topic: | Islamophobia |
---|---|
located: | India |
editor: | Tish Sanghera |
Right-wing groups across India are praising The Kashmir Files, a new film by controversial director Vivek Agnihotri, for its retelling of the mass exodus of a segment of the Hindu population from Kashmir in the early 1990s.
Around 30 years ago, political unrest over Kashmiri independence led to extreme violence in the valley. While the horrific terror meted out by militants against the Kashmiri Pandits (a minority Hindu group allied to India) is undeniable, observers say the film strays into anti-Muslim propaganda territory by including ahistorical facts and suggesting that the entire Muslim population of India should be held responsible for the violence. By calling for their punishment, the film fuels the Hindutva (an ultra-radical Hindu-nationalist ideology) lie that all Muslims are the natural enemies of India’s Hindu majority.
It appears that viewers have absorbed this underlying message. After watching the film, a man was inspired to shout “desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maaro saalon ko” (shoot the traitors with bullets) - an eerie repetition of a chant used during the Delhi riots in 2020 and which has now become a favourite slogan of Hindutva supporters. Similarly, an alleged doctor has been seen telling a crowd that all Hindus must ‘take up weapons’ and kill Muslims, in yet another clip circulating on social media.
Hate and vitriol against India’s 172 million Muslim people has become so normalised that events like these are no longer shocking. Just this week, a Muslim van driver in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh was beaten for allegedly transporting beef (the sale of which is banned in U.P). Earlier this year, speakers at a Hindu religious conference literally called for a Muslim genocide.
Since coming to power in 2014, the BJP - India’s right-wing Hindu nationalist party - has incessantly amplified communal tensions. The Prime Minister and his MPs have continually used anti-Muslim slurs, spread conspiracy theories and introduced discriminatory laws and policies targeting the minority.
The BJP’s support of the film has been unabashed. Cabinet ministers like Smriti Irani have promoted the film from their Twitter handles, while Madhya Pradesh’s Home minister gave the state’s police force a half-day holiday to go watch the film. Several BJP-led state governments also allowed the film to be shown tax-free, aiming to boost its circulation.
Commentators have compared The Kashmir Files to Nazi propaganda films for being an example of state-backed hate. Critics have likened the film’s dehumanisation of Muslims to the treatment of Germany’s Jews on screen in the 1930’s, calling out the one-dimensional portrayal of Muslims as solely barbaric, cruel and even animalistic. With the seal of approval from Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the RSS - a multi-pronged Hindutva organisation of which the BJP is the political arm - the use of the movie as a tool to popularise the RSS’s carefully crafted and hateful narrative is certainly welcome by them.
Photo by Levi Meir Clancy