Book review: Ranjita Dawn. 2021. The Social Model of Disability in India: Politics of Identity and Power

Ranjita Dawn’s The Social Model of Disability in India: Politics of Identity and Power is a comprehensive book that covers significant theoretical and practical issues by underlining various dimensions which are intertwined by disability, such as media, culture, gender and religion. As the title suggests, the study also presents multi-layered aspects of the discourses and practices about disabled people in the Indian context in light of the conceptual framework offered by critical disability theories.

The book consists of nine chapters that analyse each topic in depth. Chapter 1 offers the opportunity to re-question the concepts of sameness and difference by making a critical examination of the ‘non-disabled’ gaze that socially constructs the standards of the ‘normal’ body and mind. Furthermore, it contains the primary premises of the work and a brief outline of the content of subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 explores the complex relations between ideology, representation, and culture in cinema, literature, and mass media. The author argues that since conflicted cultures and ideologies are diffused into cinematic codes, there is a need to improve deconstructionist ways of looking at different and changing representations of certain social groups in the film text (pp. 17–18). Similarly, because literature constitutes shared/stereotypical values and knowledge associated with the power relations in wider society, it should be analysed from broader perspectives (pp. 21–22). Chapter 3 remind us of the significance of the religious dimension, which has a crucial role in determining how to define and treat persons with disability by introducing some folkloric materials. Dawn reveals that the relationship between Hinduism and disability oscillates between treating the disabled actors with a charity model based on care and sympathy and the belief that associates disability with hideous, negative, and evil by referencing epics such as The Mahabharata and The Ramayana (pp. 33–35). Moreover, the work asserts that while the Qur’an and hadiths do not consider mental and physical deviations as part of spiritual deterioration and divine punishment, some Islamic traditions claim that mental/intellectual disability is caused by jinns and previous sins (pp. 41–43).

Chapter 4 is devoted to examining the main representations of disability in Indian cinema. With a few exceptions, people with disabilities in mainstream Indian movies, in general, are reduced to imaginary connotations such as object of ridicule, sexually abnormal, cripple, and helplessness, reinforcing the reproduction of negative stereotypical attitudes towards the disabled and creating a barrier to a more realistic picture of them (pp. 60–62). Chapter 5 touches upon how people with disabilities are portrayed in certain children’s/adolescent literature and comics. Dawn alleges that even though critical works that can raise awareness about normalcy and physical differences have begun to emerge in contemporary comics / graphical narratives and children’s literature, it is an imperative need that publishers and writers be sensitive about the misrecognition of disability (pp. 84–86). Chapter 6 sheds light on how media of communication construct and disseminate meanings, habits, and discourses about disability. The study indicates that people with disabilities are often neglected in the mass media, as in the case of India. On the other side, existing news and information encourage the established ableist culture that displays disabled people as heroes or victims in feature stories, since they are produced for average imagined audiences instead of physical and particular individuals (pp. 92–94).

Chapter 7 gives a brief assessment of the challenges of the multidimensional experiences of women with disabilities by using detailed data. Despite some regulatory laws and measures, there are still social barriers to women with disabilities in terms of political participation, satisfactory employment rate, and the disclosure of sexual abuse have not disappeared. Therefore, the study brings forward a new and inclusive paradigm that is required for their economic, political and social independence and well-being. Chapter 8 criticises the ableist structures by underlining the right of the children with disability to access education in India. In formal education, which is seen as a vital tool of social and economic empowerment, although governments have taken some steps based on the social and human rights model, progress is observed in boys with physical disabilities. At the same time, central formidable problems remain in the participation of children with intellectual and multiple disabilities in education (pp. 118–21). Furthermore, some empirical studies also reveal the gender-based inequality of opportunity in each stage of education. Chapter 9 focuses on the importance of forming a complex and comprehensive perspective that can examine the relationship of disability with involved identities such as class, gender, and race, as well as discusses several aspects of the struggle of disability studies for inclusion.

One of the book’s prominent contributions to the disability studies literature is its rigorous integration with critical theories of disability studies in education, literature, gender, religion, and other practice fields. Moreover, it showcases the experiences of people with disabilities in a non-Western context by examining the Indian case. Another robust point of the study is that it does not consider the discourses and representations about the disabled reduced to the culture only as of the domination of the non-disabled perspective. Conversely, it reveals that various resistance potentialities are possible by demonstrating that alternative and challenging narratives are also embedded. On the other hand, it is possible to proclaim that the study has some minor limitations. For instance, when analysing the relationship between religion and disability, the author could have provided a more dynamic approach that facilitated a better comprehension of the assorted nuances by increasing the diversity of primary sources used. However, it does not undermine the fruitful points of this study and can only be considered as a possible suggestion.

Overall, despite some possible limitations, The Social Model of Disability in India: Politics of Identity and Power is a critical and insightful study that illustrates the divergent practices of the manifold interconnections between culture, disability, and representation. Thus, the book is highly recommended not only for scholars who are deeply interested in the theoretical aspects of disability study but also for those who want to do empirical work in different areas of this field.