*This post was written on January 19, 2020
Unlike the Germany of the thirties, there seems to be no need of a propaganda minister in India to steer entertainment towards exclusionary nationalism. Hindi cinema seems to be doing very well on its own in that department. Many film makers and actors have been busy playing revisionist historians, as they ward off yet another version of a dreaded invader to defend the country’s “bhagwa” soul. Ironical because the actor who is currently milking this idea once sang “Mera rang de Basanti chola” as the atheist freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. That was then. This is now. This actor also plugged a Kesari paan masala so basically whether it is an ideology or a mouth freshener, if it comes in the colour of money, he will sell it.
And the one who played an idealistic Gandhian in his debut role ? And the one who played Sardar? They too are grazing on the other side of the ideological fence. It is safer and greener there. We may cheer for Bharat Mata but the India being peddled for consumption is misogynistic, apathetic and cruel. Especially to wilful women. The comments by nationalistic warriors describing what should be done to Deepika Padukone for daring to appear on a supposedly “anti-national” university campus, prove that.
And so women who take up too much political space inconveniently like Sadaf Jafar, Aishe Gosh, Shehla Rashid, the rebel girls of Jamia Millia Islamia, Swara Bhaskar, Rana Ayub and to some extent Deepika Padukone, must be disempowered with threats of violence and violation. And the grannies and mothers of Shaheen Bagh must be accused of braving the Delhi winter for over a month now.. in lieu of a few hundred rupees. Because volition too is not supposed to be a woman’s thing. If they are not being paid, why are they doing it? What are these women made of? If not greed?
And Deepika must be shown that box office numbers are not a woman’s thing. Watch how the business of Chhapaak is gleefully being pitted against the crores earned by Tanaji. It of course does not stop at just the box-office. Kangana Ranaut is saying her piece about the whole issue. As is Vivek Agnihotri. As is the entire troll machinery.
And while the country’s unemployment statistics spiral , the economy plunges, educational institutions are brutalised, a highly ranked police official is caught ferrying terrorists to New Delhi, we are busy mocking Chhapaak and student leader Aishe Gosh’s injuries courtesy photoshopped memes.
Because woman who don’t conform must be managed. Like the female students of Jamia Milia Islamia who have been attacked for their religious identity even though we are now, incredibly a nation that has let a Pragya Thakur into the Parliament. Nalini Balakumar who held up a “Free Kashmir” poster during a protest is now being boycotted by the Mysuru Bar Association while ABVP’s Komal Sharma was protected by the state machinery till it was no longer possible to do so.
How can we allow Nalini , incidentally also a Dalit to argue for the humanity of those who have been erased from the national consciousness? Women who conform to the masculine constructs of nationalism, however have nothing to fear. So yes, toxic nationalism may be mostly a male contraption but it needs the right kind of women to survive.
Cinematic and political cults are most often created around powerful men with sprawling chests. They are loved precisely because they are imperviously cruel. We like it when they issue threats, when they dehumanise whoever it is that we want erased. And we don’t like them to be questioned. Especially by women.
This formula works globally in politics and cinema. And this year too, despite debates about racial diversity, female representation etc, and despite Me Too having shaken its inner circles in the recent past, Hollywood is again celebrating mostly oblivious male heroes in its awards season. There are the two Popes one of whom waves away impatiently a woman who is serving snacks during a football game near the end of the film. And there is The Irishman where women have nothing much to do or say. And a Joker whose soul has been destroyed so he can now, with cinematic license go on a killing spree and destroy many others. We of course, live in a world where people can accept mass shootings more easily than male careers being affected in the wake of Me Too.
As Rose McGowan, one of Harvey Weinstein’s many victims suggested, maybe it is time for women to organise their own award shows because feminine perspectives have been ignored far too long in cinema. Just as feminine perspectives have been shut out of politics because the power of self-determination is more or less a male prerogative.
The cultural, cinematic, political iconography is largely male centric. And the way it seeps into our consciousness is organic because there are such few visible female symbols of absolute authority or power to counter the one-sided, repetitive narrative about male archetypes.
Look at our own cinema. You will be hard pressed to find female counterpoints of Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, Shehenshah, Mard, Don, Baazigar, Baadshah, Dabangg and counting. So when Hindi cinema tries to gender flip the quintessential cop movie, the producers reincarnate a Salim Javed hero in a female form and call her Mardani. In the first film of what is now clearly becoming a franchise, Rani’s cop washes her face to remind you of that famous scene in Deewar, where the hero emerges out of a locked warehouse as the survivor of a big fight, and staggers towards a tap. Sumitra Kumar Chauhan’s poem about the valorous queen of Jhansi may have used the word Mardani as a play on the word Rani but a film like Mardani, sends a clear message that this Rani is up there with all the mards of the cop films. The point being that just being a woman doing her job well is not enough. She also has to do what her male counterparts have done before.
Because no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to find ”iss sadi ki mahanayika” to match the layer upon layer of mythology that has been created around the latest Dada Saheb Phalke winner.
In politics too, a large number of people across nationalities seem to be transfixed by machismo driven leaders who come into power proclaiming the primacy of nation and God above everything, and then end up serving their own ego.
Jair Bolsonaro (also incidentally our Republic Day guest) campaigned for presidentship with the slogan, “Brazil before everything, and God above all” . And then watched as the Amazon burnt, got into squabbles with EU over the fires, blamed Leonardo DiCaprio for the ecocide and has even made rape jokes in public.
Trump kisses flags, holds prayer meetings with evangelicals, dispenses assorted racially charged dog whistles within his country and has now triggered an international crisis with Iran.
Such combative leaders , regardless of who they are and where they come from use sexist and dehumanising nicknames to undermine the dignity of their opponents. Most of them are petty, ill-informed and can go to any lengths to protect their image. They can start wars, trigger genocides, tear countries apart just to placate their wounded pride.
Then how do they attract so much blind adoration? Because they can and do contaminate and appropriate all available spaces, be they political, spiritual, professional or cinematic. Too bad for them then that so many women of the wrong kind are out on the streets now across the world . In India , they are making themselves overwhelmingly visible in cities, villages, in bylanes and town squares to defy what they believe is a dystopian version of the country they once felt was their home unquestionably.
The thousands of women who gathered this week in Mumbai to chant ‘kagaz nahi dikhayenge,” the many versions of Shaheen Bagh sprouting across India, all throb with vast, unconquerable, pure, feminine energy that can’t be dismissed, wished away or cut down to size. It is too big for the troll factories to manage. This is India’s women claiming back their country from pseudo nationalism with slogans that once won us our freedom.
These woman have shown us just what patriotism truly is. It is not transactional or hateful or opportunistic. And it is made of love that includes, shares, uplifts, heals, defends, sings, cooks, feeds and braves long winters to be able to say, “We all belong to each other and we will fight not with but for each other.” The iconography of power no longer belongs to hate mongers. Or larger than life screen heroes. It is now etched in the wrinkles of a 80 something grandmother in Shaheen Bagh who said,”We cannot be bought. We will pay you a lakh.. come and talk to us if you have himmat.”