rewritten the Battleof Haldighatito
claimthatthewarrior-casteRana
Pratapdefeated theMughal Em-
perorAkbar.
Butit is notjusttheRSSthat
rewrites history.Thejob wasearlier
undertaken by the British too.
EuropeanOrientalistsused Brah-
minical Sanskrittextsto depictpre-
Medieval India as its “Golden Era”.
TheBritish,whowantedtofill their
armywithIndiantroops,invented
the notionof “martialraces”whohad
valiantlyfought“Musliminvaders”.
Rajputrulers,whospentmost of
theirtimefightingeachother, got
glorified as champions against
Muslimrule; their wives’ act of
jumping intothehusbands’ funeral
fire wasglorified as “truelove”. After
theBritish,Bollywoodtookup the
taskof glorifyingthe indefensible,as
in [Sanjay Leela]Bhansali’smon-
strousPadmavati.
Is notthenotionof nationalismin
thisHindutvanarrativejusta
euphemismforBrahminism?Asa
linegoes in “Reason”,“Brahminism
todayis drapedin thenationalflag,
itsstormtroopersdrawnfrom
amongstthoseit hasdumbeddown
andmadejobless.”
Absolutely.Butit’s nottheBrah-
minismof old withrotundpriestswith
ponytailsandsacredthreads.It is a
moresophisticatedversion,whichfulfils
the Brahminist agenda of othering
minoritieswhilepretendingto be only
interestedin nationalism.This,despite
the recordthatHindutva leadershad
collaboratedwiththeBritishgovern-
mentagainstthe mainstreamnational-
ist movement.
In “Reason”,youtalkof rationalists
suchasDabholkarandPansare.
Howbiga riskis it to talkof science
andreasonwhenthePrimeMinister
himselfpromotesmythand
superstition,as happenedwhenhe
claimedthatGanesha’swasthefirst
plasticsurgery?
Thereis a mountainof nonsensical
blind faith that emerges from the
mouthsof our politicians,but thereis an
evenbiggermountainof superstition
thatis constantlychurnedout on televi-
sionand socialmedia.It is amiraclethat
somesectionsof our workingclasshave
still not succumbedto all thatis heaped
on them.Thereis a segmentonHemant
Karkarein thefilm.In thelightof
yourresearch,doyoubelievehe
waseliminated?I askthisbecausea
terroraccusedcontestingelections
ontheBJPticketin therecent
generalelectionmadeunacceptable
commentsabouthisdeath.
I reada lot of books on the 26/11
attack, sawcourttranscripts and
personallyrecordeda lot of TV news
evenas the attackswerein progress.I
canunhesitatinglysaythattheoffi-
cialversion about theseincidents
justdoesnot addup. Thereis clearly
a cover-upof whatactuallytran-
spired. No one denies that a
Pakistaniterrormoduledidin fact
attackhotelsin the ColabaandNar-
imanPointarea.Butwhatstands
revealed is thatthe United Statesin-
telligenceagencyhadsharedthe ex-
act coordinatesof the Pakistaniboat
thathadset out for the attack. It is on
recordthattheIndianintelligence
agencydidnotsharethisvitalin-
formation withtheCoastGuardor
theNavy.Instead,whatseemsto
haveoccurredwasthattakingad-
vantageof theimpendingPakistani
attack, a parallel attack was
launched by Hindutvaterroriststo
eliminate Anti-Terrorism Squad
chiefHemantKarkare.
Karkarewasin themidstof ex-
posingmajorHindutvaterrorcells.
Laptops impounded fromHindutva
terroristshadyielded audio-video
recordingsof terror meetingsin-
volvingseniorpoliticians,military
officers, builders, diamond mer-
chantsand otherrespectable cit-
izens.It wasa Pandora’sbox which
hadto be shutdownimmediately.
The26/11attacksachievedthis.They
notonlykilledKarkare;theydiver-
ted the nation’s attention from
Hindutvaterror.Thefilmfocussesoncowvigilantism
too.Is notcowvigilantismmerelyan
excuseforcarryingforwardthehate
andexclusionistagendaof
Golwalkar?
Thechapter“In theNameofCow”looksat the killing of Akhlaq in
Dadriandthe attackon Dalit youths
in Una,Gujarat.India is oneof the
biggest exporters of beef in the
world,so it is clearthatthe attackon
beefeatersandtannersis justyet
anotherwayto attackMuslimsand
Dalits.Almosteveryfilmof yourshasrun
intoa controversy,irrespectiveof
therulingdispensation.Whatdrives
you?It is a particularlypertinent
questionto askaswelivein times
whenbravevoiceslikethoseof
Dabholkar,Pansare,M.M.Kalburgi
andGauriLankeshhavebeen
silenced.
I have madefilmsfor overfour
decades.Formostof thoseyears,the
Congress or, occasionally, other
partieswerein power.Neverwere
myfilmswelcomed. In all, I wonsix
casesin theHighCourt andtwoin
theSupremeCourtto getmyfilms
pasttheCensorBoard andto get
them finally telecast on
Doordarshan.
Havingsaidthis,theworsten-
emyof freedomof expressionis the
BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party].
Whenever theyarein power,the
battlebecomesharder.Reasonwas
selectedto be screened at the Inter-
national Documentary and Short
FilmFestivalof Kerala [IDSFFK].
At theverylast minute,theCentral
governmentintervenedto stopthe
screening. Luckily,theIDSFFK did
nottakethingslyingdown. It took
the lead,andwe rushedto the Kerala
HighCourt.As always, theCentral
government argued that Reason
wouldcreate“lawandorder”prob-
lems.Thecourtruledthatin that
case it was thegovernment’sre-
sponsibilitynot to banthefilm but to
provideit protection.
Unfortunately,spaceslikeKer-
ala, where the local government
stoodby me,arelimitedin today’s
India.Andthemeansof censorship
have become more lethal as the
murdersof rationaliststestify. ButI
ama perennialoptimist.I do not
believethatfascismwilltakeroot
andflourishfor longin thiscountry.
Thepennywilldrop.Myjobis to
makethishappenfaster. $