![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Manufacturing dissent in the name of history, its instrumentalisation for political purposes and bloodshed over its competing versions are the hallmarks of the Hindu Muslim schism prevalent in India. A recurring feature in Indian historiography is its rupture in the form of riots leading to human casualty. In this context, through an attempt to read the 1992 Mumbai riots as a quagmire of power politics, I would like to propose that a popular film like Mani Ratnam’s Bombay stabilises the secularist notion of unity in diversity amidst voices of dissent. The top down memory of trauma and hatred which percolates from the records of ‘official’ history is neutralised to a certain extent by the bottom up memory induced by an ‘imagined’ account which loiters in the popular psyche of generations. The film thus becomes a striking example of a neutraliser of memory. But a more nuanced reading shows how the director has skilfully projected the principle of equivalence from among the multiplicity of gazes to the axis of male gaze in order to conceal the play of ideologies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Smithi Mohan J. S.
Smithi Mohan J. S. is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government College, Tripunithura, Kerala, India. She is engaged in research on various dimensions of cultural studies in South Asia. She is also publishing in theoretical applications in this field. And she participates in gender and cultural studies conferences in Kerala.