This TV show for children perpetrates biases, stereotypes

‘Chhota Bheem’ narrates the story of the valorous nine-year-old Bheem, a persona loosely based on the eponymous character in Hindu mythology known for strength. Little Bheem lives in the fictional city-state of Dholakpur, and in each television episode, when faced with various perils, he proceeds to tackle them with the help of his friends Chutki, Raju and Jaggu Bandar, the monkey.

Despite the lifeless animation and dim plotlines, the show currently has at least 40 million viewers, and Chhota Bheem merchandise from toothpaste to toys flood Indian stores. Though the producers of the show have had extraordinary success, hardly anyone has ventured beyond the ‘fun’ and ‘excitement’ it offers children to analyse the sexist, racial, linguistic and other discrimination deeply embedded in the show.

Gender bias

The gender bias is explicit: Chutki has the fairest skin of all the characters and has two pink spots on her cheeks. She “loves playing with the boys but also is very feminine and keeps herself busy with all sorts of arts and household chores”, describes the official website of the show. She never participates when physically strenuous fighting or other kinds of movements are involved. The sheer violence displayed by Bheem, masquerading as “teaching the villains a lesson”, is unnerving and he is an epitome of the macho male (or as much of a macho male that a nine-year-old can be).

Bheem has a rival in his village, Kalia. It may not come as a surprise that not only him but most other villains in the show are dark-skinned. In an episode emulating Jack and the Beanstalk, the giant is dark-skinned and wears tiger skin.

Racial prejudice

There is reason to believe this racial prejudice historically comes from the antagonism between the expansionist invaders of the ancient times who lived in agricultural city-states and the dark-skinned tribes, who were forest-dwellers. Due to this, the rakshasa, or the demon, in the literature of the “civilised” and settled agricultural communities, is identified with the tribal forest-dweller; and the giant in the story, a rakshasa.

Curiously, even as Bheem saves an elephant from a cruel hunter and is proclaimed a hero, in other episodes he beats up hyenas, fights tigers and attaches fireworks to a lion’s tail, simply because the last three were ‘threats’ to his friends. This imposition of values of who is ‘good’ and who is ‘bad’ on to the animal world no doubt makes the little viewers internalise certain erroneous notions.

On linguistic lines

An episode of particular interest to me was one where Bheem and his friends visited Kerala on an adventure. It was interesting to note how linguistic ‘othering’ was an important way of constructing the identity of Malayalis. In the Hindi version of the episode, the Malayalis spoke Hindi (the language Bheem and his friends speak) with an accent that sounded odd, and many of them were caricatures that exclaimed aiyo from time to time, meant to evoke mirth. Kalia wants to learn Kathakali, a performance art form native to Kerala, and he is ridiculed.

In another episode, Dancing with the Tribes, the image of the ‘tribal’ cannot be more stereotypical, and their language is gibberish. Bheem and his friends make fun of them by attempting to imitate them. Bheem also goes to meet the Incas, aliens and many other groups in various episodes. But every visit is necessarily based on some sort of conflict or antagonism, the message being, ‘what is different is to be fought’.

Way to enmity

From all this it seems to me that while superficially trying to make other ‘cultures’ familiar to viewers, all it does is essentialise them and inculcate an intuitive aggression or enmity towards them. Behind the guise of educational tales about multiple cultures lurks a blatantly sexist, racist and essentialist show. It claims to teach children values and morals, but in truth cultivates biases and perpetrates stereotypes. Is this what we want our children watching, especially in times such as those we are in today?

meenakshiajaykumar@gmail.com