Sri Lanka: A Haunted Nation – The Social Underpinnings Of Communal Violence
By Rajan Hoole -October 23, 2013
Rajan Hoole
“The film has revealed a lot to me about people seated in power, people who are supposed to be above biases. These people are so frightened. I think one of the basest of all things is fear. Fear erodes the individual. Fear erodes the Nation, the spine of the Nation. People are frightened. The bureaucrat who’s frightened to take action – I can get angry with this kind of person for some days, but then I can also see there is some sort of shadow looming over his or her head that is preventing him or her from acting. I see dread in the eyes of people there in Delhi…
“But what tore me apart was not so much the violence in the street, but you know, ordinary, normal, sensitive people who for the first time revealed to me their naked faces. I saw glimpses up front here, in people I would have never even imagined and then I discovered where the power for that genocide came from. It came from the silent approval of the majority of the people.
“Hindus have for centuries put up with all kinds of diverse thoughts. This country has produced sages who have had deep introspection. But today’s version, Hindutva, is a gross violation. In Germany today, under law, it’s a crime to deny the existence of the holocaust. They’ve passed a law. And, here, you’re spending up to six years, saying that it never happened! Bombay December 1992-93 never happened? Such a denial is dangerous. It’s going to erupt in dangerous eruptions in so many ways…
“I saw a woman in burga, a baby in her arms, walking down the street carrying an Indian flag, a small paper flag as a kind of shield. It was so painful. I thought, why does a Muslim woman have to carry a flag to give evidence of being a nationalist? Why doesn’t a woman in sari or a bindi, why doesn’t she feel the need? Why does a burga clad woman need extra protection?
“I feel disgusted, I feel ashamed. For the first time people are openly talking about who is superior, a minority-less India. You know, youngsters, young Muslims clad in jeans, they have felt a sense of catharsis after seeing the film. Do you know what they have told me? ‘We enter a room and hear someone abusing a Muslim and pretend we have not heard it. That’s how alienated we feel… I am going to fight it out. Zakhm must reach the people. You know right out there where hatred is fermented. I want to reach it there. Zakhm is a cry for peace.”
- Mahesh Bhatt [Mahesh Bhatt is the director of the Hindi film Zakhm, an autobiographical tale featuring communal issues in India, a need for which he felt after the destruction by Hindu extremists of the Babri Masjid Mosque in Ayodhya on 6th December 1992. This led to hysteria and countrywide violence against Muslims, which was particularly devastating in Bombay. The authorities were trying to obstruct the release of the film, which was timed for the 6th anniversary of the event. The extract is taken from an interview with Mahesh Bhatt in Communalism Combat, December 1998.]
