Documentary Screening: India: The Modi Question (2023)
This documentary screening, followed by a hybrid discussion event, is an attempt to revisit the 2002 anti-Muslim Gujarat programs to develop a generative discussion on the pervasiveness of Islamophobia in the everyday and enactments of systemic violence along the social as well as political spectrum.
ARC Public
Date: Wednesday 24 May 2023
Time: 17:00 - 20:00
Venue: University of Glasgow, Advanced Research Centre (ARC), 11 Chapel Lane, Glasgow, G11 6EW
Category: Films and theatre
“Terror becomes total when it becomes independent of all opposition; it rules supreme when nobody any longer stands in its way.”
—Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
India is the fifth-largest economy in the world. Perhaps its growing geo-political significance explains why state-sanctioned hijab bans, repeated acts of disruption of namaz by right-wing groups, and judicial directives on land eviction drives in Muslim majority areas are overlooked in mainstream conversations, if not outright dismissed.
At the heart of this crisis lies Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his active investment in fuelling Islamophobia in the country. The Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has enviable credentials in not only furthering pseudo-animal activism and advancing a dangerous vocabulary of homohindunationalism, but also planning targeted social-media attacks on Muslims in Bollywood. The national political party’s obsession with the Hindi film industry might appear at once odd and embarrassing, but the impact of this obsession on the cultivation of idioms of Hindu nationalism in cinema, particularly in films such as The Kashmir Files and RRR, has already developed in popular opinion a convenient narrative of Hindu victimisation, one for which the country's Muslim population is deemed responsible.
This documentary screening, followed by a hybrid discussion event, is an attempt to revisit the 2002 anti-Muslim Gujarat pogroms to develop a generative discussion on the pervasiveness of Islamophobia in the everyday and enactments of systemic violence along the social as well as political spectrum. Organised as an informal initiative, one that is unsupported by an institutionalised research cluster or a research network, the screening is an opportunity to come together and initiate in the intellectual life of the university a discussion of political importance.
Prior familiarity with Indian politics is not a prerequisite. Anyone interested in critical thinking and anyone, in the words of Hélène Frichot, "wary of strictures of disciplination” is welcome to join. From enthusiasts of philosophy of violence to observational comedian Kunal Kamra's fans, from emerging postcolonial scholars to seasoned trolls, we welcome everyone, with the hope that we will all think together in wayward ways.
Book your place
Please complete the registration form to help us estimate the turnout.
Entrance starts at 5pm. The screening will begin at 5:15pm.