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Welcome to a showing of the documentary A Necessary Demon!
The documentary is filmed as part of the project Mytopolitics in South Asia and explores how myths, stories, and historical
memory are reworked to negotiate caste, vote-bank politics, and identity.
The screening of the documentary lasts approximately 1 hour, followed by 30 minutes of discussion. Professor Arild E. Ruud, IKOS/UiO, will open the discussion.
A Necessary Demon is directed by Professor Moumita Sen and Saptarshi Mandal. The documentary is in Hindi, Bengali, and Santhali, with English subtitles.
About the documentary
This documentary follows an Indigenous activist involved in a countercultural movement in eastern India that reinterprets a figure long described as a “demon” in Hindu mythology as an ancestral indigenous king. Set in forested regions of easten India, the film explores how myths, stories, and historical
memory are reworked to negotiate caste, vote-bank politics, and identity.
Shot over eight years of long-term fieldwork, the documentary weaves together everyday life, oral traditions, archival materials, and public performances to trace how the struggle for identity and dignity among the most oppressed of India’s communities evolve over time.
By foregrounding the creative power of myth, the film reflects on how storytelling becomes a means of re-imagining social hierarchy, political claim-staking, cultural dignity, and collective selfunderstanding.