http://in.news.yahoo.com//060520/43/64e5n.html
'Da Vinci Code': Christians catch the fundamentalist virus
By Amulya Ganguli
The protests by several Christian groups against the screening of 'The
Da Vinci Code', based on Dan Brown's controversial novel, have
underlined a distressing aspect of the Indian scene where
fundamentalists of all hues seem to be having a field day.
Mercifully, the Christian protests did not involve any violence unlike
the Hindu militants' attacks on exhibitions of M.F. Husain's
contentious paintings. But there was at least one person, former
Mumbai corporator Nicholas Almeida, who offered a reward of Rs.1.1
million to anyone who brought the author of the book before him 'dead
or alive'.
His outrageous demand was no different from the one made by an Uttar
Pradesh minister, Yaqub Qureshi, who offered a reward of Rs.510
million for the head of the Danish cartoonist for his depiction of the
Prophet Mohammed.
What is evident from these incidents is that the typical intolerance
of the fundamentalists is no longer confined to one group.
If the followers of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh-led Sangh Parivar
have targeted films like Deepa Mehta's 'Water' for showing Hindu
widows in poor light, or attacked an exhibition organized by the
Leftist group Sahmat on the different versions of the Hindu epic
Ramayana, including one showing divine figures Ram and Sita as
siblings, the Muslims and now Christians have obviously been infected
by the same deadly virus of bigotry.
There is little doubt that the government's frequent capitulation to
the fundamentalist demands has encouraged the latter. Salman Rushdie's
'The Satanic Verses' was banned following threats of violence by
sundry Muslim groups. Unfortunately, India was the first country to do
so, even before the Islamic countries.
As a spin-off, the government even disallowed the filming of Rushdie's
'Midnight's Children', which recently won the Booker of Bookers prize,
because of the author's unpopularity with the extremists among the
Muslims.
Nor is the Congress the only party which is prone to bending down
before the militants. The Left Front government of West Bengal was
unhappy about the filming of 'City of Joy' in Kolkata, although it
finally allowed the shooting to go ahead, while the Forward Bloc, one
of the constituents of the Front, threatened a boycott of Shyam
Benegal's film on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, 'Bose: The Forgotten
Hero', because it showed Bose's marriage. The fact that it has been
approved of by the censor board clearly had no meaning to the
protestors.
The Left Front government had also banned 'Dwikhandita' (Divided
Self), the autobiography of the fiercely outspoken Bangladeshi writer
Taslima Nasreen, because it feared it would antagonise the Muslim
community. Fortunately, the Kolkata High Court subsequently lifted the
ban.
But Aamir Khan's film 'Mangal Pandey, The Rising', on the hero of the
1857 uprising of the sepoys against the British, is still involved in
litigation as Pandey's descendents have objected to the way he has
been depicted.
Although 'The Da Vinci Code' had been passed by the censors, the
Christian groups were not mollified. As a result, the government had
to organise a special screening where these objectors were present
along with Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan
Dasmunsi. Later, they stipulated the conditions under which the film
could be shown.
An identical incident occurred earlier when Defence Minister Pranab
Mukherjee had to clear the Aamir Khan film 'Rang De Basanti', which
showed a defence minister being gunned down, before it could be
released.
That filmmakers also try to play safe is evident from the fact that
before releasing his film 'Bombay', based on the 1992-93 communal
violence in the city, director Mani Ratnam invited Shiv Sena leader
Bal Thackeray to a special screening to secure his approval.
It may not be beside the point to say that a convention may develop
under which all controversial films will require a certificate from
ministers and powerful politicians before they can be shown to the
public.
Already this restriction exists in the matter of literary and even
historical works. Only a few months ago, the Maharashtra government
banned James W. Laine's biography of Shivaji, the 18th century Maratha
warrior. Not only that, the government even threatened to set Interpol
on the author.
A biography of B.R. Ambedkar may also experience a similar fate
because the Dalit leader's followers are unhappy about references to
an exchange of letters between him and an English woman.
The government has a long history of succumbing to such pressures. Way
back in 1954, Aubrey Menen's 'Rama Retold' had to be taken off the
shelves following protests from self-proclaimed defenders of Hindu
sensitivity because of the author's individualistic interpretation of
the Ramayana.
Another book 'The Ochre Robe', by Swami Agehananda, aroused the ire of
sections of Hindus because of its less flattering description of Hindu
monastic life.
Not unrelated to this habit of banning books is the propensity to
rewrite history in order to bring it in line with political
prejudices, a deplorable trait which was most in evidence when the BJP
was in power in New Delhi.
The customary explanation that is given to justify such acts of
interference in literary, artistic and historical works is that they
must not offend religious feelings. It is the same reason which was
advanced to stop Galileo from saying that the earth goes around the
sun.
India does not seem to have moved much ahead in this respect from the
medieval times.
(Amulya Ganguli is a writer on current affairs. He can be reached at
[EMAIL PROTECTED])
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Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436
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Photographs from Goa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/popular-views/
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