Summary

The film examines the role of the Naxalites of Bihar in Eastern India, also known as the Communist Party of India (Marxist/Leninist) Liberation, People’s War Group, and Maoist Communist Centre, as agents of socio-political change who employ violence as a means to their ends. Set against the backdrop of the 1999-2001 parliamentary and Legislative Assembly elections in Bihar, the film portrays the changes that have occurred over the past 30 years in terms of the social and political status of the Scheduled Castes (i.e. Dalits); the benefits accruing to the middle castes, engineered by the Mandal Commission and the emergence of Laloo Yadav, and the consequent violent backlash from upper-caste landlord militias like the Ranvir Sena. The Die Is Caste is thus an exploration of caste dynamics in Bihar, that questions whether the Scheduled Castes have gained any demonstrable benefits at all, or if they are mere pawns on the political chessboard.