They say you can understand the state of a society by how it treats its weaker sections
Salil Chaturvedi, a disabilities campaigner and writer, was thrashed in a Goa theatre on Wednesday for not standing up during the national anthem
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They say you can understand the state of a society by how it treats its weaker sections. Our track record on that front is not exactly awesome. Bullying, ragging, being violent with your domestic help, talking rudely to wait staff and subordinates — all get full play.
In a recent example, a man called Salil Chaturvedi, whose spinal injury has him in a wheelchair, was vehemently assaulted by a self-proclaimed patriotic duo in a Goa cinema hall for not standing up for the national anthem. Vengeful discrimination is often based on this kind of circular retrospective logic. There is only one way of being. That way of being can only be blind patriotism (yaniki even complaining about the price of onions is anti-national). Blind patriotism can only be exhibited by a few fixed behaviours. One of these is standing up for the national anthem. What do you mean you can’t stand? Don’t make excuses. We will beat you.
Did the people who assaulted Mr. Chaturvedi apologise at the very least for their mistake if not their intolerance? It’s unlikely. Love for the country means never having to say you are sorry, so patriots don’t say sorry.
Except when they have to say sorry to prove they are patriots. As Karan Johar did in a disturbing video apology where he said that “of course” he will not work with people of a neighbouring country. Maybe we can also understand something about how a society treats its strong people — which Bollywood bigwigs certainly are.
At the moment, they feel, quite rightly, wronged. Why are they, the soft targets, singled out for attack every time in the case of India-Pakistan conflicts? Bollywood’s reach and precarious dependence on the opening weekend makes them an instant favourite for political theatre, guaranteeing instant eyeballs.
Movies also have great power to affect people deeply. Songs can transport us by giving expression to our emotions, and stories can reshape, even if subtly, how we see the world. Film can make us better people. It is debatable whether they currently do that, or contribute to a climate of intolerance over reflection. It is this power also that people fear — the ability to transcend boundaries, emotionally and affectively — that are so important to control people.
Some Bollywood folks feel that this displays not so much intolerance as hypocrisy. If you are going to ban films, they say, why not ban business deals and trade treaties as well? One has to wonder if we really should expand the language of bans so much, instead of fundamentally questioning them.
Others feel that everyone attacks Bollywood and no one stands up for them. One also wonders if anyone from the movie business stood up for the person in the wheelchair, Mr. Chaturvedi, and others, who have been heckled in the cinema hall, the place of movie business.
In the end, the attack and public humiliation of Karan Johar sends a loud message to all of us about how even simple opinions, which are only words after all, counter to pseudo-patriotic emotions, will be dealt with. Mr. Johar has also received a message, wherein the Home Minister has assured safe screenings for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
Wonder if anyone like that sent Mr. Chaturvedi a message, that he won’t get assaulted while watching the film.
Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at www.parodevipictures.com
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