Padmavati row: Deepika Padukone is right. India has indeed regressed as a nation
The systemic hijack of India’s artistic freedom and creative self-expression through films, literature, art, music and other forms is on, thanks to the unofficial but ubiquitous department of hurt sentiments. Deepika Padukone, one of Bollywood’s all-rounders who lights up the silver screen but usually stays away from controversies, has been now compelled to speak up against what’s hogging the national limelight for months now – the “Padmavati row”.
Padukone has said that “India has regressed as a nation” in response to the vandalisation of a cinema hall in Kota, Rajasthan, by Rajput Karni Sena members for screening the trailer of her upcoming period drama Padmavati. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Padukone’s titular role has attracted critical attention as much as it has garnered hatred and ire from those self-proclaimed custodians of “Rajput honour”, who find imagined insults in every depiction of history, every artistic treatment of historical fiction that challenges our prejudices, and every attempt at retelling an oft-repeated story, that of Padmavat, the 16th century poem by the Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi, about the mythical queen of Chittor, Padmavati.
Padukone has said: “It’s absolutely appalling. What have we gotten ourselves into? And where have we reached as a nation? We have regressed.” She added: “The only people we are answerable to is the censor board, and I know and I believe that nothing can stop the release of this film.”
Her latest response has come after her strong tweets drawing attention to the violence with which a rangoli dedicated to the film was destroyed in Surat.
Enter Subramanian Swamy
While Deepika’s scathing statement has earned her backers from Bollywood, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has publicly disparaged the actor. Swamy tweeted:
Swamy, who’s known for his uncharitable views on secularism, had earlier alleged that Padmavati was “funded by sketchy sources from Dubai to defame Hindu women”. Swamy adding his hefty voice to this cracked orchestra of protesters, which included BJP MLA and a former princess of Jaipur, Diya Kumari, as well as other BJP leaders from Rajasthan, who seem to have discovered “disrespect” to “[women] of our country” in Padmavati, only proves how thin the line is between fringe groups and core members within the political right-wing at present.
I&B ministry, Karni Sena: Spot the difference
Padukone’s statement has come at a time when violent protests over any work of art remotely experimental in nature, or just reimagining our set ideas on Indian history and culture are becoming normalised by the day. While the Karni Sena has been vandalising the sets of Padmavati for months now, creating fresh obstructions and hurdles for the crew and cast, we have the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting interfering in matters of a film festival, when there’s a tax-payers-funded jury to take the call.
The dropping of Nude and S Durga (the word “sexy” in the title has been removed) from the list of films to be showcased at the India International Film Festival (IIFF) in Goa this year, despite the jury headed by filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh having picked both the films, is straight out of the I&B ministry playbook. With Union minister Smriti Irani at the helm, who didn’t pay attention to Deepika Padukone’s frantic pleas for help over the paroxysms of lumpenism that Padmavati has had to witness, the double whammy at IIFF 2017 has resulted in the resignation of two jury members - Sujoy Ghosh and screenplay writer of Aligarh and Simran fame, Apurva Asrani.
The organised attack on freedom of expression, whether it’s from a so-called “fringe group” such as the Karni Sena, or from the I&B ministry, is symptomatic of the pervasive rot in the system. In fact, when Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria says that he cannot stop anyone from protesting legally, despite the Karni Sena’s repeated and illegal acts of vandalism, we understand the BJP-ruled state government isn’t interested in dousing the fire, but in stoking it.
Airbrushing history is politics
The “love jihad” bogey that’s the pet of the political right-wing in India, has found a fresh peg in Padmavati, with its Hindu queen becoming the object of desire for the rival Muslim king and invader, Alauddin Khilji. That Bhansali had to make a plea saying that he hasn’t tried hurting Rajput sentiments with his movie is in itself a sign of how much we have regressed.
In which other country, except those equally boggled by such cultural prejudices coming in the way of art and literature, does a filmmaker of repute has to plead his case that he’s not offending anyone? Perhaps in neighbouring Pakistan, where Mahira Khan’s upcoming film Verna too has been banned after running into troubles with the officials and the battalion of offended folks upset that a film spoke about rape.
At a time when airbrushing history becomes a normalised and accepted mode of doing politics to keep the communal pot boiling, society as a whole suffers. That the story of Padmini itself is a convenient myth which serves to augment the "love jihad" bogey that the ruling BJP latches on to, to the extent of installing anti-Romeo squads in Uttar Pradesh, and having the National Investigation Agency investigate why an adult woman embraced Islam and married a Muslim man, is another dimension of this never-ending saga of manufacturing offence and imagining insults to so-called “Rajput honour”.
What is terribly sad, however, is that the flimsy distinction between the government and the fringe of the ruling BJP is increasingly blurring out of existence. Whether it’s the I&B ministry pulling out jury-selected films or BJP leaders joining hands with Karni Sena to wreck a period movie, the rot is evident and deep. Reminiscent of the orchestrated protests against the Karan Johar film Ai Dil Hai Mushkil that had a cameo from Pakistani actor Fawad Khan, the Padmavati controversy too is becoming a political peg from which electoral prospects and Hindutva’s pet projects can be hung, over and over again.
Also read: Why secularism in India lost its meaning