[The demands made on movie-makers have been increasingly flimsy and absurd – Karan Johar was made to apologise for a character mentioning ‘Bombay’ in the slacker-comedy Wake Up Sid. An apolitical romantic drama like Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was attacked because a Pakistani actor was part of the cast, and a ‘compromise’ shabbily brokered by the state government. Any unwitting word can be an affront to someone, somewhere. And instead of refusing to watch the movie or book, or countering it with ideas of their own, the identity warriors use the might of the state to shut you down, or worse, simply hit out themselves.]
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/to-name-and-address/when-a-rumour-about-a-fantasy-sequence-on-an-imaginary-queen-led-to-real-violence-the-assault-on-bhansali-and-creative-freedom/ When a rumour about a fantasy sequence on an imaginary queen led to real violence: The assault on Bhansali and creative freedom January 31, 2017, 2:00 AM IST Amulya Gopalakrishnan | Edit Page, India | TOI Let’s get this straight: a rumour about a fantasy sequence in a film about an epic on an imaginary queen led to last week’s real and shameful violence in Rajasthan. The Karni Sena, a bunch of Rajput-honour vigilantes, stormed the sets of Padmavati and assaulted its director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. They ordered him to excise scenes that didn’t even exist, between Allauddin Khilji and Padmini. This violence visited upon Bhansali is, sadly, one of contemporary India’s most familiar scenes. Artists, writers and filmmakers are routinely punished for insulting a community’s honour, and its “icons”. Even scholarship and humour must be on constant guard. We like our historical figures super-sized and one-dimensional. Nobody important must be “shown in bad light”. We are afraid of our own shadows. Why were the Karni Sena hoodlums so angry? Because the story of Delhi sultan Allauddin Khilji invading Chittor to possess its beautiful queen Padmini, and of Padmini choosing to immolate herself than submit, is deeply significant to them. Padmini is the conjuring of a Sufi poet’s imagination, there is no material evidence that she existed. Her story, though, has great folkloric power because of how it validates and ignites Rajput identity. When seen through a worldview where Hindu-Muslim enmity is the sole driver of all historical events, such stories seem all too real and resonant. But for all the Karni Sena’s fierce feelings and bristling moustaches, this incident is a straightforward matter of vigilante violence. It’s not about history and fiction, or even freedom of expression; it is about the rule of law. This incident is another demonstration of the Indian state, the Vasundhara Raje Scindia government in this case, not being strong enough to hold the bully’s flying fists and protect other citizens. This happens over and over again, each incident encouraging the next. In Maharashtra, assorted senas and brigades have made a performance out of such assaults, enabled by the state; recall the rampage through the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. **The demands made on movie-makers have been increasingly flimsy and absurd – Karan Johar was made to apologise for a character mentioning ‘Bombay’ in the slacker-comedy Wake Up Sid. An apolitical romantic drama like Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was attacked because a Pakistani actor was part of the cast, and a ‘compromise’ shabbily brokered by the state government. Any unwitting word can be an affront to someone, somewhere. And instead of refusing to watch the movie or book, or countering it with ideas of their own, the identity warriors use the might of the state to shut you down, or worse, simply hit out themselves.*** [Emphasis added.] That impoverishes all of us. It ensures that only the most bland and respectful art can circulate. It takes away the zest and freedom that is essential to creativity, it implants a small censor in your mind. Even in stated works of fiction, you can’t mess around, you can’t be subversive, you can’t be curious about complicated historical figures, you can’t tease apart myths, you can’t explore alternative possibilities. When all is holy, all is silent. This is not to say that free speech is an utter and absolute value; hate speech that reinforces exclusion and prejudice can be reasonably contested in a diverse democracy. Only the most unrealistic laboratory liberals would object to peaceful demonstrations, drawing attention to your feelings, or petitioning the courts. But the problem is, our institutions rarely make that delicate judgment call, they simply give in to the loudest agitators, like the powerful upper-caste men leading the Karni Sena. All too often, from Wendy Doniger to James Laine, our courts aren’t balancing the values of free speech with full and fair democratic participation, they are simply acquiescing with the majority. This time, though, Bhansali’s Bollywood colleagues have kept their differences aside and swung to his defence. This is rare – the movie industry, for all its persuasive power, liberal climate and cheerful diversity, has not pushed back often enough for such values. Perhaps Karni Sena is marginal enough for them to take a stand without worry, unlike the Senas in their neighbourhood, or perhaps this violence was truly the last straw. Either way, if even Karan Johar is moved enough to say “this cannot be our future”, there’s a flicker of hope for creative freedom. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
