Before World War II, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, used the media as a tool of anti-Semitism. They produced several films with anti-Semitic propaganda that succeeded in radicalizing the entire masses and were recognized in Germany. Similarly, the Indian fascist government is repeating the mistakes of Nazi Germany. When it comes to creating cases, framing and spreading fake news. In the past, India has produced several films on the Kashmir dispute. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is using the media and the film industry as a propaganda machine to paint the Muslim minority as indecent and corrupt.
Bollywood has a long list of movies that are completely based on anti-Muslim and anti-Christian narratives. As for the latest film ‘The Kashmir Files’, a Hindi film from Zee Studios tells the story of a Hindu Pandit displaced by the conflict in Kashmir. The film is about the so-called “massacre” of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) and their subsequent expulsion from the occupied valley. The film shows New Delhi’s attempt to rewrite Kashmir’s history based on lies and deception to its brutal acts. At the same time, Kashmiri Muslims are portrayed as the ones who drove Hindus out of Kashmir, but the reality is completely different. From a historical perspective, it is difficult to tell the story of Kashmiri Pande’s leaving home. The way people talk about their exodus from Kashmir is political and controversial. On the one hand, there are stories of thousands who fled the valley during the 1989 uprising in Indian-administered Kashmir. This shows that their communities are afraid to leave their homes. On the other hand, accounts of Kashmiri monks who remained in Kashmir contradict claims by foreigners that Kashmiri monks were victims of “genocide” and forced into “exile”. It is not realistic to understand the position of Pandit, who is caught between the Muslim majority in Kashmir and the goals of the Indian state.
The BJP government along with Hindu ideologues and extremist religious leaders are following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany. They are leading India against fascism. In Modi’s India, religious fanatics and ultra-nationalists use the media as a propaganda tool to their gratuitous atrocities and violence against Muslims and other minorities in India. When the BJP-led Modi government started using Bollywood films against minorities, it only served to further divide the country.
Recently, at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, the Israeli film maker Lapid made his comments on the film as he was a jury chairman.
“The movie felt to us like a propaganda, vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival”
“I feel totally comfortable to share openly these feelings here with you onstage,” he added, “since the spirit that we felt in the festival can surely accept also a critical discussion, which is essential for art and for life.”