dear melanie thank u. here is my message. regards and good wishes for the new screenings. anand

Director’s Statement

When controversy broke about about the proposed screening of two of my films at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, I was taken completely by surprise being unaware of the program in the first place. Only when opponents and later, proponents, began to use the internet did it come to my notice in India that my films had sparked such heated debate in America.

What is the controversy about? It is amusing to note that the Hindu fundamentalists’ chief strategy in challenging the decision to screen my work was to brand me a "self-proclaimed leftist". They did not worry that I have never sought any label and that if anything "humanist" would suit me better than "Marxist" although I do acknowledge the left for having consistently fought religious fundamentalism. Obviously the fundamentalists calculated that a strategy of red baiting would work best with the Americam Museum of Natural History. Sadly they may well have gloated over the accuracy of their calculations when the AMNH seemed to cave in to pressure as it postponed the original screenings. The fact that these screenings were not cancelled but re-scheduled is of course a redeeming feature but it should not prevent soul searching about why re-scheduling was resorted in the first place. History teaches us that compromising with fundamentalist forces, no matter what their particular hue, only encourages them to become more extreme.

The irony of the situation is that both the films in question "In the Name of God" as well as "We are not your Monkeys" are not new films. "We are not your Monkeys" is a 5 minute music video which articulates a Dalit critique of the caste system by deconstructing images and stories from the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. The term Dalit meaning "oppressed" is today preferred as self-description by those whom the Hindu caste hierarchy historically relegated to the status of untouchability. Our music video was composed by three people - the late Daya Pawar (one of India’s greatest Dalit poets), Sambhaji Bhagat (a contemporary Dalit poet and musician) and myself. Many elements in the Ramayana point towards its upper caste origins. Amongst them is the story of how Rama the upper caste Hindu God-King beheaded the low caste Shudra Shambuka for daring to study the Vedas in defiance of a law that prohibited Shudras from acquiring knowledge.

The argument that Rama represents the Aryan conqueror and Hanuman and his monkey army represent the conquered indigenous people is also far from being a new one. The irony is that when foreign Indologists first proposed the "Aryan invasion" theory, Hindu nationalists of the time loved the idea that they were descended from the same racial stock as the white man. It is only now when Dalits and Adivasis (indigenous people) have begun to use the logical outcome of this theory to assert that they were the original Indians and that the often fairer skinned upper castes are descended from their Aryan forefathers, that Hindutva has begun to backtrack from the Aryan conquest theory. Hindutva now denies the existence of indigenous people and indigenous culture and want to subsume them under the umbrella of Hinduism which they claim has always existed in the soil of India.

The second film in question "In the name of God" was made over a decade ago. It won a National Award (given by the President of India) as the Best Investigative Documentary of 1992. Later it also won the Filmfare Award (Indian equivalent of the Oscar, given by the film industry) for Best Documentary as well as several international awards. On the basis of these awards, I submitted the film to the State controlled Doordarshan (national TV) network but did not receive a positive response. So we took the matter to court arguing that not telecasting a national award winning film was a violation of my freedom to speech and of the public’s right to information, both guaranteed by Article 19 of the Indian Constitution. We won the case. In 1997 the state controlled national TV network showed the film at prime time after being ordered to do so by the Bombay High Court.

"In the name of God" is not a work of fiction. It documented the events that led to the first assault by Hindu militants on the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1990. It warned the Indian nation of the corrosive and destructive path being adopted by politicians who were spreading hatred and ripping apart the secular fabric of India. Chief amongst those who incited communal frenzy was L.K. Advani, president of a party that on this one issue alone would grow from 2 seats in Parliament to become the party in power.

There were other voices recorded in the film of those who opposed the spreading of hate. Chief amongst these was the voice of the priest of the Ram Janmabhoomi site, Pujari Laldas, who categorically asserted that the demolition of the mosque was not in the interest of Hindus but was being advocated for political and financial gain.

Two years later his voice proved prophetic when fanatic mobs succeeded in demolishing the Babri Mosque in December 1992. In the riots that followed across the whole sub-continent, thousands lost their lives. The BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh. Pujari Laldas was removed from his post as head priest of the Ram temple. A year later Pujari Laldas was murdered.

Today his gentle, humane message of tolerance and reason still resounds in "In the Name of God" and the film reminds us of the tragedy of a path not taken.

Anand Patwardhan
February 18, 2002