘tainted’ professions (undertaking,
gravedigging, scavenging, etc.) The word Burakumin itself literally translates to “village
people” or “hamlet people”, a testament to how severely they were physically segregated

4
Peter Travers, ‘Zootopia’ Movie Review, ROLLING STONE (Mar. 3, 2016, 2:22pm ET),
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/zootopia-92993.
5
Id.
6
John Nugent, Zootropolis Review, EMPIRE ONLINE (Mar. 18, 2016),
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/zootropolis-review.
7
Reagan Gavin Rasquinha, Zootopia Movie Review, THE TIMES OF INDIA (May 9, 2016, 02.34pm IST),
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/english/movie-reviews/zootopia/movie-
review/51238901.cms.
8
Id.

2
from mainstream society. The Burakumin scholar Nakagami Kenji analysed the experiences
of the Burakumin relative to the other “marginalized outcastes”, noting that the routine
exclusion of subaltern communities from the dominant-hegemonic socio-political processes
systematically denied their beliefs, feelings, and experiences.9

9
Machiko Ishikawa, Nakagami Kenji’s ‘Writing Back to the Centre’ through the Subaltern Narrative: Reading
the Hidden Outcast Voice in ‘Misaki’ and Karekinada, Volume 5, NEW VOICES, 1, 2-3 (2011).

3
1 LEGAL THEMES: CASTE GHETTOIZATION

Judy, the protagonist, lives in the rural Bunnyburrow, an overpopulated village inhabited
exclusively by rabbits and hares. As the movie progresses, we see that the degree of
segregation is extreme. Gerbils, hamsters, and other rodents dwell in Little Rodentia. Smaller
animals prefer to live well away from the larger, more dangerous ones. Judy is desperate to
escape the oppressive banality of her hometown to the relatively cosmopolitan capital
Zootopia.

The Oxford Dictionary defines a ghetto as “a part of a city, especially a slum area,
occupied by a minority group or groups”, or alternatively as “an isolated group or area.” The
definition, even in a non-sociological context, is suggestive of a level of segregation that
forces certain members of society to live apart from the others. The first recorded use of the
term was in the early 1700s, with reference to the infamous Venetian Jewish Ghetto. The
word may have been derived from the Latin phrase Giudaicetum, which literally translates to
‘Jewish enclave’, or alternatively, from the Germanic-Italian word borghetto (the root of the
English word borough), meaning ‘little town’.10

Despite the supposed European etymological origin of the word, the phenomenon of a
ghetto, particularly a Dalit one, is oft-seen in Indian cities and villages. Fa Xian, the Chinese-
Buddhist traveler who wrote an account of early 5 th century India, observed that the Chandala
caste, traditionally regarded as ‘impure’ or ‘evil by karma’, was made to live on the outskirts
of the town or the village. 11 Centuries of deep-seated dogma, including the persistent belief
that any form of contact, however minimal, with a Dalit would ‘pollute’ the upper-caste
Hindus ensured that Dalits could only reside in small clusters of hamlets at a prescribed
distance from the town temple, lake, and market. In other settlements with a sizeable Dalit
population, the lower-castes were forced to use different wells, footpaths, and roads
constructed exclusively for their use.

10
Camila Domonoske, Segregated From Its History, How 'Ghetto' Lost Its Meaning, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
(Apr. 27, 2014, 12:46pm ET), https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/27/306829915/segregated-
from-its-history-how-ghetto-lost-its-meaning.
11
RONALD MELLOR & AMANDA H. PODANY, THE WORLD IN ANCIENT TIMES: PRIMARY SOURCES AND
REFERENCE VOLUME 76-77 (Oxford University Press 2005).
11

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 Many believe that the problem of ghettoization has since shifted from one of
compulsion to one of choice. But this choice may be a purely nominal one. A residential
society dominated by upper-caste members/families may protest against the inclusion of
lower-caste residents. These residents may be excluded from social gatherings and events,
particularly religious ones. Conservative upper-caste residents may consciously or
unconsciously elect to avoid socializing with lower-caste residents. A variety of legal, social
and communal pressures may drive lower-caste homeowners to choose residence in a society
where they are subject to lesser alienation and scrutiny.

Rental discrimination need not always be overt; even a seemingly benign listing like
‘Vegetarians only’ can ensure that only the traditionally vegetarian castes i.e. Bramhins are
given accommodation. India Today reported that a real-estate site based in Bangalore asked
for prospective tenants’ gotra, rashi, and nakshatram as a “subtle way of screening out
undesirables.”12

The Human Rights Watch, in a report submitted to the Committee on the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination, described the caste-system as “hidden apartheid”.13 In the same
report, they drew special attention to the problem of segregated housing colonies for Dalits,
lamenting the seeming complicity of the government in “maintaining the existing spatial
segregation”, even “beyond rural environments”,14 also observing that many Dalits were
systematically provided with no or poor state-services, a problem both caused and
compounded by caste-based ghettoization.

Evidently, desegregation is an important precursor for greater caste-inclusion and

equality. However, in a 2005 judgement, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a cooperative
society fighting to restrict its membership to Parsees, observing that “there should be a bond
of common habits and common usage among the members, which should strengthen their
neighborly feelings.”15 Indeed, in this situation, the exclusionary bye-laws of the society were
protected by invoking the right of the minorities to safeguard their interests. This begs the
question: should deghettoization be made a matter of compulsion?

12
Sanjay Hedge, Separate but equal ghettoes, INDIA TODAY (Nov. 12, 2013, 09:23am IST),
https://www.indiatoday.in/opinion/story/muslims-hindu-colonies-ghettoisation-dalits-castes-religion-
discrimination-217151-2013-11-12.
13
India: ‘Hidden Apartheid’ of Discrimination Against Dalits, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (Feb. 13, 2007, 7:00pm
EST), https://www.hrw.org/news/2007/02/13/india-hidden-apartheid-discrimination-against-dalits.
14
Id.
15
Zoroastrian Co-operative Housing Society Limited and Ors. v. District Registrar Co-operative Societies
(Urban) and Ors., AIR 2005 SC 2306 (India).

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 It is also interesting to examine what the SC/ST Atrocities Act says about caste
ghettoization. Perhaps to reconcile a respect for the personal preferences of lower-caste
homeowners with a progressive desegregation policy, the Act only outlines the atrocities that
an upper-caste person can commit against an SC/ST (wrongful occupation/dispossession of
land, mischief to property, restriction of access to public spaces and facilities, etc.) 16, most of
which are already offences under the IPC, simply aggrandized by the underlying caste-
motivation. The Act, hence, remedies individual injury while staying silent about community
or group-based behavior.

16
The Scheduled Castes and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 1989, No. 33, Acts of
Parliament, 1989 (India).

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2 CONCLUSION

Much of modern-day ghettoization is unplanned. However, even this organic

ghettoization is a form of segregation. For divisions made on caste-based lines, ghettoization
can lead to the systematic ousting of minority groups from society, the concentration of
poverty in particular regions, lack of sustainable access to adequate infrastructural facilities
due to geographic or economic considerations, and a general loss of socio-economic
prosperity and mobility. Deghettoization is a two-pronged problem: preventing turf-
protection by upper-castes, and promoting the interests of the minorities. The problem of how
to go about desegregating, though, lies squarely in the legislative domain, and must be
rectified through prohibiting otherizing covenants. As seen in its 2005 judgement, the courts
can only decide if these covenants are constitutionally valid, not whether they are consonant
with public interest per se.17

Johan Galtung wrote about segmentation, fragmentation, and marginalization as

consonant processes that were manifestations of embedded cultural violence. 18 Ghettoization,
whether enforced through legal or socio-cultural means, is a tool of repression that
dissocializes minorities, enables discrimination and stereotyping, and undermines their
collective identity.

17
Supra note 16.
18
Johan Galtung, Cultural Violence, Volume 27 JOURNAL OF PEACE RESEARCH, 291, 293 (1990).