Like most people, before 2007 I only knew Sikhs by their appearance—and
particularly the physically imposing men with their turbans and beards.
But in May of that year, I saw a film titled “Amu”, directed by Shonali
Bose, that was a dramatization of what amounted to genocide in India in
1984.
In the press notes for the film, Shonali wrote:
Such a history cannot be buried and forgotten. Young people cannot make
their future or understand their present without knowing the past.
Today, twenty-two years after an elected government massacred its own
people in full view of the world, no one has been punished. And as a
result, the cycle of violence has continued against other communities.
What kind of political system is this in which those in power can get
away with such crimes again and again? This is the question Amu leaves
the young protagonists with as they walk down a railway track into the
future. This is why I made Amu. So that people all over the world will
ask the question.
Now, four years later, I return to the Sikh struggle once again through
the prism of film.
On October 14th I attended the opening night of the Sikh Film Festival
in New York and saw two documentaries that went to the heart of the
problems facing this 25 million strong religious group, three-quarters
of whom live in Punjab, India. Harpreet Kaur’s “A Little Revolution: A
Story of Suicides and Dreams” featured the director in her campaign to
win justice for the surviving family members of Punjabi peasants who
have killed themselves out of desperation. Like so many peasants in
India, Sikh and non-Sikh, the industrial transformation of Indian
farming has condemned many to crushing debts.
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/the-sikh-struggle-through-the-prism-of-film/
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