Old imaginaries in a new frame: the politics of Bollywood’s ‘social problem films’ on Kashmir

ABSTRACT

Newly emerging ‘social problem films’ on Kashmir appear as a shift from the conventional construction of Kashmir and Kashmiris in Bollywood. This study, through critical narrative analysis (CNA), examines the politics behind the representation of the ‘social problems’ of Kashmir in recent Hindi films. As the narratives of these films are marked by selectivity and arrangement of historical events, this study demonstrates that Orientalist tropes continue to figure in the films in new forms. It is demonstrated that the films, whose narratives are fully dedicated to the ‘inside’ of Kashmir, inflict layered violence against the actual political and historical realities of the region. While engaging with the colonial and post-colonial binary trope of people-versus-land, the films not only obfuscate the historical context, they vindicate an outside intervention by presenting an axiomatic image of the events, cut off from their socio-political and historical roots. The two films under scrutiny in this study are Haider (2014) and Laila Majnu (2018). The subject matter of both is Kashmiri youth, and far from unveiling the ‘youth problems’ of Kashmir, they end up constructing a fresh imagery in which the ‘psychotic’ behaviour and trauma of Kashmir’s ‘misguided’ youth is socially located and explained.

KEYWORDS:

• Bollywood
• Kashmir
• orientalism
• social problem film

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 In this article, Kashmir refers refer to The Kashmir Valley. Generally, Kashmir is also used as a metonym for the whole disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which included multiple regions, including Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, which are controlled by India, and Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, which are controlled by Pakistan.

2 The Kashmir Valley, which is the focus of this study, is part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (now a Union Territory after India abrogated the ‘special’ status of the region). The Valley is a Muslim-majority territory where more than 96 percent of the population are Muslims. 68 percent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir are Muslims (see BI India Bureau 2019).

3 The Indian Hindu nationalist government, The Bahartiya Janata Party, bifurcated the state of Jammu and Kashmir, separating Ladakh from the provinces of Jammu and Kashmir. As of 5th August 2019, both Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir have been known as Union Territories – they have directly ruled from New Delhi, thus triggering fears of demographic change (Parker 2019).

4 To differentiate a local Valley-based Kashmiri Muslim from an outsider (such as an Afghan, Pakistani or Arab Muslim) in terrorist films, Bollywood films tend to portray Kashmiri Muslims with local attire like pheran to emphasize Kashmiris’ innocence. However, the present Hindu nationalist government has begun to criminalize pheran [for a discussion on pheran ban, see Malik (2021)].

5 A recent work by Misri (2019) on the pictorial representation of violence demonstrates the constant attempt by Indian State apparatuses to display Kashmiri bodies as ‘inhuman’ and thus dispensable.

6 Laila Majnu reflects Imtiyaz Ali’s proclivity towards the elite-class and class-based drama, as well as his worn-out treatment of the so-called trans-religious and trans-geographical mysticism, as in Rockstar and Highway. Ahad and Akgül have explored the problems of employing ‘syncretism’ with respect to interfaith coexistence in their forthcoming publication. Imtiyaz Ali’s filmography speaks more of his carving out an apologetic space for himself in the polarizing industry and the country than about his art or Sufism [see Gaur (2010) for a discussion on Muslim artists of Hindi cinema who changed their Muslim names in post-Partition India].

7 After the Kashmir issue developed into the armed conflict between Kashmiri rebels and the Indian State, the number of troops was increased in Kashmir from 150,000 in 1990 to 700,000 in the late 1990s, resulting in widespread violations of human rights (see Lubna Mohiuddin 1997). According to a report by the IPTK and APDP of JKCCS (2015), the total estimated number of Indian troops present in Kashmir is between 656,638 and 750,981 – this includes the Indian army, paramilitary agencies, Jammu and Kashmir Police and other agencies (14).

8 Deshpande and Despande (2011) argue that, in the nationalistic imagination of modern India, Muslims are represented as medieval interruption, tacitly justifying colonial intervention in India. Ancient Hindu civilization in this imagination is presented as having the potential for modernity, but this potential could not be realised because of Islamic interruption in India.

9 Scholars suggest that the roots of the contemporary middle-class of the sub-continent can be found in the British colonial period, and through learning English this class would exploit any opportunities raised during this era (Roy 1993, 43). English continues to be one of the channels of upward mobility for Indians (Parameswaran 1999).

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Notes on contributors

Waseem Ahad

Waseem Ahad was born and brought up in Kashmir. Currently he is based in Turkey. Waseem has a doctorate in Communication Sciences. His research work focuses on the relationship between the Bollywood film industry and Kashmir.