This documentary is being sponsored by DER, Documentary Educational Resource.This documentary will follow the life of the late Bibhuti Singh Yadav, a controversial low-caste Hindi religious philosopher who climbed the ladder of academia, beginning under a tree in Tulsipur, Uttar Pradesh, India, to eventually winning prestigious national awards for his academic achievements. When Yadav won an award in India, according to custom, the Prime Minister of India (then Indira Gandhi) came to present the award to Yadav. He refused to go to the platform to receive his prize, but instead stood amongst the audience holding a black flag in public protest against Indira Gandhi's political policies. Armed guards had to "escort" him by his elbows to the stage. However, he had managed to smuggle up a rotten tomato, which he smeared all over the back of Indira Gandhi's white silk sari as he exited the stage with his prize in hand. Dr. William Allen, Yadav's final doctoral student and heir to his university office and legacy, leads the filmmakers in search of the paduka (i.e. footprint of the guru). The film, which tells the life story of a man who was resistant to having photographs or films taken of him (although such materials exist even in their limitedness), will also document a ritual called the Karaha, practiced solely by members of the Yadav family in remote rural India. In the ritual, high and low caste individuals participate in defying the laws of physics by bathing in clay cauldrons of boiling hot milk, immersing their naked limbs and torsos in the raging flames of the holy sacrificial fire. The ritual is a dramatic re-enactment of the "identity-defining moment" in the history of the Yadav family. The film will follow Dr. Allen as he journeys to further understand his predecessor, leading the documentary crew from Uttar Pradesh to Korea, to Texas and finally to Philadelphia, where Yadav met his untimely death in 1999.
To donate to this project, visit Documentary Educational Resource.