Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2019.1673541
Nadira Khatun
In the era of globalization and liberalization, cinema has become an important tool for propagating the idea of ‘neo-nationalism’. ‘Neonationalism’ denotes the contemporary manifestation of nationalism as Hindu nationalism – opposed to ‘ideology that focuses both on loyalty to and pride in one’s nation’. In this article, I have used the term to interpret how contemporary Bollywood exhibits India as a Hindu rashtra (nation) through the new narratives of Indian cinematic space. In contemporary times, Bollywood imagines India as a Hindu rashtra (nation), thereby making the minorities, especially Muslims, express their constant allegiance to the nation. The divisions in Indian society, whether sexual, religious or based on ethnic identity, have been more apparent in recent years. But, ignoring this fact, Hindi cinema continues to prioritize a ‘monolithic image of the nation’. In this paper, I argue that if Indian nationalism is to be represented as Hindu nationalism and Indian culture as Hindu culture, it logically follows that this majoritarian construction needs the minority other to reinforce this notion of nationalism and culture. This paper explores the position of Muslims in contemporary Bollywood films, adopting textual analysis (that is, reading the films as texts) Using Edward Said’s theoretical framework of Orientalism, this paper elucidates how specific popular contemporary Bollywood films have dealt with the liminality of the Muslim ‘Other’ in by either representing Muslims in archetype characters or by vilifying their image. The representation of Muslims in Bollywood films has been divided into three broad segments: representation of terrorists, the portrayal of patriotic Muslims, and the effect of ‘love jihad’ on Bollywood.
{"title":"RETRACTED ARTICLE: Postcolonial Hindi cinema and neo-nationalism: The politics of Muslim identity","authors":"Nadira Khatun","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2019.1673541","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2019.1673541","url":null,"abstract":"In the era of globalization and liberalization, cinema has become an important tool for propagating the idea of ‘neo-nationalism’. ‘Neonationalism’ denotes the contemporary manifestation of nationalism as Hindu nationalism – opposed to ‘ideology that focuses both on loyalty to and pride in one’s nation’. In this article, I have used the term to interpret how contemporary Bollywood exhibits India as a Hindu rashtra (nation) through the new narratives of Indian cinematic space. In contemporary times, Bollywood imagines India as a Hindu rashtra (nation), thereby making the minorities, especially Muslims, express their constant allegiance to the nation. The divisions in Indian society, whether sexual, religious or based on ethnic identity, have been more apparent in recent years. But, ignoring this fact, Hindi cinema continues to prioritize a ‘monolithic image of the nation’. In this paper, I argue that if Indian nationalism is to be represented as Hindu nationalism and Indian culture as Hindu culture, it logically follows that this majoritarian construction needs the minority other to reinforce this notion of nationalism and culture. This paper explores the position of Muslims in contemporary Bollywood films, adopting textual analysis (that is, reading the films as texts) Using Edward Said’s theoretical framework of Orientalism, this paper elucidates how specific popular contemporary Bollywood films have dealt with the liminality of the Muslim ‘Other’ in by either representing Muslims in archetype characters or by vilifying their image. The representation of Muslims in Bollywood films has been divided into three broad segments: representation of terrorists, the portrayal of patriotic Muslims, and the effect of ‘love jihad’ on Bollywood.","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"10 - 17"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2019.1673541","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46984205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1775342
Bonnie Zare
ABSTRACT Women in India cope with an ongoing sense of precarity owing to the frequency of street harassment and sexual violence; this impacts their freedom to travel and sense of autonomous agency. The December 2012 Nirbhaya case, the rape and fatal injury of a Delhi medical student, returned the subject of rape to public discourse leading to mass protests and, eventually, some stronger anti-rape laws; however, #metoo allegations surface weekly, and artists and activists are demanding that the trivialization of rape and verbal abuse stop and active steps be taken to dismantle the cultural scaffolding undergirding twomen's violation. In 2014 a collaboration by Zubaan Press (New Delhi) and the Goethe Institute (Germany) brought a group of Indian graphic artists together to create stories about women’s ground realities and the microaggressions they experience. The resulting publication, Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back, contains fourteen vignettes which reveal the constraints women experience and also illuminate women’s capacity for resilience and boldness. This essay analyzes the forms of resistance imagined in these narratives, how particular stories illuminate slow violence, and what may be lost if we know little about the perpetrators who commit these acts against women.
{"title":"‘To draw light, you need shadow’: Using graphic art to counter gender based violence in Drawing the Line","authors":"Bonnie Zare","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1775342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1775342","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Women in India cope with an ongoing sense of precarity owing to the frequency of street harassment and sexual violence; this impacts their freedom to travel and sense of autonomous agency. The December 2012 Nirbhaya case, the rape and fatal injury of a Delhi medical student, returned the subject of rape to public discourse leading to mass protests and, eventually, some stronger anti-rape laws; however, #metoo allegations surface weekly, and artists and activists are demanding that the trivialization of rape and verbal abuse stop and active steps be taken to dismantle the cultural scaffolding undergirding twomen's violation. In 2014 a collaboration by Zubaan Press (New Delhi) and the Goethe Institute (Germany) brought a group of Indian graphic artists together to create stories about women’s ground realities and the microaggressions they experience. The resulting publication, Drawing the Line: Indian Women Fight Back, contains fourteen vignettes which reveal the constraints women experience and also illuminate women’s capacity for resilience and boldness. This essay analyzes the forms of resistance imagined in these narratives, how particular stories illuminate slow violence, and what may be lost if we know little about the perpetrators who commit these acts against women.","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"139 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1775342","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46994160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1773656
Runa Chakraborty Paunksnis, Šarūnas Paunksnis
ABSTRACT This essay examines the portrayal of masculine anxiety and the representation of ‘new Indian women’ in Anurag Kashyap’s films Dev D (2009), Ugly (2013) and Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016). Kashyap in his films, particularly in the films mentioned here, focuses on transforming social relations in post-liberalization urban India. His films often portray the anxiety of contemporary Indian men over the issue of female emancipation and their aggression towards those women who defy the patriarchal code of conduct by attempting to assert their own agency. By situating the neurotic, hyper-masculine heroes at the centre of the narratives, they point at the skewed gender relation which despite the pervasive rhetoric of women’s empowerment echoed throughout neoliberal India is increasingly becoming more and more fractured. Kashyap’s films thus act as representatives of a new social order currently in progress in India and compel us to understand the complex process through which the notion of masculinity is being continually configured. The essay traces the connection between the masculine anxiety and the neoliberal social world by exploring the psychic and social lives of the fictional male characters created in Kashyap’s films.
{"title":"Masculine anxiety and ‘new Indian woman’ in the films of Anurag Kashyap","authors":"Runa Chakraborty Paunksnis, Šarūnas Paunksnis","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1773656","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1773656","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This essay examines the portrayal of masculine anxiety and the representation of ‘new Indian women’ in Anurag Kashyap’s films Dev D (2009), Ugly (2013) and Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016). Kashyap in his films, particularly in the films mentioned here, focuses on transforming social relations in post-liberalization urban India. His films often portray the anxiety of contemporary Indian men over the issue of female emancipation and their aggression towards those women who defy the patriarchal code of conduct by attempting to assert their own agency. By situating the neurotic, hyper-masculine heroes at the centre of the narratives, they point at the skewed gender relation which despite the pervasive rhetoric of women’s empowerment echoed throughout neoliberal India is increasingly becoming more and more fractured. Kashyap’s films thus act as representatives of a new social order currently in progress in India and compel us to understand the complex process through which the notion of masculinity is being continually configured. The essay traces the connection between the masculine anxiety and the neoliberal social world by exploring the psychic and social lives of the fictional male characters created in Kashyap’s films.","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"149 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1773656","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44278298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1777631
Alexandra Delaney-Bhattacharya, Vishal Chauhan
In the autumn of 2017 we entered the second year of our PhDs under the supervision of Professor Rajinder Dudrah and were tasked with organising a conference which sought to bring together the next generation of Bollywood scholars. It was a natural choice and fit for our research topics – Dalit representation in Bollywood is Vishal’s area of enquiry and white femininity in Bollywood is Alexandra’s. Beyond our immediate academic focus, it seemed timely, too. The MeToo movement was gaining momentum internationally, extending to India and Bollywood, and India was beginning to think about forthcoming elections in 2019. Representation in Bollywood was the obvious choice with so much rich social and political material to draw on. Our interests specifically were the contemporary representations that have emerged from the context of post-1990s Bollywood to the present moment. The impact of liberalisation has been profound, and India’s entertainment industry has sought to keep pace with global trends on the one hand and define and sustain ‘Indian’ cultural values on the other. These processes are very much part of contemporary Indian society and consequently reflected in the creation of film, too. It was exciting to receive submissions from around the world and to see the diverse areas of Bollywood scholarship that our contemporaries are engaged in. After a careful and strenuous review, we invited nine scholars from four regions of the world to join us in May 2018 at Birmingham City University. We were delighted that Professor Rachel Dwyer, who has been a significant an influence on our work as our supervisor Professor Dudrah, accepted and attended to give the keynote speech on ageing masculinity in Bollywood, examining the case of Salman Khan specifically. The conference was a success and forged a nascent network of emerging Bollywood scholars. Connections were made and friendships formed. It was exciting for a group of interdisciplinary scholars to meet, in-person, and share their research. It’s not often we get such an opportunity, so we are thankful to Professor Dudrah for his initial encouragement and constant support, to our secondary supervisor Professor John Mercer for his support, to Professor Dwyer for her excellent keynote contribution and feedback on the papers presented, to Professors Priya Jha and Anjali Roy for coming all the way from the US and India, respectively, to chair panels for us, to Birmingham City University for allowing us to host such a meaningful event, to our wonderful co-presenters for travelling from near and far to share their research and last but certainly not least to Professor Gita Rajan for her enthusiasm for the project and supporting the development of our dossier.
{"title":"Introduction","authors":"Alexandra Delaney-Bhattacharya, Vishal Chauhan","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1777631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1777631","url":null,"abstract":"In the autumn of 2017 we entered the second year of our PhDs under the supervision of Professor Rajinder Dudrah and were tasked with organising a conference which sought to bring together the next generation of Bollywood scholars. It was a natural choice and fit for our research topics – Dalit representation in Bollywood is Vishal’s area of enquiry and white femininity in Bollywood is Alexandra’s. Beyond our immediate academic focus, it seemed timely, too. The MeToo movement was gaining momentum internationally, extending to India and Bollywood, and India was beginning to think about forthcoming elections in 2019. Representation in Bollywood was the obvious choice with so much rich social and political material to draw on. Our interests specifically were the contemporary representations that have emerged from the context of post-1990s Bollywood to the present moment. The impact of liberalisation has been profound, and India’s entertainment industry has sought to keep pace with global trends on the one hand and define and sustain ‘Indian’ cultural values on the other. These processes are very much part of contemporary Indian society and consequently reflected in the creation of film, too. It was exciting to receive submissions from around the world and to see the diverse areas of Bollywood scholarship that our contemporaries are engaged in. After a careful and strenuous review, we invited nine scholars from four regions of the world to join us in May 2018 at Birmingham City University. We were delighted that Professor Rachel Dwyer, who has been a significant an influence on our work as our supervisor Professor Dudrah, accepted and attended to give the keynote speech on ageing masculinity in Bollywood, examining the case of Salman Khan specifically. The conference was a success and forged a nascent network of emerging Bollywood scholars. Connections were made and friendships formed. It was exciting for a group of interdisciplinary scholars to meet, in-person, and share their research. It’s not often we get such an opportunity, so we are thankful to Professor Dudrah for his initial encouragement and constant support, to our secondary supervisor Professor John Mercer for his support, to Professor Dwyer for her excellent keynote contribution and feedback on the papers presented, to Professors Priya Jha and Anjali Roy for coming all the way from the US and India, respectively, to chair panels for us, to Birmingham City University for allowing us to host such a meaningful event, to our wonderful co-presenters for travelling from near and far to share their research and last but certainly not least to Professor Gita Rajan for her enthusiasm for the project and supporting the development of our dossier.","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"177 - 178"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1777631","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47497691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-05-03DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1748268
{"title":"Statement of retraction: Postcolonial Hindi cinema and neo-nationalism: The politics of Muslim identity","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1748268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1748268","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"179 - 179"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1748268","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44716460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1733810
Laura R. Brueck
ABSTRACT This article considers some of the novels of towering modern Hindi language detective novelists Ved Prakash Sharma and Surender Mohan Pathak. The articulation of masculinity that each novelist proffers through their plots and characters is considered within a nuanced context of popular detective novel traditions in other languages in India as well as the various paratexts of the novels themselves (covers, authors' notes etc.) This article ultimately argues that both Sharma and Pathak reveal nuanced iterations of vernacular masculinity. Sharma plays with stereotypical notions of male heroism and villainy within a localized context of nationalist discourse, while Pathak features antihero protagonists in the roles of modern Indian ‘everymen.’ The idea of a vernacular gendered aesthetic here thus refers to a pointedly localized–as opposed to global–approach to language, theme, literary style, circulation, and audience.
{"title":"Bhais behaving badly: Vernacular masculinities in Hindi detective novels","authors":"Laura R. Brueck","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1733810","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1733810","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article considers some of the novels of towering modern Hindi language detective novelists Ved Prakash Sharma and Surender Mohan Pathak. The articulation of masculinity that each novelist proffers through their plots and characters is considered within a nuanced context of popular detective novel traditions in other languages in India as well as the various paratexts of the novels themselves (covers, authors' notes etc.) This article ultimately argues that both Sharma and Pathak reveal nuanced iterations of vernacular masculinity. Sharma plays with stereotypical notions of male heroism and villainy within a localized context of nationalist discourse, while Pathak features antihero protagonists in the roles of modern Indian ‘everymen.’ The idea of a vernacular gendered aesthetic here thus refers to a pointedly localized–as opposed to global–approach to language, theme, literary style, circulation, and audience.","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"29 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1733810","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42361977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1733806
Sucheta M. Choudhuri
ABSTRACT This article examines how the representation of abject masculinity resists queer erasure in Hansal Mehta’s 2016 film Aligarh. Shortly after the Delhi High Court delegitimized the homophobic Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the national media highlighted the assault, suspension and subsequent death of Srinivas Ramachandra Siras, a professor of Marathi literature at Aligarh Muslim University. Aligarh revisits the tragic fate of Siras, whose enforced abjection was catalyzed by not only his sexual orientation, but also the vernacular ‘wars’ that sanction region-specific forms of masculinity. The film articulates a mistrust of agency implicit in language. The abject male body in Aligarh becomes a source of resistance, rupturing the rigid codification enforced equally by the language of law and by neoliberal discourses of queer activism. Siras’s abjection, his insistence on the untranslatability of inchoate feelings and valorization of silences, pauses and emotional excess enacts a subversion of the symbolic order and a return to the pre-linguistic realm. The film posits abject queer masculinity in spectral opposition to postcolonial norms of gender and sexuality.
{"title":"‘Tum Log Yeh Shabd Ke Peechhey Kyon Parh Jaate Ho?’: Language, abjection and queer masculinity in Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh","authors":"Sucheta M. Choudhuri","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1733806","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1733806","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines how the representation of abject masculinity resists queer erasure in Hansal Mehta’s 2016 film Aligarh. Shortly after the Delhi High Court delegitimized the homophobic Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the national media highlighted the assault, suspension and subsequent death of Srinivas Ramachandra Siras, a professor of Marathi literature at Aligarh Muslim University. Aligarh revisits the tragic fate of Siras, whose enforced abjection was catalyzed by not only his sexual orientation, but also the vernacular ‘wars’ that sanction region-specific forms of masculinity. The film articulates a mistrust of agency implicit in language. The abject male body in Aligarh becomes a source of resistance, rupturing the rigid codification enforced equally by the language of law and by neoliberal discourses of queer activism. Siras’s abjection, his insistence on the untranslatability of inchoate feelings and valorization of silences, pauses and emotional excess enacts a subversion of the symbolic order and a return to the pre-linguistic realm. The film posits abject queer masculinity in spectral opposition to postcolonial norms of gender and sexuality.","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"47 - 61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1733806","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42963680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1765519
R. Mukherjee
{"title":"Correction","authors":"R. Mukherjee","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1765519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1765519","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"x - x"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1765519","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47160933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1736810
R. Mukherjee
ABSTRACT In contemporary India, Hindutva chauvinists, self-labelled as ‘gau-rakshaks’ (cow protectors) actively create misinformation campaigns through WhatsApp to set up mob attacks against alleged ‘gau-taskars’ (‘cow smugglers’), who are often from minority communities – Dalits and Muslims. Such communal incidents of mob behavior are on many occasions viewed as ‘flare-ups’ triggered by rumors, and yet for the triggering rumor to have the consequential effect it does, there has to be a regular build-up of communal atmosphere. The easy camera recording technologies of today’s mobile phones and the cheap circulatory affordances of WhatsApp make acts of cow vigilantism seem like performative rituals, very much ready and available for ‘mobile witnessing’. Such witnessing from members of their own community is crucial for the aspirations of the majoritarian Hindutva boys today who are recording and circulating the videos because they want their acts to be recognized so as to gain stature within their community. Many cow-vigilante outfits maintain multiple WhatsApp groups where enthused Hindu men are exhorted to converge on particular locations on interstate highways to catch alleged cow smugglers. Instead of focusing exclusively on Indian cultural divisions and governmental failure or affixing responsibility solely to WhatsApp for the epidemic of fake news and mob lynchings, I look closely at the coupling of religious ideology and media habits. I understand the media practices of cow vigilantes – that is, their use of Facebook and WhatsApp – as being part of their habitual micro-actions and social practices (including their performances of manliness).
{"title":"Mobile witnessing on WhatsApp: Vigilante virality and the anatomy of mob lynching","authors":"R. Mukherjee","doi":"10.1080/14746689.2020.1736810","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14746689.2020.1736810","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In contemporary India, Hindutva chauvinists, self-labelled as ‘gau-rakshaks’ (cow protectors) actively create misinformation campaigns through WhatsApp to set up mob attacks against alleged ‘gau-taskars’ (‘cow smugglers’), who are often from minority communities – Dalits and Muslims. Such communal incidents of mob behavior are on many occasions viewed as ‘flare-ups’ triggered by rumors, and yet for the triggering rumor to have the consequential effect it does, there has to be a regular build-up of communal atmosphere. The easy camera recording technologies of today’s mobile phones and the cheap circulatory affordances of WhatsApp make acts of cow vigilantism seem like performative rituals, very much ready and available for ‘mobile witnessing’. Such witnessing from members of their own community is crucial for the aspirations of the majoritarian Hindutva boys today who are recording and circulating the videos because they want their acts to be recognized so as to gain stature within their community. Many cow-vigilante outfits maintain multiple WhatsApp groups where enthused Hindu men are exhorted to converge on particular locations on interstate highways to catch alleged cow smugglers. Instead of focusing exclusively on Indian cultural divisions and governmental failure or affixing responsibility solely to WhatsApp for the epidemic of fake news and mob lynchings, I look closely at the coupling of religious ideology and media habits. I understand the media practices of cow vigilantes – that is, their use of Facebook and WhatsApp – as being part of their habitual micro-actions and social practices (including their performances of manliness).","PeriodicalId":35199,"journal":{"name":"South Asian Popular Culture","volume":"18 1","pages":"101 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/14746689.2020.1736810","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59873318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14746689.2020.1733803
Hashik Nadukkandiyil
ABSTRACT This article examines the representation of pravasam (gulf migration) and pravasi (gulf migrant) in two “home films” from Malabar, South India, and identifies the shift in the representation of the Gulf in mainstream Malayalam popular culture with the arrival of “home films” in the 2000s. Most of the home films in the early period had the gulf migration as the central theme and the migrant as the central character. Most of these films were also made by gulf migrants themselves, making them self-representations to an extent. The article also examines the various connotations the term pravasi (migrant) acquires at various phases such as when the migrant lives in the gulf, visits the homeland on leave, and finally returns home forever. This article argues that while religion, society, and profession pose challenges to the migrant’s expected, imagined and practiced identity, his/her struggle to (re)-fit into the societal frame reflects on his/her self and family, and explores how home films address these issues.
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