The Hindu : Evil of policing thought

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 14, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Evil of policing thought

THERE IS A dip in social tolerance. Though it may be a global phenomenon, it appears to be particularly frightening in India, where political parties and caste groups have been increasingly trying to stifle points of view that may either not suit their goals or differ from what they propagate. Often, such prejudice extends to very basic and personal levels: we have seen the imposition of dress codes for women in parts of central India by political parties or organisations whose idea of modesty may not always conform to comfort or trends in fashion. Thus, for example, asking a woman not to sport a pair of jeans could be in some sense as ridiculous as a Taliban custom of men having to — or choosing to — face a wall the moment they see a lady without a burqa. The 23-year-old Iranian director, Samira Makhmalbaf's latest film, "At Five in the Afternoon", underlined this terrible practice in a way that shocked critics and audiences at the recent Cannes International Film Festival. Made in Kabul, Samira's work may find it almost impossible to get a certificate of exhibition in her country, where bigotry is refusing to give way to pragmatism.

There are times when the picture in India seems as disturbing. Director-actor Kamal Hassan is now being stopped from shooting his "Sandiyar" — which deals with caste Hindus (Thevars) — by Pudhiya Tamizhagam, a political party claiming to protect the rights of Dalits. The question at this point is, will it not be premature, even immature, to judge a work even before the cameras have begun rolling, and the first scenes have been framed? With the movie crew waiting at Theni in Tamil Nadu (a Thevar stronghold) for some kind of a settlement, it appears that history is all set to repeat itself, and only too soon. Some time ago, Canada-based Deepa Mehta wasted time and money trying to film "Water". While her lead actresses, Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi, had even tonsured their heads, and Ms. Mehta's foreign crew cooled their heels at Varanasi, Hindu extremists felt that the film would be an unfair record of the plight of widows living there. Ultimately, Ms. Mehta and her team had to abandon their effort and leave Varanasi. What is more, Ms. Mehta's script had been okayed by the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry!

Given the kind of intense extra-constitutional authority that political parties — which may or may not be part of the Government — wield in India, often as a tool to destroy artistic expressions (M. F. Husain's paintings were vandalised, and theatres then screening Ms. Mehta's earlier work were damaged), the latest decision of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to attract foreign film companies to India can well be self-defeating. After all, they cannot be expected to seek "permission" from several "centres of power", and some radical elements in India have, of late, taken it upon themselves to police even thoughts. A nation which claims to guarantee many fundamental rights — including the freedom of expression — cannot let itself be hijacked by groups which think that they have the right to formulate tenets of morality. Worse, a country that points fingers at the sheer horror and ugliness of, for instance, Afghanistan's Talibanisation must learn to set its own house in order. It is imperative that the administration ensures a climate of artistic liberalism: only this will allow the emergence and flowering of plural views. Cinema is a beautiful form which celebrates a multitude of human tendencies and emotions, often artistically, and no power must be allowed to harass and humiliate those seeking to create dreams in celluloid.

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