Affront to a nation’s pride
THE distorted representation of facts about Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 in the Bollywood blockbuster Gunday, which triggered a furore on Facebook and subsequently prompted the producers of the Hindi film to issue an apology,
is instructive; it provides an insight into how the Indian elite—civilian and military, political and cultural—view the most glorious chapter in Bangladesh’s history. According to a report published in New Age on Sunday, the opening narration of the film, which currently tops the Bollywood chart, depicts the creation of Bangladesh as the result of a 13-day battle between India and Pakistan starting on December 3, 1971, suggests that displaced Bangladeshis were involved in gunrunning and other crimes and insinuates that Bangladesh prefer identifying themselves as Indians.
The online activists certainly deserve praise for the criticism of such disrespectful depiction and insulting insinuation, and the petition to the film’s producers that prompted a clarification that Gunday ‘was and is meant to be a fictional work and does not in any way project or disrespect any particular segment of society or persons or a nation’ and an apology for ‘any disrespect or hurt’ it has caused. Regrettably, however, such distortions of history by the Indian and, for that matter, Pakistani civilian and military, political and cultural elite are neither isolated nor unprecedented, nor are these likely to stop in the days to come.
Ever since Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation on December 16, 1971 following more than two decades of political struggle that culminated in nine months of a bloody war leaving hundreds of thousands killed, a section of the elite in both India and Pakistan have sought to represent and reinterpret the momentous event through their parochial nationalistic prisms, relegating in the process the sacrifices made by Bangladeshis into a sort of footnote in history. It is little wonder then that Bangladesh is described as a by-product of the 13-day Indo-Pak war and a result of Indian intrigue, respectively, in the official Indian and Pakistani discourses.
Regrettably, however, a dominating section of Bangladesh’s civilian and military, political and cultural elite has hardly ever challenged, formally, the official historical discourse of India and Pakistan. Until and unless, such a challenge is made, there will be more instances of deliberate distortion of the Bangladesh’s war of liberation not only in commercial movies such as Gunday but also in other areas of creative work.
That said, it needs to be noted that Gunday provides an opportunity for society at large, especially its self-respecting and history-aware sections, to mobilise public opinion and bring the pressure to bear on the ruling elite, political and cultural, civilian and military, to raise the issue with their Indian and Pakistani counterparts and make them revise their disrespectful official discourse on the 1971 war. Meanwhile, there needs to be concerted move, not just in the cyberspace, to make the Indian authorities to put an embargo on Gunday until the abovementioned distortion of history is rectified. After all, mere apologies do not absolve an affront of such magnitude.
Affront to a nation’s pride
THE distorted representation of facts about Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 in the Bollywood blockbuster Gunday, which triggered a furore on Facebook and subsequently prompted the producers of the Hindi film to issue an apology,
is instructive; it provides an insight into how the Indian elite—civilian and military, political and cultural—view the most glorious chapter in Bangladesh’s history. According to a report published in New Age on Sunday, the opening narration of the film, which currently tops the Bollywood chart, depicts the creation of Bangladesh as the result of a 13-day battle between India and Pakistan starting on December 3, 1971, suggests that displaced Bangladeshis were involved in gunrunning and other crimes and insinuates that Bangladesh prefer identifying themselves as Indians.
The online activists certainly deserve praise for the criticism of such disrespectful depiction and insulting insinuation, and the petition to the film’s producers that prompted a clarification that Gunday ‘was and is meant to be a fictional work and does not in any way project or disrespect any particular segment of society or persons or a nation’ and an apology for ‘any disrespect or hurt’ it has caused. Regrettably, however, such distortions of history by the Indian and, for that matter, Pakistani civilian and military, political and cultural elite are neither isolated nor unprecedented, nor are these likely to stop in the days to come.
Ever since Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation on December 16, 1971 following more than two decades of political struggle that culminated in nine months of a bloody war leaving hundreds of thousands killed, a section of the elite in both India and Pakistan have sought to represent and reinterpret the momentous event through their parochial nationalistic prisms, relegating in the process the sacrifices made by Bangladeshis into a sort of footnote in history. It is little wonder then that Bangladesh is described as a by-product of the 13-day Indo-Pak war and a result of Indian intrigue, respectively, in the official Indian and Pakistani discourses.
Regrettably, however, a dominating section of Bangladesh’s civilian and military, political and cultural elite has hardly ever challenged, formally, the official historical discourse of India and Pakistan. Until and unless, such a challenge is made, there will be more instances of deliberate distortion of the Bangladesh’s war of liberation not only in commercial movies such as Gunday but also in other areas of creative work.
That said, it needs to be noted that Gunday provides an opportunity for society at large, especially its self-respecting and history-aware sections, to mobilise public opinion and bring the pressure to bear on the ruling elite, political and cultural, civilian and military, to raise the issue with their Indian and Pakistani counterparts and make them revise their disrespectful official discourse on the 1971 war. Meanwhile, there needs to be concerted move, not just in the cyberspace, to make the Indian authorities to put an embargo on Gunday until the abovementioned distortion of history is rectified. After all, mere apologies do not absolve an affront of such magnitude.
Affront to a nation’s pride
wow words fail me .
Lungi toh hum South Indians bhi bade pyar se pehente hain, lekin hum thodi na Bangladeshi hain?
