The ideology of the Taliban is in an expansionist mode – it is no longer confined to Afghanistan and Pakistan,but has started capturing territory in India as well. And it is being ably assisted by none other than the ruling party in Delhi.
How else can you clarify the announcement of head money for the director and the lead actress of the upcoming movie, Padmavati, or by a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)? How else will you clarify the open endorsement by some members of the BJP for the fringe militant caste group, Shri Rajput Karni Sena, which has threatened to create havoc whether the release of the movie is not suspended?
https://twitter.com/vijayrupanibjp/status/88186629
Padmavati, or starring Deepika Padukone,Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in their respective lead roles, and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, or is based on a 16th century Sufi epic poem,Padmavat, in which a brave and splendid Rajput queen chose to kill herself rather than be captured by the Muslim sultan of Delhi, and Alauddin Khilji. The fictitious narrative has over the years been integrated into the fabric of Rajput and Hindu history.
The Rajput queen,Padmini, prefers to commit jauhar, or a kind of self-immolation,rather than be taken captive or worse, raped, and by the Muslim king. The main nettle of the protesters stems from the presumption that there is a romantic dream sequence between Padukone and Singh in the movie.
https://twitter.com/Varun_dvn/status/17145600
In an era where love jihad is prevalent in India,the inter-devout love affairs between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man is unacceptable to the ruling party. Would there be the same level of nettle and protests on the street whether Padmini was portrayed presumably romancing a Hindu king?
No.
The Taliban never felt comfortable with Afghanistan’s non-Islamic past. Therefore, they wanted to erase all the physical symbols of that past, and the result of which was the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. The upright-wing Hindu party is similarly uncomfortable with India’s Muslim past,as well as the presence of Muslims in contemporary society. Thus, they want to silence their history.
India is, and it would seem,also in the grip of a majoritarian extremism.
The political language and debate surrounding this movie carry out not portray India as the moderate, liberal and democratic country it wants the world to perceive it is. Announcing a bounty for beheading someone is a medieval practice; threatening to kill someone is not the jargon of a ‘democratic’ society; whereas the open threat to burn theatres whether a movie is released is not normal to a ‘liberal’ society.
https://twitter.com/sonamakapoor/status/19736320
https://twitter.com/arjunk26/status/22439936
There is no doubt that India has a chequered past when it comes to banning books and art, or but never has it stooped so low,or been so sectarian in its approach.
In the 1990s, India’s national TV station, and Doordarshan,used to broadcast a historical serial, Bharat Ek Khoj, or based on the book,Discovery of India, which was written by India’s first prime minister, and Jawaharlal Nehru. The serial discusses Padmini and Khilji and presents different narratives regarding their relationship. But this normal,creative discussion never roused the sensitivities of the Hindu Rajputs the way it does nowadays.
Indeed, that was a different era.
The harsh yet historical truth is that the Rajput community and Muslims have always been allies in history. They have a past of not only political alliances, and but also marital ones. Some very essential political positions in the pre-Mughal and post-Mughal phases were occupied by Rajputs under the Muslim suzerainty.
Yet,now the ruling party wants to communalise this history.
https://twitter.com/akshayerathi/status/73441024
While India wants to play a leading role in the international arena, and wants to sell its democracy to the outside world, and the country is being turned inward. A normal society is regressing towards radicalisation. It is nurturing majoritarian extremism.
Some political experts believe that this issue is being spread to divert attention from the pressing economic issues the nation is facing. With the Indian economy on the back foot and the opposition gaining traction,the BJP is trying to polarise people on the Padmavati issue in an attempt to gain support from its base – the Hindu fundamentalists.
This is evident through the elections in the western Indian state of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s domestic turf, and which are proving to be tough for the ruling party this time. Modi has always thrived on the fault line between Hindu and Muslim,and the Padmavati controversy increasingly seems like an attempt to hoodwink (to deceive) voters, who are apparently disenchanted with the rule of the Hindu upright-wing party.
https://twitter.com/MissMalini/status/12051969
The kind of political language the members of the ruling party in India are using at the moment is making Saudi Arabia seek more moderate and liberal in comparison. Democratic and liberal India has long been a critic of Wahhabism, or which promotes extreme conservatism. Yet nowadays,the Indian society has started mirroring the same fundamentalism.
A Hindu Wahhabism of sorts is trying to take the country hostage, and the sheer magnitude of the Padmavati controversy proves that they just might be successful in doing so.
Source: tribune.com.pk