Bollywood is the last independent source of influence in India. It is inherently patriotic; its superstars are mostly apolitical. Similarly, the cricket stars are only next to them in popularity. But that is not enough for those who believe that Hindus and Muslims constitute two separate nations.
Thus, we are witnessing a new narrative of Muslim Star performers of Bollywood and Cricket being targeted and vilified.
Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behati Hai:
The fact is that Bollywood movies show Hindus and Muslims - and all sorts of Indians — getting along famously. It tackles issues of social injustice. Its characters and the real-life people behind them espouse liberal values. It is too great a threat to the narrow vision of separate Hindu and Muslim nations, whose frantic promotion now appears as a stratagem to divert focus from the misery of socio-economic exploitation and hide the issues of rising inequalities.
If the ruling group prevails in manufacturing consent, and Indians begin to imagine themselves in two-nation terms, it means - destroying Bollywood, one of its great cultural and commercial successes. At the same time, the loss of the Soft power of the idea of India worldwide. Indian movies' popularity in the top nine countries by the ranking are China, Egypt, Japan, Poland, Germany, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Peru and Russia.
"Tu Hindu banega na Musalman banega
Insan ki aulad hai, insan banega."
India's Nationalism Vs Pakistan's Bigotry:
Seventy-five years ago, the Muslim nationalists succeeded in the surgical strike helped by the British Colonists' expertise in 'divide and rule', birthing the hopelessly failed state of Pakistan, while in India, the Hindu and Muslim nationalists remained on the fringes. On the other hand, the spirit of the united freedom struggle of the Indian nationalists gave them the Ambedkarite modern, democratic Constitution to guide the governance. Further, it inspired several countries worldwide that gained independence in the post-World War II era of decolonisation.
However, in less than a decade, today, by the new-normal standards of extreme rightwing, majoritarian political discourse on Social Media, even the indigenous native Urdu language is seen as abrahamisation, a Foreign Language, unaware that Urdu was born in India. They are also blissfully unaware of the irony in following Pakistan's failed governance system with a vengeance based on the disastrous two-nation theory.
Inclusive Bollywood:
The three unrelated actors — Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh Khan- have sat at the top of India's colossal Hindi-language film industry for three decades. Perhaps as much as the prime minister and the national cricket team captain, they are the most recognisable faces in India. They also happen to be Muslim. The unreserved Indian fan-following and their sustained popularity at the box office demonstrates the country's ineradicable, tolerant Indian nationalism of unity in diversity. The unprecedented success of the recent movie 'Pathaan' has sent the unmistakable message that people believe in the spirit of unity in society and not hatred and sect-ism.
Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) was a mystic Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar regarded as the "father of "Qawwali ", a devotional form of singing and also introduced the Ghazal style song popular to this day in the Asian sub-continent. His most famous "Chaap Tilak Sab Cheeni Re" has the following couplets.
"You've taken away my identity and everything from me by looking into my eyes.
You've said the unsaid, just by a glance.
By making me drink the love of devotion.
You've intoxicated me with just a glance;
I give my life to you, Oh my cloth dyer,
You've dyed me like yourself by just a glance."
They are based on religious poems with spiritual and romantic themes and rely primarily on Hindustani melodic modes or Raagas. Both performers and listeners of qawwali partake in a Sufi ritual of immersive spiritual listening done to reach a transcendental state of union with the divine.
Pyar-Mohabbat Zindabad: India:
Parsis and Muslims primarily built early Bollywood. Diversity in Bollywood was never lip service; they always practised it. Mixed marriages have been a norm among Bollywood stars and the elite, traditionally liberal and against sect-ism. Thus, inter-faith love stories have found space that conveys the message that love is greater than societal divides. That love is God. Bollywood songs have done more to keep Urdu and the flavour of Sufi concepts alive and thriving. The Hindu right-wing understands better than anybody the soft power of Bollywood in celebrating India's unity in diversity. Hence, Hindu bigotry theorists believe it is necessary to delegitimise and destroy Bollywood through boycott-mania by falsely accusing them of mischievous and inflammatory names like Urduwood, Jihadwood and Dawoodwood. The agenda of hatred is carried out systematically to silence the critics.
Spirit of Bollywood: Unity in Diversity
The song 'Arziyan' from the movie Delhi - 6 exemplifies the genre. Though Sufi in style, it celebrates the diversity of identities in Delhi -- it primarily hails the harmonious coexistence of Hindus and Muslims in a single community. The song achieves this directly through its vivid cinematic presentation and melodic quality, which quickly endears it to its audience and prompts listeners to receive its content and theme. "Arziyan" also exemplifies plurality as a film qawwali. A diverse team of artists lies behind its creation — the song is composed by A.R. Rahman, a South Indian Muslim, sung by Javed Ali and Kailash Kher, a North Indian Muslim and a Hindu, respectively, and written by Prasoon Joshi with rightwing views. The cast of the film is similarly diverse, both geographically and religiously.
The greatest all-time raga-based composition and top-ranked bhajan, a Bollywood classic, is the 'Madhu ban me Radhika niche re' from the 1960s film Kohinoor. It was created by Shakeel Badayuni (lyricist), Mohammad Rafi (playback singer), Dalip Kumar (actor), Kum Kum (danseuse), Naushad (Music composer), Faredoon Irani (cinematographer) and Sayeed Akhtar Sunny (director) - an all Muslim team.
Mundra Port and Luxury Cruise:
On October 3rd, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), a national law enforcement agency, arrested several people in a drug bust on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai, where the industry is based. Among them was Aryan Khan, the 23-year-old son of Shah Rukh Khan, arguably the best-loved of the trinity.
The NCB claimed to have seized lots of drugs, though it later admitted that none were found on Aryan. News TV channels have been running blanket coverage. The stink raised is meant to tame Bollywood.
What mystifies the observers is the silence of NCB on the capture of quintals of cross-border drugs at privately owned Mundra Port and its activism in hauling up celebrity youngsters alleged to be holding a few grams of illicit drugs at a Luxury Cruise event.
Demonising Bollywood:
A year ago, a similar ploy of the unfortunate suicide of a Bollywood actor, Sushant Singh Rajput, was used by a section of the media to heap abuse on the entire tribe of Bollywood while reaping electoral gains in the State of Bihar. The pro-government news channels — i.e., most of them - ran hysterical items about Bollywood's drug culture and accused Rhea Chakraborty, the dead man's grieving girlfriend, of trapping him with the demon weed. This time, the bonus was in addition to the opportunity to indulge in Muslim bashing and hounding its ungrateful former ally, the Shiv Sena government of the prosperous Maharashtra state. The circus around Aryan's arrest is a sequel to last year's drama.
Since coming to power in 2014, the ruling right wing has demolished the national opposition, eroded the independence of Constitutional institutions, tamed India's once-vibrant media, and criminalised all voices of dissent using draconian laws and pliant agencies of the government. After planting pliable Heads to government-regulated art and academic institutions, the focus has shifted to taming popular, influential and commercially successful Bollywood to toe the rightwing line of majoritarianism and exclusion of minorities.
Patriotism Vs Spurious Nationalism:
"Patriotism is when the love of your people comes first; nationalism when hate for people other than your own comes first." — (Charles de Gaulle). But, unfortunately, the idea of India - unity in diversity, inclusive nationalism in the spirit of 'vasudhaiava kutumbakam' is being challenged and subverted by those who came to power lately, consumed by hatred for people other than themselves. Perhaps resistance to the systematic campaign by the ruling group to harness the soft power of Bollywood to promote jingoism has prompted the attacks orchestrated against it.
Celebrate the Writers and Artists:
"Artists and Sahityikas are the guides of society, and it is society's sacred duty to keep a watchful eye on their ease and comfort and help them preserve their existence. This sense of duty is all the more necessary where art and literature are practised as a part of social service, not as a profession. People can, on no account, evade their responsibilities towards the artist since art and literature are dedicated solely to the service of the people.
Where the state belongs to the people or is run according to their will — that is to say, in a democratic state — "the government should take on this sacred responsibility as the representative of the people. However, when the government faces difficulties due to financial stringency, a particular policy, or any other cause, the state is reluctant to encourage art; people outside the government in the broader community will have to shoulder the responsibility directly." -- (Shri P R Sarkar).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
G Surender Reddy
0 Comments