Writing with Fire

Traditionally, I alway think of India as a nation littered with newspaper journalism but I hadn't quite clocked that the vast majority of that was run by men higher up the caste system than the "untouchable" Dalit women who decided to set up their own publication in the northern province of Uttar Pradesh. The three who feature here are pretty fearless when it comes to investigating the violence against women that goes largely unreported - it's certainly not investigated by a police force indifferent at best to the plight of many whose attacks are seen as settling disputes about family "honour". This documentary is set against a backdrop of forthcoming elections in which the existing Government is widely expected to be returned to office, but their questions of those in authority and of those ordinary people on the street offers us quite an indictment of generational attitudes that haven't changed in centuries. The purpose here is to expose the situation many women experience as being akin to those of chattels or property; indeed the root of many of their challenges seems to stem from an historical situation in which they were considered the property of their fathers or their husbands - property to be used, abused, traded or neglected as they saw fit. Meera Devi is determined to shine some light on those abhorrences and at some risk to herself and her fellow journalists, attempts to tackle attitudes amongst many ill-educated contemporaries. It's also quite an interesting look at just how the fixed media days are declining and at how quickly they can galvanise opinion on social media and how potently those technologies can influence the decisions of politicians, police and the judiciary when it comes to equality and fair treatment under the selectively applied law. The intimate style of the documentary gets us into the thick of things and the interview techniques come across as plausible and at times quite heart-rending. She asks "What has God to do with politics" to one man. Now there is a question.