Reframing nationalism and national identity in Anek

ABSTRACT

Foregrounding Anubhav Sinha's Hindi mainstream film Anek (released on 27 May 2022), I will draw upon the discourses of nationalism and nation to examine the issues of separatist insurgency, violence, and militarization in the Northeast from the affective and performative lens in order to unsettle the reified categories of identity politics. As ‘nation-building' has important implications for nationalism and the nation-state, an attempt is made to map out the contours of the historical legacy of state formation in the Northeast India, which is characterized by ‘ethnic polities’ of Northeast groups with a connection to a real or imagined homeland, and the recurrent politics of subnationalism. Delineating the current scholarship on the relationship between hot and banal nationalism, an endeavour is made to offer new ways to understand insurgency and counter insurgency in the Northeast. Lastly, the paper explores how sports serve as a galvanizing force for mobilizing national identity and unity.

KEYWORDS:

• Northeast; national identity; banal nationalism; insurgency; Indian Hindi cinema; sports

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This quote is taken from Nirmal Kumar Bose’s Selections from Gandhi (1957), p. 162.

2 For more information on the ideology of separatist movements in Northeast the following readings can be beneficial: M. S. Prabhakara. (2007). Separatist movements in the North-East: Rhetoric and reality. Economic and Political Weekly, 42(9), 728–730. Butt, Ahsan. I. (2017). India's strategies against separatism in Assam, Punjab, and Kashmir, 1984–1994. In Secession and security: Explaining state strategy against separatists (pp. 83–124). Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

3 For references on Northeastern people's struggle to establish their national identity the following readings are useful: Kharshiing, K. D. (2020). Identity and Otherisation in Northeast India: Representations in media texts. Psychology and Developing Societies, 32(1), 65–93. Das, N. K. (2009). Identity politics and social exclusion in India's Northeast. A critique of nation-building and redistributive justice. Anthropos, 104(2), 549–558. Kumar, N. (2005). Identity politics in the hill tribal communities in the North-Eastern India. Sociological Bulletin, 54(2), 195–217.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nishat Haider

Nishat Haider is professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia (Central) University, New Delhi. Recipient of the Meenakshi Mukherjee Prize in 2015, the C. D. Narasimhaiah Award in 2010, and the Isaac Sequeira Memorial Award in 2011, she has presented papers at numerous academic conferences, and her essays have been included in a variety of scholarly journals and books. She is the author of the book Contemporary Indian Women's Poetry (2010). She has served as the Director, Institute of Women's Studies, University of Lucknow. She has conducted numerous conferences, seminars, and workshops on gender budgeting and gender sensitization. She has worked on various projects funded by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF, UGC and other agencies. She also worked as the Project Coordinator (Jamia) of the English Access Micro-scholarship Programme (an initiative of the United States Embassy/Consulate General in India and the United States Department of State). Her research interests include postcolonial studies, popular culture, memory and gender studies.