Representing Hindutva Nation, Religion and Masculinity in Indian

This article was downloaded by: [INFLIBNET India Order] On: 11 November 2009 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 909277329] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 3741 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Popular Communication

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t775653693

Representing Hindutva: Nation, Religion and Masculinity in Indian Popular Cinema, 1990 to 2003Madhavi Murty a a University of Washington,

To cite this Article Murty, Madhavi'Representing Hindutva: Nation, Religion and Masculinity in Indian Popular Cinema,

1990 to 2003', Popular Communication, 7: 4, 267 281 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/15405700903211898 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15405700903211898

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLEFull terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Popular Communication, 7: 267281, 2009 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1540-5702 print / 1540-5710 online DOI: 10.1080/15405700903211898

Popular Communication, 1540-5710 1540-5702 HPPC Communication Vol. 7, No. 4, Sep 2009: pp. 00

Representing Hindutva: Nation, Religion and Masculinity in Indian Popular Cinema, 1990 to 2003Madhavi MurtyUniversity of Washington

MURTY Representing Hindutva

Downloaded By: [INFLIBNET India Order] At: 09:44 11 November 2009

Working with the assumption that visual culture, specifically film, draws on wider hegemonic discourses circulating within the public space to construct its own narrative, and that hegemonic definitions of the nation emerge and take shape within public culture, of which film is a part, this article reads six Indian films from the 1990s and the early 2000s Roja (Mani Ratnam, 1992), Bombay (Mani Ratnam, 1995), Sarfarosh/The Patriot (John Matthew Mathan, 1999), Mission Kashmir (Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 2000), Gadar/Revolution (Anil Sharma, 2001), and Pinjar/The Cage (Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, 2003). At a time when the Hindu nationalist movement had gained momentum, this article identifies discourses that surrounded maleness, the nation and religion through its reading of popular cinema. The three themes that emerged from the reading of these films point to the manner in which discourses of nationalism, masculinity and religion intersected during this particular historical conjuncture in the Indian subcontinent to form hegemonic patterns that represented and reinforced Hindu nationalism. All six films mobilize ways of seeing that reproduce and represent social differences as they construct the Muslim male as the other. Although some of these films ostensibly attempt to grapple with real and contemporary social and political concerns with some sensitivity, they continue to represent hegemonic discourses that accord primacy to the Hindu male over the Muslim male by defining Islam as an ideology and the nation as demanding a suppression of difference.

On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid, a mosque in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, was reduced to rubble by an estimated 200,000 strong mob (Nandy et al., 1995, p. 186). Hindu nationalists, or the political, religious, and cultural organizations that have sought to define the Indian nation in distinctly Hindu1 tones, had long claimed that the 400-year-old mosque stood on the site of a 2,000-year-old temple that had been destroyed by the first Mughal2 emperor of the Indian subcontinent (Chatterjee, 1998, p. 126). They had been asserting that the temple had commemorated the site where the mythic king Rama, worshipped by many followers of Hinduism, was born and should be rebuilt at the same spot. It is estimated that 1,700 people died and 5,500

1 Hinduism is the religion of the majority of the population in India. Majority and minority populations are defined by religion in India. 2 In Hindu nationalist discourse, the Mughals were conquering kings from Central Asia who ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1526 to 1857. They are identified in this discourse as Muslim rulers of Hindu India. Correspondence should be addressed to Madhavi Murty, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Communication, University of Washington, Box 353740, Seattle, WA 98195. E-mail: [email protected]

268

MURTY

were injured in violence triggered all over the country by the demolition of the mosque (Ludden, 1996, p 1). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political wing of the Hindu nationalist movement, reaped political mileage from this violence. It won elections in several states and in 1998 headed an alliance that captured power at the center. Though the parliament was dissolved in a year following problems in the BJP-led ruling coalition, the party won enough seats in the elections of 1999 to head an alliance once again, this time for the full five-year term.3 These events, starting with the mobilization of people across the country for the demolition of the mosque in Ayodhya in the 1980s, have become important milestones for Hindu nationalism in contemporary India. Hindutva is therefore an ideology that has been successful in negotiating a hegemonic position for itself (Vanaik, 1997). During this historical conjuncture, even as the ideology of Hindutva was politically ascendant, Indian mainstream popular culture produced teleserials such as the Ramayana that served to establish a narrative about Rama and circulate his iconicity as that of a righteous warrior widely. Films such as Roja (Mani Ratnam, 1992), Bombay (Mani Ratnam, 1995), Sarfarosh/The Patriot (John Matthew Mathan, 1999), Mission Kashmir (Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 2000), Gadar/ Revolution (Anil Sharma, 2001), and Pinjar/The Cage (Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, 2003) that described a nation in peril and established the Hindu male as the patriot were also popularly received during this time. Sarfarosh, for instance, was a high grossing film in 1999 as was Gadar in 2001; the other films were also successful at the box office.4 Moreover, I would describe these films as cinematic events that combined the significant thematics of the time within their popular narratives. Defining popular culture and politics as a complexly articulated unity such that power is negotiated, inscribed and reinscribed through representation and narratives circulating within public spaces, I am interested here in reading Hindutva through popular culture, specifically popular film. Following Stuart Hall (1980), I argue that popular cinema draws its topics, treatments, agendas, events, personnel, images of the audience, [and] definition of the situation from [. . .] wider socio-cultural and political structures of which they are a differentiated part (p. 129). As such, popular cinema traces what Hall (1986) has called the mental frameworks the languages, the concepts, categories, imagery of thought, and the systems of representation which different classes and social groups deploy in order to make sense of, define, figure out and render intelligible the way society works (p. 29). In other words, popular cinema as discourse is implicated in the construction of common sense. Michel Foucaults (1972) theorization of the concept of discourse provides another lever with which to discuss popular cinema. He argues that while discourses are indeed composed of signs,3


It was the first time since India acquired independence from British colonial rule in 1947 that this political party, which espoused the cause of Hindu nationalism, had held power for the full term. 4 Trade data on Hindi films has largely been unreliable; this is particularly true for noncontemporary films and data collected in nonmetropolitan areas. Both bollywoodhungama.com, run by trade analyst Taran Adarsh, and another traderelated Web site ibosnetwork.com list Gadar as an all-time hit; see http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/ domestic_boxoffice/06152001.html and http://www.ibosnetwork.com/asp/filmbodetails.asp?id=Gadar (retrieved July 8, 2009). Similarly, Sarfarosh is listed as a hit on ibosnetwork.com; see http://www.ibosnetwork.com/asp/filmbodetails. asp?id=Sarfarosh (retrieved July 8, 2009). Bombay and Mission Kashmir are listed as semi-hits and Pinjar as an average film; see http://www.ibosnetwork.com/asp/filmbodetails.asp?id=Bombay, http://www.ibosnetwork.com/asp/filmbodetails. asp?id=Mission+Kashmir and http://www.ibosnetwork.com/asp/filmbodetails.asp?id=Pinjar (retrieved July 8, 2009), respectively.

REPRESENTING HINDUTVA

269

what they do is more than use these signs to designate things, thus it is not enough to treat discourses as groups of signs (signifying elements referring to contents or representations) but as practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak (p. 48; emphasis authors). Discussing Foucaults conceptions regarding power and knowledge, Stuart Hall (1997) thus notes that for Foucault:Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language [. . .] [I]t constructs the topic [. . .] [I]t governs the way that a topic can be meaningfully talked about and reasoned about. It also influences how ideas are put into practice and used to regulate the conduct of others. Just as a discourse rules in certain ways of talking about a topic [. . .] so also, by definition, it rules out [. . .] other ways of talking about it. (p. 72)

Using the Foucaultian notion of discourse, Stuart Hall re-articulates representation as a practice that does not simply reflect an event but rather is a process through which the event is constituted as such. It is therefore important to examine popular cultural representations such as film when analyzing political events and historical conjunctures because it is through such representations in significant part that political discourse is constituted. Nicholas Garnham (1992) similarly has argued that the relationship between media and politics should begin from the position that the institutions and processes of public communication are themselves a central and integral part of the political structure and process (p. 361). Thus, rather than assume mass media, particularly entertainment media, to be separate from and a reflection of the political and the ideological, I begin with the assumption that categories such as the nation and the public, as well as subjectivities, are negotiated through mediated forms of communication such as the entertainment media. Moreover, an examination of film is significant because, in the words of Christopher Pinney (2001), India today cannot be understood without an examination of popular visual culture because it is through such discourse that many contemporary Indians debate their present and their future (p. 28). Indian popular cinema is produced in the Hindi language, caters to an allIndia market, and is understood by a significant portion of the nations multilingual society (Gokulsing & Dissanayake, 1998). Popular Indian films are largely melodramatic, are often musicals, and convey simple, clear moral messages that in the words of Gokulsing and Dissanayake communicate collective fantasies (p. 45). Hindi films construct a public that stretches beyond the boundaries of the nation state to the diaspora. In fact, as Nilanjana Bhattacharjya (2009) has observed, Hindi films affirm the Indian-ness of the citizens of the nation as well as of the diaspora and suggest that the diaspora constitutes a part of the nation.5 Michael Warner (2002) has argued for examining public as the kind of public that comes into being in relation to texts and their circulation (p. 50). Following Warner, I read the six popular films listed above, starting with Roja, released in 1992, the year the Babri Masjid was destroyed and Hindutva as a political ideology was ascendant, and ending with Pinjar, released in 2003, close to the parliamentary elections when the BJP lost power after holding office for a full five-year term (the six films of interest here deal specifically with issues of nationalism and were popular, commercial successes). I will discursively trace Hindutva as a hegemonic ideology and thus point to the public that it hailed. In particular, I am5


Bhattacharjya (2009) argues that the song sequences in Hindi films play a crucial role in blurring the distinctions between the Indian and the diasporic space, claiming an authentic Indian identity for the diaspora and the diasporic citizens adoption into the Indian nation.

270

MURTY


interested in the intersections between discourses of masculinity and religion and the manner in which these connections came to define the nation. I show that popular cinema legitimized a form of masculinity that is linked with renunciate celibacy, duty, and service to the nation and constructed the Hindu male character in the image of the Hindu nationalist icon of Rama. I trace this form of masculinity to Hindu nationalism through the work of influential Hindu reformers from the nineteenth century. The narratives of the films examined here position the Muslim male as the other of the Hindu male by defining Islam as an ideology and thus served to give form to Hindutva within popular culture during the historical conjuncture when the BJP was politically ascendant. Thus while Hindu nationalism may have acquired hegemonic status in part through violent means, my argument here is that popular cinema played a crucial ideological role as well.6 Public culture as a space within which political discourse and cultural and commercial expressions come together played an important role in the emergence and development of Hindu nationalism as hegemonic discourse. To trace out my arguments, I will first dwell on the method that I employed to read the six films of interest here and then discuss my reading of the films. SOCIAL SEMIOTICS AND THE DISCURSIVE APPROACH I use discourse analysis combined with social semiotic analysis to examine six popular Indian films Roja, Bombay, Sarfarosh/The Patriot, Mission Kashmir, Gadar/Revolution, and Pinjar/ The Cage in order to read the cinematic strategies used to represent the nation, with a particular interest in the connections among religion, masculinity, and nationhood. I explore the range of social and political meanings that were constructed, embedded in, and circulated through the moving image. Doing so necessitates the identification of key themes, exploration of the films complexities and contradictions, and an interrogation of the invisible as well as the visible. In a social semiotic approach, Rick Iedema (2001) argues, analysis of fiction films should center around two features. The first is a significant conflict or problem that requires a resolution; such a dynamic necessitates the presence of competing ideas and worldviews, through which differing value systems gain representation in the film. The second point of focus, Iedema suggests, should be characters and their actions because, as John Fiske (1987) has argued, the text performs and activates social and personal discourses through the mechanism of the character. Following Fiske and Iedema, I analyze the films representations of nation, religion, and masculinity by closely analyzing both (a) Hindu and Muslim male characters and (b) the manner in which conflict was constructed and resolution was attained within the films narratives. This approach, in short, sought to link the tele-films sociopolitical intertextualities to the ways in which it hangs together from one second to the next (Iedema, 2001, p. 186). I sought to identify recurring and prominent themes by paying particular attention to scenes that depicted interactions between Hindu males and Muslim males, Hindu males and lovers/ spouses, and Muslim males and female characters within the narrative. In addition, I focused on the narrative strategies used in the constructions of heroes and villains, including their costumes

Arvind Rajagopal (2001) in fact suggests that because Hindu nationalism emerged at a time when the markets and media in India were growing and developing at a rapid pace, the movement was able to use the new visual regime and the presence of a more familiar religio-political idiom to mobilize consent and simulate it as well (p. 64).

6


271

and song lyrics that explicitly referred to the nation or to particular religious views. As elaborated shortly, each of the six films of interest here involves a conflict or tension that is resolved at the conclusion. This resolution was important in identifying themes focusing on nation, religion, and masculinity because certain values and ideas were affirmed, certain characters died while others survived, and clear victors and vanquished emerged. The use of discourse analysis and social semiotic analysis therefore allowed the identification of specific themes and connections to the predominant character representations. The six films examined in this study were released between 1990 and 2003 and fall into the genre of social drama, defined by M. K. Gokulsing and W. Dissanayake (1998) as films that explore social problems and issues. An important criterion for the selection of the films was commercial success: each was successful at the box office. The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, compiled by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen (1994), was studied to identify mainstream Hindi films released in the two decades of interest here.7 Short descriptions of films in the Encyclopedia discussed whether a film treated religion, community or nation in significant ways, and six such films were selected. A brief description of each of the films, which elucidates their choice for the purpose of this research, follows this paragraph. Notably, all of the films emphasize either militancy in the Kashmir region (an area of long-time conflict since the 1940s), partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, or communal tensions in the wake of the mass mobilization organized by Hindu nationalist parties, as a conflict within their narratives. Roja. Militancy in Kashmir forms the central conflict within this 1992 film. City-bred cryptologist Rishi Kumar is commissioned by the intelligence wing of the Indian defense department to read and decipher crypto-coded messages in Kashmir, but after a few days there he is abducted by Kashmiri militants, led by Liaqat. Bombay. This 1995 films narrative centrally focuses on communal tensions within contemporary India, with the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 as a backdrop. The principal protagonist of the film, Shekhar Mishra, is a journalist working in Bombay who falls in love with and marries Shaila Bano. The idea of a match between the Hindu Shekhar and Muslim Shaila incenses both their fathers. Having cut ties with their families, Shekhar and Shaila lead a happy married life in Bombay and have twin boys. Soon, however, communal clashes break out in the city. Sarfarosh/The Patriot. Framing Pakistan as intent on creating situations of instability within India, this 1999 film emphasizes that the nation is in trouble. In the film, crime is presented as a threat to the nations fabric, which is portrayed as forged together by patriots. Ajay Singh Rathore, one such patriot, is the assistant commissioner of police and works to break up the nexus between Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence, a Pakistani singer residing in India, and anti-social elements in India. The film includes the Muslim officer Salim, whose loyalties are questioned because of his religious identity. Mission Kashmir. Militancy in Kashmir is again the focus, but in this 2000 film the central protagonists are Kashmiris. Altaaf is a boy when he witnesses the massacre of his parents at the hands of a masked policeman. The masked man is Inayat Khan, who had suffered personal tragedy


The Encyclopedia (Rajadhyaksha & Willemen, 1994) does not list all the films that were released in a particular year, but it does list all the films the authors believe were important with respect to their commercial value, their artistic innovation, and the trends and discourses prevalent in India from the production of the first feature film in 1912.

7

272

MURTY


as well when his son died as a consequence of neglect. Inayat Khan brings Altaaf home and attempts to raise him. When Altaaf realizes that his adopted father killed his parents, he shoots Inayat Khan and runs, eventually joining a terrorist group. The films central focus is Altaafs and Kashmirs lost innocence. Gadar/Revolution. Set in 1947, when the British withdrew from the Indian subcontinent and it was partitioned into India and Pakistan, this 2001 film depicts the love story of Tara Singh, a lower-class Sikh man, and Sakina, a rich Muslim woman. The film presents Islam as an ideology and Muslim identity as a central problem. Does a Muslim belong to India or Pakistan? Does ones religious identity conflict with ones national identity? These questions frame the films core tensions. Pinjar/The Cage. This 2003 film also is set when the Indian subcontinent was partitioned. The protagonist is a young Hindu woman, Puro, who leads an idyllic life in Punjab with her family. Puro is engaged to be married to Ramchand but she is kidnapped by Rashid, a Muslim, who is attracted to her and who is forced into committing the act by his family. Rashid is repentant and tells Puro that he wants to do what is right by her. He marries her, but Puro can never forgive him for what he has done. Puros plight constructs the tension that lies at the center of the film. REPRESENTING NATION, RELIGION AND MASCULINITY Popular films produced during the time the Hindu nationalist movement was politically ascendant reveal the link among religion, masculinity, and the nation but also draw a distinction between Hindu and Muslim masculinities. While Hindu masculinity linked to duty and service to the nation stands legitimated, Muslim masculinity linked to Islam seen as ideology not faith stands delegitimated. Thus, an examination of popular Indian film not only reveals the masculinity that underlines nationalist discourse but also points to the specific form that this masculinity must take for it to be seen as nationalist and therefore legitimate. As such, it reveals the specific contours of the public that are made legitimate by popular cinema during this time Hindu, male and unswervingly nationalist. The following sections focus on the distinctive themes concerning nation and nationalism, religion, and masculinity that emerged from a discursive and social semiotic reading of the six films of interest here. The representational patterns that emerge from such an analysis point to the hegemonic discursive construction of Hindu nationalism during later twentieth and early twenty-first century India. Renunciate Celibacy The Hindu Males Aggressive Renunciation of Home and Family for the Cause of the Nation This section focuses on the renunciation of home and family for the cause of the nation by the central Hindu male characters in the six films. This renunciation is significant for the plot of the films, particularly because the nation is seen to be in peril. A distinct sequence is introduced by the narratives of some of the films: The films first define the danger that is faced by the nation. Their narratives suggest that Islam as ideology (not as faith) directs the believers actions and is the peril that the nation and its patriots must confront; the nation comes to be defined as a


273

distinct space that is troubled by difference. To confront this danger, the narratives also depict the Hindu male character renouncing his home and family for the cause of the nation. The relationship between masculinity and service to the nation can be traced to Hindu reformers like Dayanand Saraswati and Vivekananda in the nineteenth century, who inspired a number of nationalist organizations within the Indian independence movement against British colonial rule. Dayanand Saraswati linked the nation to Vedic Hinduism, arguing that Hindus should recognize the grandeur of their own faith before looking to Christianity and Islam, and suggesting that men should devote their body and soul to the well-being of the country (in Hay, 1998, p. 62). Within this context, Saraswati had a distinct definition for manliness:Only he is entitled to be called a man who thinks and looks upon the happiness and unhappiness, loss and profit of other men as his own, who is not afraid of a strong man if he is unjust, and fears a virtuous man even though he is weak [. . .] [H]e should spare no pains to make the vicious weak and the virtuous strong [. . .] [T]o achieve this end, he should bear all sufferings and even sacrifice his life but he should not quit his duty. (p. 62)


Similarly, Vivekananda extolled his followers to chant:The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, Indias gods and goddesses are my God, Indias society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure-garden of my youth, the sacred heaven [. . .] Say brother, The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good, repeat and pray day and night: O Thou Lord of Gauri, O thou Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me! O Thou Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away my unmanliness, and Make me a Man! (in Hay, 1998, p. 82)

The nationalist, in this form of discourse, is identified through a specific religious identity and his machismo is distinctly linked to duty and service to the nation. With roots in the works and writings of Saraswati, Vivekananda, and V.D. Savarkar (the ideologue of the Hindu nationalist movement), the Hindu nationalist movement of the late twentieth century has placed the mythic king Rama at the center of its discursive process. The Hindu nationalist movements Rama looks and behaves like Vivekananda and Dayanand Saraswatis Man. Anuradha Kapur (1993), for example, argues that the iconography associated with Rama has undergone a dramatic shift since the 1980s, having been transformed from a tranquil, tender, and serene god to an angry, punishing one (p. 75). This shift in iconography is emblematic of the aggressive, virile masculinity associated with Hindu nationalism. Kajri Jains (2001) work is similarly concerned with the muscular, aggressive figure of Rama of Hindu nationalism, but she links this figure to Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchans so-called angry young man persona in films produced during the 1970s and 1980s. I posit, though, that the genealogy of this iconography is older, particularly if one reads the figure, as Anuradha Kapur does, not just as muscular and aggressive but also as a celibate. Dayanand Saraswati, Vivekanand, and V. D. Savarkar were believed to have renounced the corporeal pleasures of a home, a female partner and family in search of a higher truth and duty. The notion of renunciation is significant here because as Caroline Osella, Fillipo Osella, and Radhika Chopra (2004) note, this form of masculinity is seen as potent because it holds the promise of resolution and gain a return to strength and an augmentation of power (p. 4). The nineteenth century masculinist view of nation and nationalism thus reverberates in popular cinematic representations of the present. Vivekanandas Man who sees his own good in the nations good, and Dayanand Saraswatis definition of manliness

274

MURTY

that includes the ability to sacrifice ones own life without a moments hesitation for the nations good, are embodied by the iconic figure of Rama, the centerpiece of the Hindu nationalist movement, and by the Hindu male character in the popular films of this period. The Hindu male character is set apart by first defining Islam as a dangerous ideology. In Roja, for instance, Islam is first depicted as the ideology that drives Muslims in Kashmir to use violent, destructive means to carve out a separate homeland for themselves. This ideology is depicted as so dangerously potent that it clouds the individuals innate humanism. For instance, when the Hindu male protagonist Rishi asks the Muslim Kashmiri extremist Liaqat if he would kill his family on his leaders command, Liaqat answers in the affirmative and states that Kashmir is above family. In Mission Kashmir, which like Roja sets its narrative in contemporary Kashmir and attempts to address militancy in that state, Islam as ideology is depicted as fomenting violence. Unlike the extremist Liaqat in Roja, who is depicted as a devout Muslim, Hilal Kohistani, the leader of the militant group in this film, is not portrayed as a practicing Muslim; he is, however, depicted as using Islam to indoctrinate young men like Altaaf into the militant group. When Altaaf shows any misgivings about the violent tasks at hand, Hilal reminds him that he is fighting a holy war for his religion. When Altaaf looks depressed and perturbed about exploiting his girlfriend in order to bomb a television tower, Hilal tells him that jihadis befriend only men and that jihadis know no relationships that obstruct their tasks. Islam, defined as ideology, is thus distinctly framed as the danger that faces the nation within these narratives. The nation in peril demands the ultimate sacrifice from its citizens and the Hindu male protagonist always emerges as the supreme patriot; he renounces home and family for the cause of the nation. It is imperative to note here that this renunciation is conceived as neither escapist nor as a form of emasculation within Hindu nationalist discourse; rather, it is constructed as active, aggressive, and potent. Celibacy, in fact, is seen as the preferred state for possessing concentrated masculine vigor (Osella, Osella, & Chopra, 2004, p. 7). The narratives of Roja and Sarfarosh vividly depict this form of renunciation. For Rishi, the central Hindu male character in Roja, and his counterpart in Sarfarosh, Ajay, the home and family are significant elements of their individual lives. The audiences of both films first see Rishi and Ajay with their families Ajay as he plays with his nephew, while running an errand for his mother, then interacting with his crippled father and widowed sister-in-law, Rishi with his mother as he drives from the city to a village to meet his prospective bride. The narratives of both films thus introduce the Hindu male to their audiences as family men, with a loving home. At a later stage within the narrative, Ajay and Rishi are transformed into dedicated, dutybound patriots who are willing to suffer physical harm and endure hardships for the cause of the nation. Ajay disregards his wailing mother and his anxious girlfriend as he stoically packs his bags for a dangerous mission. Rishi similarly is quite willing to leave his new bride behind as he heads to Kashmir to decode messages intercepted by Indian intelligence and complete his duty. It is only at the insistence of his mother that he consents to Roja (his wife) traveling with him to Kashmir. Roja and Rishi consummate their marriage in Kashmir, which is immediately followed by Rishis kidnapping. Thus, while Ajay chooses to momentarily renounce home and family in order to prioritize his duty, through the kidnapping, Rishi is placed in a situation where he must renounce family for the cause of the nation. Both forms of renunciation are aggressive and without a moment of self-doubt. Rishi puts himself in grave danger by attempting an escape so that the militants would not succeed in their plans of forcing an exchange, that is, hand him over to the government in return for the release



275


of one of their leaders from prison. This form of renunciate celibacy, which prioritizes duty and the nation over the corporeal pleasures of the home, and is required of the Hindu male as a consequence of Islam as ideology placing the nation under peril, provides immense potency to the Hindus masculinity. This is particularly true because it carries with it the promise and anticipation of a return and a reunion with the wife and the lover as well as with the family. Moreover, this form of heroic celibacy is reminiscent of the later icons of the Hindu god Rama that were examined by Anuradha Kapur. Much like the later icons, both Ajay and Rishi are depicted as virile, strong warriors who face the vagaries that assail them and the nation alone, as celibates. The Muslim male Liaqat in Roja and Salim in Sarfarosh also practices a form of celibacy. However, the Muslim males celibacy cannot be read as similar to that practiced by the Hindu male character because the films narratives do not place either Liaqat or Salim in a position where they must renounce what is dear to them for the cause of the nation. The audience of Sarfarosh knows Salim only as an officer in the police department; his home, family, spouse, or lover remain invisible and absent. Even though Rojas Liaqat has a sister and brother, he does not renounce his family for the nation; rather he presses his siblings into tasks that are deemed anti-national by the films discourse. Neither Liaqats nor Salims celibacy can be constructed as heroic because in the absence of a distinct home, it does not carry with it an element of renunciation nor does it hold the promise of a return. The presence of the home is also significant because, as I will argue next, it allows the films narrative to link the Hindu males biography with the nations narrative. Hindu masculinity is thus constructed as heroic while Muslim masculinity stands delegitimated. Linking the Hindu Males Biography with the Nations Narrative Through this section I focus on the link that is established in some of the films of interest here between the nations narrative and the central Hindu male protagonists biography. The narratives of all six films are concerned with the resolution of a conflict. Significantly, this conflict plagues both the nation as well as the central Hindu male characters in several of these films. The linkage between the nation and the Hindu male character serves to define both the Hindu male and the nation in particular ways. Personified as an individual with a distinct religious and gendered identity, the nation is transformed into a subject: a masculine subject with a particular religious identity who progresses in a teleological fashion through time. Through the linkage, the Hindu male, with his masculinity and religious identity defined in a particular way, emerges hegemonic. Sarfarosh, Bombay, and Roja provide examples of this linkage between an individuals biography and the nation. In Sarfarosh, Ajay Singh faces personal tragedy when his father is crippled and his brother killed by terrorists. His life is transformed from that moment and he works toward joining the police force so he can bring criminals such as those who brought tragedy to his home to justice. In Roja, Rishi is actually kidnapped by militants and while working toward freeing himself, attempts to reform the militants who captured him. Shekhar Mishra in Bombay is similarly personally affected by the very forces that threaten the nation. The communal riots that break out in the city lead to the deaths of his father and his father-in-law, and both his sons are lost in the chaos that engulfs the city within the narrative of the film. The films thus link the Hindu males biography with that of the nation. As the Hindu male character works toward a resolution of the problems that affect him, the narrative of the film works towards a resolution of the conflict that faces the nation. Linked in this manner to the Hindu male, the films depict the nation moving teleologically from danger and peril to resolution, ostensible safety, and a return to strength.

276

MURTY


The Hindu male is an active participant in this process or movement from conflict to resolution; he explicitly links his home and himself to the nation. In one particular scene from Sarfarosh (in an interaction between the central Hindu male character Ajay and the Muslim police officer Salim), for instance, the link between the Hindu males biography and the nation is achieved visually through his home. Verbally through the dialogue within the film, Ajay provides the link when he states that his country is his home and that he sees the faces of the criminals who killed his brother in every individual who breaks the law; visually, the film constantly frames Ajay against the domesticity of his home. When he speaks, the camera positions his home in the background, thus legitimizing his speech and linking his concerns to those of the nation. Ajays father, sister-in-law and his home itself are made visible to the audience while Salims home and family remain invisible. Salim thus stands delegitimized in this exchange. His struggles, unlike those of Ajays, cannot be linked with those of the nation because, as I will argue next, his identity is linked to Islam while Ajays is linked to the nation. Salim is instead constructed in this exchange as a man who has shirked his duty. In a discourse that accords primacy to duty above all else, Salims masculinity is undermined and Ajay emerges hegemonic. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, Hindu Patriot: The Nation and Religions Role in Defining Male Identity In this section, I dwell on the films focus on identity, particularly the manner in which some of the films define the Muslim male characters identity solely and distinctly in terms of religion, even as the Hindu male character is characterized in terms of the nation. Framed in this manner, the Muslim male stands delegitimated. This method also serves to construct the Muslim as the other, particularly because the categories of Hindu and Indian are collapsed when constructing the character of the Hindu male. Thus, the Hindu male is legitimated because his identity is seen to be defined by his nationality. While the characters of Liaqat in Roja, Hilal Kohistani in Mission Kashmir, Gulfam Hassan in Sarfarosh, and Ashraf Ali in Gadar are all depicted as possessing shades of extreme cruelty and intolerance, the Hindu male characters in Roja, Gadar,8 and Sarfarosh are all defined as patriots. Moreover, several of the films depict a dichotomy between the good Muslim and the bad Muslim within the Muslim community, a dichotomy that is not seen to frame any other community, religious or otherwise, depicted within the films. Islam as ideology is seen to foster intolerance and extremism within the narratives; the good Muslim is the one who resists this ideological pull and affirms the nation while the bad Muslim prioritizes his religious identity over his nation.98 It is significant to note here that the central protagonist in Gadar is a Sikh man from the Punjab who is tragically affected by the partition violence of 1947. The films narrative however, collapses the difference between the Sikh and the Hindu, such that the protagonist is quite deliberately identified as a Hindu in the film and is made to stand in contradistinction to the Muslim. This representational strategy is in line with Hindu nationalist rhetoric that coalesces various distinct groups into the unified category of the Hindu. 9 Mahmood Mamdani (2004) has discussed this frame in the context of post-9/11 representations of Muslims wherein a distinction is drawn between good Muslims and bad Muslims rather than between terrorists and civilians, and argues that such representations are ahistorical. Gyanendra Pandey (2001) also discusses this frame when examining the histories and nationalist myths that have served as remembrances of the partition of the Indian subcontinent and its accompanying violence.


277

My argument here is that when Islam is depicted as an ideology rather than a faith, and when the Muslim male is consistently characterized in terms of his religion, even films that attempt to narrativize social and political issues with some complexity continue to reinforce the discourse of Hindu nationalism. Thus, even though Sarfarosh ostensibly attempts to depict the discrimination that a Muslim male often faces, its narrative continues to accord primacy to the Hindu male, sometimes explicitly, as detailed in the exchange between Salim and Ajay described above (in the previous section), and sometimes subtly through its visuals. In another exchange between Salim and Ajay, for instance, which takes place in Salims office, Ajay urges Salim to work on their current case in an unofficial capacity. Salim expresses his anger at having his loyalties questioned. The audience observes this exchange meant ostensibly to depict the discrimination that Salim (a representative of good Muslim males within this narrative) faces through a series of reverse angle shots, which frame Ajay and Salim in distinct ways. On the wall that forms the background behind Salim hangs a poster with an inscription from the Koran, while on the wall that forms the background behind Ajay hangs a map of the city of Mumbai. In the absence of any other information, either visual or verbal, that could serve to construct Salims identity, it is his religion as exemplified by the inscription from the Koran and his visit to a mosque at a later point in the film that serve to define him. In other words, Salims identity is defined through his religion. He is a Muslim, but the films narrative is clear that he is a good Muslim. In an exchange with a criminal, Salim tells the man who identifies himself as a fellow Muslim that it is people like him who give the faith a bad name. While a number of these films suggest that the Muslim community is divided into good and bad elements, they also depict some Muslim males as being internally torn between the good and the bad. The good is epitomized by such characteristics as love, affection, humor, and most significantly by patriotism; the bad is characterized by fanaticism, extremism, and actions that are seen as being disloyal to the nation. Altaaf in Mission Kashmir and Rashid in Pinjar commit deeds that are cruel and dastardly. Altaaf inadvertently kills Inayat Khans wife (Neelima), a woman who had wanted to raise him as her son, and also betrays and exploits his childhood sweetheart; Rashid kidnaps Puro, forces her to marry him, converts her to Islam, and rapes her, yet an attempt is made within the narrative to depict their innate humanism. There is constant reference in Mission Kashmir to Altaafs lost childhood, harking back to peaceful, uncomplicated times. Altaafs anguish at Neelimas death is palpable as is his struggle to come to terms with his familys massacre. In the climax of the film, Altaaf stands between Inayat Khan and Hilal Kohistani, as both attempt to convince him of their point of view. Inayat Khan here personifies all that is good within Altaaf: he urges him to think about Kashmir, about Neelima and about the nation. Hilal, on the other hand, epitomizes all that is evil in Altaaf: he reminds him that he is fighting a holy war and that he is fighting for his religion. He also reminds him of his parents death. Altaafs pain and the torment at this moment stems from being torn between the two opposing elements. Similarly, Pinjar makes a deliberate attempt to depict Rashids goodness. He is constantly apologizing to Puro and attempts to make amends. When his fields are burnt and his crop destroyed by Puros brother, Rashid does not utter a murmur of protest, accepting the hardship as punishment for his sins. He places his own life at risk to help Puros sister-in-law and at the conclusion of the film lets Puro go so she can be with her family. When Rashid kidnaps Puro, he is seen as torn between his lust, his familys indoctrination, and his innate decency.


278

MURTY

Pinjar and Mission Kashmir, like Sarfarosh, attempt to depict their Muslim protagonists in a sympathetic light but continue to reinforce the dominant discourse of Hindu nationalism, which would suggest that Islam is an ideology. The films suggest that a Muslim is placed in a situation (by his religion) where he must make a choice: prioritize the ideological thrusts of Islam and commit acts that are anti-national and cruel or prioritize his nation and affirm his patriotism. The films thus reinforce Hindu nationalisms argument that Islam is an ideology; the only mode that the films use to depict complexity political and social is the categorization of Muslim males within the binary of the good Muslim and the bad Muslim. The Hindu, on the other hand, is never asked to make the same choice and this is precisely why the films work to represent, reinforce, and constitute the political discourse of Hindu nationalism. CONCLUSION: REPRESENTING AND REINFORCING HINDU NATIONALISM Hegemonic constructions of the nation commonly suggest homogeneity, often by implying, in the words of Craig Calhoun (1993), that certain similarities should count as the definition of the political community (p. 229). In particular, religion has often provided the grounds for the articulation of such similarities and has facilitated and reinforced conceptions of the nation in homogenous terms.10 Religion as a national identifier enables the rhetorical construction of the nation as a homogenous community with a national biography of a cosmic drama.11 Religion linked in this manner to nationhood fosters conceptions of the nation that are analogous to an individuals identity. Craig Calhoun, for example, contends that modern nations are viewed not so much as a collection of diverse persons but as a self-contained individual. This individual, in turn, is often conceived in distinctly masculine terms.12 Even though nations may be described as mother, their narratives emphasize founding fathers and males are positioned in the role of protector and the focus of authority. Nira Yuval-Davis (1993) has emphasized the control that a masculinized state and nation exercise over women who are simply reduced to their reproductive organs and conceived as productive of the nation. Such control policies, she argues, are crucial in maintaining and reinscribing majority and minority collectivities. Joane Nagel (1998) specifically draws a link between masculinity and nationalism and argues that the culture and ideology of hegemonic masculinity go hand in hand with the culture and ideology of hegemonic nationalism (p. 249). The link between masculinity and nationalism becomes significant in the Indian context when the nation as individual is defined in religious, masculine terms (Hansen, 1999). Rupal Oza (2006), for instance, argues when discussing neoliberalism in India that while women face the brunt of control and surveillance, men and masculinities also figure centrally in the imagining of the nation (p. 9).


Ashis Nandy (1998) draws links between religion and nationalism by conceptualizing religion in two different ways religion as faith and religion as ideology. The former is religion as a way of life, a practice, or a tradition that is by definition nonmonolithic and operationally plural. In contrast, religion as ideology functions as a subnational, national or cross-national identifier of populations contesting for or protecting non-religious, usually political or socioeconomic, interests (p. 322). 11 Benedict Anderson (1991), in fact, has argued that nationalism is best understood by aligning it not with political ideologies but with larger cultural systems such as religion. 12 Peter van der Veer (1994) has suggested that the nation is often imagined as a brotherhood of men protecting their womenfolk, and that protection is equated with the exertion of male authority to which women have to submit (p. 85).

10


279

The form of nationalism that demands an internal homogeneity, such that national identity must always supersede other individual identities, is evident in the manner in which the nation is constructed in the six films discussed in this article. The nation is seen to be in danger and divisive religious identities are seen as a cause of this danger; the narratives of the films demand the suppression of religious identities in favor of a national identity. Interestingly, the categories of Hindu and Indian are collapsed within these narratives, such that it is Islam and the Muslim male that are consistently constructed as problems for the nation. The Muslim, specifically the bad Muslim, in these films is depicted as a fanatic because he prioritizes his religious identity over his national identity. Moreover, the Muslim is depicted as distinctly different from the other characters. The difference between the Hindu and the Muslim is so wide that it appears insurmountable unless the Muslim, like Sakina in Gadar, converts to Hinduism. The films justify this wide gulf by framing Islam as an ideology. Islam, in these films, is no longer a faith, a way of life, a simple belief in a god; it is dogmatic, monolithic, and demands power. Achin Vanaik (1997) notes that the project of Hindu nationalism involves recourse to a systematic distortion of history, to the dogmatization and territorialization of Hinduism centering Hinduism on specific texts, gods and goddesses, places of worship [. . .] that are made pre-eminent and widely acknowledged as such (pp. 3940). Popular cultural representations such as Gadar, Mission Kashmir and Roja point to the fact that Hindu nationalisms effectiveness lies in its ability to define Islam as an ideology, one that is pitted against the Indian nation. Through the three sections above I have attempted to point to the manner in which discourses of nationalism, masculinity, and religion intersected during this particular historical conjuncture in the Indian subcontinent to form hegemonic patterns that represented, reinforced, and constituted Hindu nationalism. I have argued that an examination of popular culture is significant to the examination of political discourse. The films reveal the complex ways in which nineteenth century discourse about masculinity, religion, and the nation combine with contemporary political discourse to provide new iterations of legitimate and illegitimate masculinity. The narratives of the films framed the home as central to a Hindu males masculinity and the renunciation of this home and family for duty toward the nation provided his masculinity with great vigor. Second, it is the Hindu males biography that is linked to that of the nation, which is in peril. The narrative progresses toward a resolution of the conflict that plagues the nation through the character of the Hindu male. Third, the identity of the Hindu male is defined by his patriotism and his nationalism while that of the Muslim male is primarily defined by Islam. All six films mobilize ways of seeing that reproduce and represent social differences as they construct the Muslim male as the other. Despite the fact that some of these films ostensibly attempt to grapple with real and contemporary social and political concerns with some sensitivity, they continue to represent hegemonic discourses that accord primacy to the Hindu male over the Muslim male. Therefore, the appeal of Hindutva or Hindu nationalism may lie in the manner in which it helps imagine a nation, one that claims an antiquity, a unified present, and an aggressive and strong future. A Hindu public and Hindutva are co-constitutive, narratives that reinforce Hindu nationalism circulating within popular spaces such as film constitute a Hindu public, and concomitantly a Hindu public constitutes the popular cultural stories that reinforce Hindu nationalism. Hindutva combines in its rhetoric the celebrated middle class values of discipline, order and


280

MURTY


hierarchy and swadeshi13 with a fervor for liberalization and globalization. Moreover, it defines a distinct other Pakistan, the fanatical mullah and the fervent Muslim who is violent, aggressive, and a threat to the nation, to simplify complex political and social situations and present an easy resolution. In 2002, vicious riots claimed the lives of several hundred people in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an organization that is part of the Hindu nationalist movement, brought the state to a standstill after a fire on a train. The bandh degenerated into arson, slaughter, and a breakdown of law and order. At the end of the day, on February 28, more than 100 people were killed in the city of Ahmedabad alone (Engineer, 2003). According to Asghar Ali Engineer, some of the worst incidents took place in the area of Naroda Patia where more than 80 persons, including women and children, were burnt alive and many women were raped in public. While the Bharatiya Janata Party now sits in the opposition in New Delhi, having lost the elections to the lower house of parliament in 2004 and 2009, it continues to hold power in several Indian states.14 Narendra Modi, BJP leader and chief minister of Gujarat, who was at the helm when that state witnessed and participated in the brutal massacre and displacement of thousands of Muslim residents of the state, was only recently hailed by industry and corporate leaders of India as having prime ministerial potential.15 Therefore, even though the electoral fortunes of the Bharatiya Janata Party may wax and wane, the examination of Hindutva remains significant. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Professors Linda Jean Kenix, Hazel Dicken-Garcia, Ajay Skaria, and Linus Abraham for their mentorship at the University of Minnesota. I would also like to thank Professors Ralina Joseph, David Domke, and Lisa Coutu at the University of Washington. My partner Juned Shaikh makes it all possible.

REFERENCESAhmed, A. (1992). In theory: Classes, nations, literatures. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso. Bhattacharjya, N. (2009). Popular Hindi film song sequences set in the Indian diaspora and the negotiating of Indian identity. Asian Music, Winter/Spring, 5382. Calhoun, C. (1993). Nationalism and ethnicity. Annual Review of Sociology, 19, 211239. Chatterjee, P. (1998). A possible India: Essays in political criticism. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Engineer, A. A. (2003). Communal riots in 2002: A survey. Economic and Political Weekly, 38(4), 280282. Fiske, J. (1987). Cagney and Lacey: Reading character structurally and politically. Communication, 9, 399426. Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. New York: Pantheon Books.

A movement to purchase local, country-made goods. In 2007, the BJP won elections in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and in 2008 the party won the southern state of Karnataka (seen as a significant victory) and Madhya Pradesh. 15 See the following Economic Times article, Narendra Modi becomes India Inc poster boy, January 15, 2009. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3983994.cms (retrieved July 10, 2009).14

13


281

Garnham, N. (1992). The media and the public sphere. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the public sphere (pp. 359376). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Gokulsing, M. K., & Dissanayake, W. (1998). Indian popular cinema: A narrative of cultural change. Straffordshire: Trentham Books. Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, media, language (pp. 107116). London: Routledge in association with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham. Hall, S. (1986). The problem of ideology: Marxism without guarantees. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 10(2), 2844. Hall, S. (1997). The work of representation. In S. Hall (Ed.), Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp. 1374). London: Sage. Hansen, T. B. (1999). The saffron wave: Democracy and Hindu nationalism in modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Hay, S. (Ed.). (1988). Sources of Indian tradition: Modern India and Pakistan (Vol. 2). New Delhi: Penguin Books. Iedema, R. (2001). Analyzing film and television: A social semiotic account of Hospital: An Unhealthy Business. In T. van Leeuwen & C. Jewitt (Eds.), Handbook of visual analysis (pp. 183206). London: Sage. Jain, K. (2001). Muscularity and its ramifications: Mimetic male bodies in Indian mass culture. South Asia, xxiv, 197224. Kapur, A. (1993). Deity to crusader: The changing iconography of Ram. In G. Pandey (Ed.), Hindus and others (pp. 74109). New Delhi: Viking, Penguin India. Ludden, D. (1996). Ayodhya: A window on the world. In D. Ludden (Ed.), Contesting the nation: Religion, community, and the politics of democracy in India (pp. 126). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Mamdani, M. (2004). Good Muslim, bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the roots of terror. New York: Pantheon Books. Nagel, J. (1998). Masculinity and nationalism: Gender and sexuality in the making of nations. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21(2), 242269. Nandy, A. (1998). The politics of secularism and the recovery of religious tolerance. In R. Bhargava (Ed.), Secularism and its critics (pp. 321344). New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Nandy, A., Trivedy, S., Mayaram, S., & Yagnik, A. (1995). Creating a nationality: The Ramjanmabhumi movement and fear of the self. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Osella, C., Osella, F., & Chopra, R. (2004). Introduction: Towards a more nuanced approach to masculinity, towards a richer understanding of South Asian men. In R. Chopra, C. Osella, & F. Osella (Eds.), South Asian masculinities (pp. 125). New Delhi: Kali for Women and Women Unlimited. Oza, R. (2006). The making of neoliberal India: Nationalism, gender, and the paradoxes of globalization. New York: Routledge. Pandey, G. (2001). Remembering partition: Violence, nationalism and history in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pinney, C. (2001). Introduction: Public, popular and other cultures. In R. Dwyer & C. Pinney (Eds.), Pleasure and the nation: The history, politics and consumption of popular culture in India (pp. 134). Delhi: Oxford University Press. Rajadhyaksha, A., & Willemen, P. (1994). Encyclopedia of Indian cinema. London: British Film Institute; New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Rajagopal, A. (2001). Politics after television: Religious nationalism and the reshaping of the Indian public. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies. London: Sage Publications. Vanaik, A. (1997). The furies of Indian communalism: Religion, modernity and secularization. London: Verso. van der Veer, P. (1994). Religious nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India. Berkeley: University of California Press. Warner, M. (2002). Publics and counterpublics. Public Culture, 14(1), 4990. Yuval-Davis, N. (1993). Gender and nation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 16(4), 621632.


Documents

Representing Hindutva Nation, Religion and Masculinity in Indian