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Sikhs in Bollywood
Can Bollywood even dare to make a movie depicting the real nature of
RSS? Take a shot at truth for a change
WSN Network
 The Sikhs have
repeatedly underlined their mis-representation and caricaturization
in Bollywood churnings and had pleaded their case even before Asma
Jahangir, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief,
during her visit to Mumbai last year.
Despite
continuing protests from the community, various producers and
directors continue their demeaning portrayals of Sikhs and depiction
of stereotyped and offensive Sikh images in Bollywood movies and
television serials.
Indian democracy
is made up of a host of ethnic, social and religious peoples. The
sick jokes about Sikhs in Bollywood are testing the distress level
of the lay Sikh and may even have dangerous social ramifications and
repercussions.
Unlike Raj
Thackeray, the Sikhs have so far kept their patience. The fact that
the industry has many well known Punjabis in its ranks should have
helped sensitisation but obviously thisis not the case. and various
films continue to take a jibe at the Sikh identity every now and
then.
New Delhi has
failed to set up a mechanism to ensure that community and gender
sensitivities are respected in cinema. The film industry cannot hide
behind the false image of a bunch of people in Sikh garb, like
Navjot Sidhu, to claim that some sections have no objection to such
depiction.
Such people may
have their vested reasons to flaunt their socalled secular approach
and gain popularity in the bargain but the plethora of Santa-Banta
jokes has to come to an end. Poking fun at a community through
malicious jokes is hardly a sign of any mature democracy or high
art.
Many journalists
and academics have in recent times started suggesting that somehow
the identity markers like turban are of increasingly no use and
Sikhs may well shun these and that "it would not make them any
lesser Sikhs." At times, we are being told that Sikhs must see these
jokes through the prism of a sense of humour. We are asked if jokes
can be harmful?
But the people
who ask questions is that language can be a huge weapon and yes,
jokes can be very very harmful. It is pertinent to remember that
Karan Johar did not try to convince Raj Thackeray that calling
Mumbai Bombay was not harmful. He knew the consequences of goons
landing up at cinema halls.
Indian
politician in the mid-1980s and the Bollywood cinema have made their
contribution in first tagging Sikhs as “terrorists” and then doing
the same to Muslims. Can Bollywood even dare to make a movie
depicting the real nature of RSS? Take a shot at truth for a change.
14
October 2009
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