The Kashmir Files represents Bollywood’s new genre of ‘art for propaganda’

When we were studying in college, we often used to debate the perennial question whether art should be for art’s sake or whether it was meant to be used for a didactic or moral purpose. The proponents of the former creed were the American poet Edgar Allen Poe and the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, among others.

The leading light of the other side was George Bernard Shaw, who once famously said that he would not write a single sentence for art’s sake.

Now a new genre has come up, especially in Bollywood, which stands for promoting the cult of ‘art for propaganda’. The Kashmir Files is the latest example of its product.

It is no longer necessary to pretend that The Kashmir Files is a film. One of its lead actors, Anupam Kher, has already claimed that it ‘is not a movie anymore. It is a movement’. The film’s team has reportedly met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The political agenda of the film is in the open.

Suddenly, thousands of social media posts and videos are circulating on mobile phones. People are being shown coming out of movie theatres sobbing, with their faces swollen and tears in their eyes. There have been instances of shouting of hyper-religious and hyper-nationalistic slogans by the audience within movie halls and after coming out.

Cousins and sister in-laws intoxicated by newly-acquired high octane Hindutva are forwarding messages and videos lauding the film they think is a ‘must watch’.

My estimation of Kapil Sharma, who otherwise talks rubbish, has gone up for refusing to invite the director and cast of the film on his show. He is now the target of abusive social media posts for that transgression.

‘Kapil Sharma’, says a post, ‘listen carefully, Kashmir Files does not need your show for promotion. We Sanatanis are capable of promotion of the film ourselves. Jai Shree Ram’.

It is being contended that he is a part of the so-called ‘tukde tukde gang’, that his producer is a Muslim etc.

The film has even found an admirer and supporter in Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, who accorded an appointment to its director Vivek Agnihotri.

Addressing a meeting of BJP MPs, Modi claimed that there was a conspiracy to discredit the film and suppress the truth which was now coming out. Modi said that the entire ecosystem rattled by the film is involved in this.

He also said that those who do not like the film can make their own film.

There is indeed no conspiracy against the film. No one I believe has demanded a ban on the film. It is criticism of the film that has rattled the other ecosystem that sees it as a great film.

What truth has the film come out with? Additionally, it is not truth, but how it is presented that makes a movie great or otherwise. Cancer and tuberculosis are truths. But no good film can be made on these scourges of mankind.

Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, of which Modi made a reference in his speech, showed Gandhi and Nehru dousing the communal fires, not inflaming communal passions as The Kashmir Files allegedly does.

Art has to be larger than life, a great critic has said.

Yesterday evening, a couple of young ladies, walking a little behind me in our society’s garden were audibly discussing The Kashmir Files. I slowed my pace, turned back and asked, “Talking about The Kashmir Files, believe you liked it?”

They smiled and nodded approvingly. “What made you like it?” I asked. “It shows reality,” they told me. “How do you know? Have you read about Kashmir, or the events shown there?” I asked. This time they shook their heads. Apparently, they had not.

I then told them about some reality I had written about in these columns in a piece on exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. (‘It isn’t too late to hold a judicial inquiry into the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits,’ National Herald, October 5, 2020).

A few facts warrant repetition here.

The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits happened under the watch of the V.P. Singh government, which was supported by the BJP. It has been argued by Victoria Schofield, in her book Kashmir in Conflict, that the repressive policy of the government, encouraged by the BJP, was one of the causes of the situation going to the point of no return.

The justice V.M. Tarkunde Committee, which visited the valley in March 1990 immediately after the exodus, found no enmity between Hindus and Muslims.

Other observers, notably Tavleen Singh, also found that Hindus faced no danger from Muslim neighbors.

A report in Asia Watch found government role, particularly that of the then Governor Jagmohan, in encouraging and even arranging the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.

Former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has made the same allegation.

The senior most bureaucrat in Jammu and Kashmir, its then Chief Secretary, Ashok Jaitley also confirmed the role of Jagmohan. He said, “What Jagmohan achieved in five months, they (the militants) could not have achieved in five years. (Victoria Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict, Page 154).

The Tarkunde Committee also mentions that some Hindus left keys of their houses with their Muslim neighbours before leaving, which they would not have done unless they had good relations with them.

Then why is this movie arousing so much anger against Muslims?

Bollywood movies have rarely achieved high standards. Yet one yearns for movies of the ‘conspiracy era’ of the Congress rule, like Amar Akbar Anthony, in which three stranded children of a driver are raised by a Muslim man, a Christian Priest and a Hindu police officer. Films like these were Bollywood’s attempt to promote the elusive communal harmony that did not always prevail in India.

Bollywood movies have rarely achieved high standards. Yet one yearns for movies of the ‘conspiracy era’ of the Congress rule, like Amar Akbar Anthony, in which three stranded children of a driver are raised by a Muslim man, a Christian Priest and a Hindu police officer. Films like these were Bollywood’s attempt to promote the elusive communal harmony that did not always prevail in India.

Movies like The Kashmir Files, one dare say, are likely to promote communal discord. Not dormant discord, but active hatred of Muslims, if one goes by the immediate response to the film.

A video is circulating on Twitter, retweeted by the noted writer Aakar Patel, depicting the following slogans raised by the audience in P&M Mall, Patna, after watching the movie: “Bharat will be only Hindu Rashtra”, “No Muslim will be allowed entry”, “Islam is only Jihad”, “Pakistan Murdabad”, “Musalmaan Murdabad”, “Jai Shree Ram”, “Har, Har Mahadev”.

The content of some other posts and videos are too hateful to be shared here. As a Hindu, one feels ashamed of all this.

God save this country!

(Views are personal)