Much ado over Indian Summer?
Universal Studios has shelved plans to shoot “Indian Summer”, a film based on the lives of Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten.(UPDATE: On Friday, a studio spokesman was quoted as saying “Indian Summer” is continuing to be developed but will not go into production until the script, budget and cast are all in place)Filmmaker Joe Wright, who was slated to direct the project, was quoted as saying there were creative differences between the studio and the Indian government.Many people are not comfortable with national leaders being portrayed on celluloid in any way other than flattering.Most leaders are interpreted by their followers in a particular manner. Any alternative recounting especially on celluloid runs into controversy.Biopics of leaders are few and far between in Bollywood in spite of it being a vibrantly political and prolific film industry.Some say the Indian masses tend to deify their leaders and hence are less receptive to anything critical.And celluloid is a mass medium more than any book on history ever can be.In Pakistan, the movie “Jinnah” starring Christopher Lee and sanctioned by the Pakistan government had also run into controversy.But does public policy also contribute to this state of affairs?The Indian Express says in a report that ministries don’t transfer records to National Archives “which leaves modern, democratic India’s history shrouded in secrecy”.Does this contribute to a lack of public discussion on various facets of our leaders’ lives and policies and therefore an intolerance of alternative readings?As for the movie “Indian Summer”, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was to appoint a liaison officer to ensure the movie did not deviate from the approved script.Is imposing a government-sanctioned memory of events on people any different from Mayawati’s efforts to erect statues to herself?
from Pakistan: Now or Never?:
India, Pakistan : re-opening the wounds of Partition
Was it necessary to divide India and Pakistan ? Was Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, really the obdurate Muslim leader who forced Partition along religious lines in 1947 or was he pushed into it by leaders of India's Congress party, especially first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
A new book by former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh re-opens that painful, blood-soaked chapter whose price the region is still paying more than 60 years on.
Singh, a leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, challenges the widely-held belief in India that it was Jinnah's insistence on a separate homeland for Muslims that forced the breakup of India and the mayhem that accompanied it.
Jinnah, an impeccably secular leader, didn't start with this, he argues in the book "Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence."
What Jinnah said, in the tumultuous years before Britain finally left the subcontinent, was that he wanted "space in a reassuring system" for Muslims so that they didn't get engulfed in a Hindu-majority India, Singh says.
A federal structure that would have given Muslims a certain amount of autonomy, a sort of a Pakistan within India, may well have worked. But Nehru shot it down, believing in a highly centralised polity , influenced as he was by the prevailing Western, European socialist thought of the time.
On one side India goes and attacks a totally peaceful state, the state of Hyderabad on the false pretext that it had a majority Hindu Population and on the other takes over Kashmir a totally Muslim majority state. Look at the dichotomy.
In Hyderabad the Nizam was most secular, he may by chance profess Islam as his religion privately. Patel told Nehru “don’t make the mistake of a referendum in Hyderabad as the Hindu will vote for The Nizam”, they were so happy with him and the composite Hyderabad culture, hence most clandestinely they invade an unarmed state and capture it killing people by the thousands.
In Kashmir they sing a completely different tune. India follow only one policy: Might is right”. So much for India’s secularism and democracy. It always wants to trample on people’s wishes. What kind of a democracy is this.
Like US States, others must want to be a part of you not you impose yourself on them whether they like it or not. How long will people of India suffer and pay for the stupidity of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru?
@Gandhi’s called his works as EXPIREMENTS with truth. A very funny scientific statement.- Posted by Rohit– Did Dara say GANERU or Gandhi–I did not see? You always find a way to drag irrelevent stuff without telling why you are annoyed with anti-Mayawati comments. A specific rebuttal rather than an advise to read history would have been much useful.How do you know that Dara is not an ex-serviceman who has read history half- or one full generation ago and is speaking from personal experience in military and civil life unlike you.